# Washington Prepares to Tell 35 Countries to Choose Between American and Chinese Artificial Intelligence

A draft State Department letter warns signatories of the June AI Opportunity Statement that joining Beijing's competing framework would exclude them from the United States-led coalition, with Kazakhstan so far the only member of both.

- Published: 2026-08-17T05:13:34.495Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-08-17/washington-prepares-to-tell-35-countries-to-choose-between-a
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [The Hindu](https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/us-to-tell-partners-they-must-pick-sides-in-ai-race-with-china/article71354765.ece), [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/15/us-to-tell-allies-they-must-pick-sides-in-ai-race-with-china-reuters.html), [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/pax-silica-us-letter-35-countries-china-ai-coalition)

The United States has drafted a letter telling partner governments they must choose between American and Chinese artificial-intelligence systems or lose access to the coalition Washington is assembling. The draft, prepared by the State Department, is [addressed to the 35 signatories of an American "AI Opportunity Statement" signed in June](https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/us-to-tell-partners-they-must-pick-sides-in-ai-race-with-china/article71354765.ece), a group that includes members of the non-binding Pax Silica framework. Its stated logic is blunt. "To be part of everything is to be part of nothing," the draft says.

Pax Silica commits participants to joint projects, aligned export controls and reduced dependence on adversaries for critical minerals, advanced models and the semiconductors that run them. The objective, [as reported by Reuters and carried by CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/15/us-to-tell-allies-they-must-pick-sides-in-ai-race-with-china-reuters.html), is to deny China the inputs it needs to build the most capable systems, on the reasoning that those systems confer military and economic advantage.

Kazakhstan is [the only country known to have joined both the American and the Chinese frameworks](https://thenextweb.com/news/pax-silica-us-letter-35-countries-china-ai-coalition), a position that drew attention in Washington and helped prompt the letter. Reuters could not establish when the letter will be sent or whether the text will change first.

The demand lands on governments that have spent three years avoiding exactly this choice. Gulf states, Southeast Asian manufacturers and India have all pursued American chips and Chinese infrastructure at the same time, treating the two supply chains as complementary rather than exclusive. Forcing a declaration converts a commercial decision into a diplomatic one, and it gives Beijing a clear argument to make to any country that resents being asked.

## What this means

Export-control alignment is the mechanism that decides which chips, cloud capacity and model weights a country can buy. If the letter goes out as drafted, governments that host data-centre investment will have to price the risk of losing access to one of the two stacks, which raises the cost of capital for those projects and slows them. American chip designers gain protected demand inside the coalition and lose addressable market outside it. Chinese suppliers gain a recruitment argument in exactly the middle-income markets where they are cheapest.

## What to watch

- Whether the letter is actually sent and in what form, since a softened text would signal that Washington found allied resistance too costly.
- How Gulf states and India respond, because they are the largest buyers that have so far kept both options open and their answer sets the precedent for smaller states.
- Kazakhstan's position, which is the first practical test of whether dual membership carries a real penalty or only a rhetorical one.