Trend Tracker: China’s AI Outreach to the Global South

A 2025 file image image of a DeepSeek display at an event in France. Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

The Chinese company DeepSeek’s success in building a world-leading artificial intelligence system on inexpensive chips isn’t only shifting tech conversations. AI is an increasingly common theme in China’s wider outreach to the Global South.

This week, a Xinhua op-ed framed AI as a “new frontier in China-Africa cooperation.” The same week, the Health Community of West Africa Association announced a deal with China to provide AI-powered medical imaging.

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by CGSP Staff

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