Examine the role of the Global South in shaping emerging technology governance frameworks, with reference to recent Chinese initiatives.

Emerging technology governance is no longer written solely in Washington or Brussels. With one-third of humanity still offline and computing power, expertise and investment concentrated in a few countries and firms [1], the Global South has moved from rule-taker to an active claimant for a seat at the table.

Global South as an emerging rule-shaper

• Collective bargaining: the G-77 and China presented a joint statement to the UN's first Global Dialogue on AI Governance (Geneva, 2026), pressing for capacity-building, technology transfer and equitable representation [3].
• Legitimacy leverage: no AI framework can claim universality without developing-country buy-in; the UN Secretary-General conceded AI "cannot be governed by a handful of countries or companies" [1].
• Institutional gains: over 20 countries nominated centres to a UN-supported Global Network for AI Capacity Building, alongside a proposed Global Fund for AI [2].

Chinese initiatives as a vehicle

• Xi Jinping's Global AI Governance Initiative (2023) and the AI Global Governance Action Plan with a Global AI Innovation Governance Center, released at WAIC 2025 under the theme "Global Solidarity in the AI Era", explicitly court developing economies [4].
• WAIC 2026 saw China unveil a Shanghai-headquartered World AI Cooperation Organisation, with founding members drawn largely from Asia, Africa and Latin America, plus pledged AI training for developing countries — a venue the UN Tech Envoy also engaged [5].
• Offers the South an alternative to Western regulatory templates, plus affordable compute and models.

Limits on that agency

• Risk of dependency shifting rather than ending — hardware, models and standards remain externally controlled.
• Forum fragmentation: parallel UN, G7 and China-led tracks dilute Southern bargaining power.

The Global South's influence is real but still derivative of the platforms others build. India's answer — the India AI Governance Guidelines under the IndiaAI Mission, anchored in a "Do No Harm" principle [6] — points the way: build domestic capability first, then bargain across blocs rather than within one. Aligned with SDG-9 and SDG-17, such issue-based plurilateralism can convert the South's numbers into genuine standard-setting power.