Author：Cai Cuihong
Abstract: Artificial intelligence is becoming deeply embedded in economic development, social governance, and national security, accelerating the institutionalization of global AI governance. At the same time, the emerging governance landscape is characterized by increasing fragmentation of rules, high concentration of technological capabilities and resources, asymmetric governance capacities, and growing divergence in normative narratives. Global AI governance has taken on a multilayered and polycentric structure, within which the United States, the European Union, and China have pursued increasingly differentiated governance approaches in terms of principles, regulatory instruments, and strategic objectives. The growing role of technology firms and standards-setting bodies as quasi-governance actors has further reshaped global power relations. Within this evolving system, countries of the Global South remain structurally disadvantaged in agenda-setting, rule-making, and access to technological resources, reinforcing the persistence of the global AI divide. Against this backdrop, China’s governance approach—emphasizing the balance between development and security, technological autonomy combined with openness, enhanced South–South cooperation, and capacity-building initiatives—offers an alternative institutional pathway for global AI governance and expands the prospects for a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable global governance order.
Keywords: artificial intelligence governance; global governance; institutional fragmentation; Global South; China’s approach
Journal：China International Studies, (4).
Publish date：2025/8/15
