Analysis
China's organisation for AI cooperation — parallel standards in supply chains
The AI Business Center Foundation (AIBC) is a think tank and advisory partner that helps the boards of construction, industrial and technical-services companies adopt artificial intelligence so that it delivers measurable results and builds competitive advantage. This analysis concerns China's initiative for a global AI organisation and its consequences for exporting companies.
AI regulation is no longer a matter for one continent. It has become a mosaic that exporters must know
In July 2025, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Chinese Premier Li Qiang proposed setting up a global organisation for cooperation in AI, headquartered in Shanghai. He justified this by the fragmentation of current AI governance rules, from the EU’s AI Act to sector-specific regulation in the US and Japan, and by the need of developing countries for access to technology.
A year later the proposal took the form of an agreement. According to a statement by the government of the People’s Republic of China and news agency reports from July 2026, the agreement establishing the World AI Cooperation Organisation was signed in Shanghai by 29 states, including Russia.
How to read this initiative
The initiative is Beijing’s response to US export restrictions on computing chips and AI technology. It offers states outside the technological front rank access to tools and common standards. For the European Union, which has its own legal framework, it is a signal that a third centre of rule-setting is emerging alongside the AI Act and the American approach.
It is not yet known which technical and certification standards the organisation will adopt, or whether they will be binding on its members. We therefore treat it as a factor to monitor, not as grounds for changing strategy.
What this means for companies in Poland
- Companies operating only on the EU market: they are subject to the AI Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, known as the AI Omnibus. The initiative does not change their obligations.
- Exporters of products with an AI component: they should know in which markets they sell and prepare product documentation so that it can be adapted to different regimes, in the same way that companies today meet the requirements of the GDPR, US sector-specific regulation and Chinese cybersecurity legislation in parallel.
- Companies buying technology from suppliers outside the EU: the question of compliance with the AI Act is put to every supplier, regardless of which standard-setting centre it takes part in.
Documentation that can be carried across regimes is easier to prepare when the company has an orderly description of its products and processes. Such order is the aim of semantic transformation, that is, organising a company’s names, processes and data so that people, language models and board reports understand them the same way.
What has changed since first publication
- We added the events of July 2026: the 2025 proposal took the form of an agreement signed by 29 states.
- We replaced the original thesis that the initiative might be more symbolic than institutional with a more cautious assessment: the institution has been established, and its real influence on standards remains to be seen.
- We added the current state of the European legal framework after the AI Omnibus.
Frequently asked questions
Does China's AI organisation change the obligations of companies in the EU?
No. The AI Act applies in the EU. The initiative may matter to companies that export products with an AI component to the markets of participating states or work with suppliers from those states, because different technical and certification standards may emerge there.
What should an exporter from Poland do?
Check in which markets it sells products with an AI component, which standards apply or may apply in those countries, and whether the product documentation can be adapted to more than one regime without rebuilding it from scratch.
Let’s start with a conversation
Let us talk about export markets and the documentation of products with an AI component.