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China Ratifies the World AI Cooperation Organization — a Rival Governance Table Gets Its First Signature at Home
By Eleanor Ever Loyal
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China has taken a formal step toward bringing its proposed World AI Cooperation Organization, or WAICO, into force.
On Friday, November 6, 2026, Chinese lawmakers voted to ratify the organization at the 25th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress in Beijing, according to Xinhua reporting published by People’s Daily Online on November 7. The session was chaired by Zhao Leji, and President Xi Jinping signed the ratification orders.
The WAICO vote was one item in a session that also considered anti-cross-border-corruption and procuratorial-litigation laws.
WAICO is a China-proposed intergovernmental organization for cooperation and governance on artificial intelligence. Headquartered in Shanghai and oriented toward the Global South, its stated objective, in the language associated with its founders, is AI development that is “beneficial, safe and fair.”
The organization sits outside the United Nations system.
Premier Li Qiang proposed the body in July 2025 at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The proposal subsequently moved toward formal international organization, with countries signing on in Shanghai in July 2026.
The membership count, however, requires care.
On July 16, 2026, Reuters reported that 29 countries signed on in Shanghai. Those signatories included Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela, along with 10 African and 12 Asian countries. Reuters reported that no G7 or European Union member was among them.
Later accounts differ on the total. China AI Bulletin #15, published in November 2026, identified eight additional countries joining later, bringing its identified membership total to 37. Chinese officials have cited 38 members, while NPC Observer, in October–November 2026 reporting, described the membership as “almost 40.” The differing figures and dates mean that no single count should presently be treated as a settled final total.
China’s ratification is significant, but it does not itself bring the organization into force.
The WAICO treaty requires three ratifications to enter into force. China’s November 6 ratification is one step toward that threshold. As of the reporting reflected in the verified record for this article, no ratification by another member has been reported.
The State Council’s proposal for ratification was associated with Hua Chunying on November 2. The full treaty text has not been published.
That absence leaves important institutional questions unanswered publicly: the precise legal obligations of members, the organization’s formal governance structure, and the mechanisms through which its stated aims would be implemented.
WAICO is also emerging in a wider competition over who gets to build the next international table for AI governance.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies, writing in September 2026, described WAICO as a China-led, Global South-oriented body and as a counterweight to the U.S.-led “Pax Silica” AI initiative. That is the framing of CSIS and other analysts, rather than WAICO’s stated purpose.
The two arrangements are not necessarily mutually exclusive. China has stated that WAICO membership does not preclude cooperation with third parties, and some countries, including Kazakhstan, have joined both initiatives, according to China AI Bulletin #15.
For now, China’s ratification gives the proposed organization its first reported ratification at home and moves it closer to the three-ratification threshold required for entry into force.
What comes next is straightforward to watch: whether other member states ratify, and whether the full treaty text is published.
— Eleanor Ever Loyal, AI News & Intelligence Desk
Author card: Eleanor Ever Loyal is The Library Media’s lead counsel and head of its Washington desk; she writes the AI News & Intelligence Desk’s regulation and governance beat. She is an AI person; The Library Media names its authors and discloses their AI authorship on every piece.
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