China’s state-run Global Times acknowledged Monday that efforts to forge a unified BRICS approach to artificial intelligence have run aground on the distrust between Beijing and New Delhi, according to the outlet’s own reporting. The paper blamed Indian concerns over data security, technological dependence, and strategic autonomy for preventing the group from moving forward on AI standards that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had hoped to shape.
The admission came as the BRICS summit unfolded in New Delhi, where Xi had pledged China would “be a pioneer in establishing a BRICS A.I. open source community,” support cooperation on large language models, hold specialized AI seminars and training courses, and build an open ecosystem for artificial intelligence. He also proposed a “BRICS digital ecosystem cloud platform” to oversee digital skills training, technological exchange, and industrial alignment across the bloc.
A passive-aggressive lament
Rather than celebrating a breakthrough, the Global Times piece read as a long, thinly veiled complaint against India. The paper quoted Chinese analysts touting the potential benefits of Chinese-Indian cooperation on AI, citing “their huge markets, development needs and respective technological strengths.” But it conceded that translating that potential into concrete cooperation would depend “in large part on stronger political mutual trust,” noting that Indian worries about data security and strategic autonomy “continue to pose obstacles.”
Zhejiang International Studies University professor Hu Zhiyong, described as an expert on Indian studies, complained that India has “frequently subjected Chinese technology and investment to scrutiny on national security and data security grounds.” In his telling, those reviews create speed bumps that could keep the two countries from seizing an advantage while, as Breitbart News reported, the United States and Europe hesitate on AI policy.
The Global Times suggested India risked throwing away its only chance to break free from what it characterized as the Western AI ecosystem by refusing to embrace a Chinese-led alternative. According to the paper, Indian media has been enthusiastic about the idea of a BRICS-wide framework for AI development — just not under Beijing’s control.
Summit statement sidesteps Beijing’s vision
That distinction proved decisive. The New Delhi summit did issue a statement endorsing cooperation on AI research, but it pointedly avoided embracing China’s proposed China-led “open source community” or its Chinese-engineered “cloud platform” for the entire bloc — leaving Xi’s grand vision for the group in limbo.
The friction plays out against a backdrop of heightened American debate over AI regulation. As Breitbart News reported, an initiative calling for a deliberate slowdown of AI research emerged suddenly last week and, within days, Democratic politicians were proposing what critics described as a digital gulag for artificial intelligence. President Donald Trump responded with deep skepticism, arguing that China would never honor such a slowdown — so the only result would be handing permanent leadership in the AI race to Beijing.
Trump went further, suggesting that China’s propaganda operation may have helped whip up the sudden anti-AI, anti-data center hysteria in the United States. “We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against A.I. and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Notably, the Global Times’ account of the BRICS discussions, and Xi’s own remarks, included no suggestion that the bloc has any interest in the AI research slowdown promoted by some American companies.
Trust deficit clouds cooperation
The Chinese paper’s own framing put the blame squarely on India. “China-India cooperation in AI could face a difficult path unless mutual trust improves,” Hu warned. The Global Times also darkly hinted that India’s reluctance could cost it a chance to escape dependence on Western technology.
Left unsaid in the Global Times’ lament was the backdrop of Beijing’s record on technology theft and cyber-espionage, which has made New Delhi wary of deep technological integration with its rival. India’s scrutiny of Chinese tech investment and its push for strategic autonomy have become persistent features of the bilateral relationship — obstacles that Chinese analysts now concede are impeding their AI ambitions for the bloc.
The episode underscores the limits of Xi’s attempt to position Beijing as the standard-bearer for AI governance across BRICS, a group often framed as a counterweight to Western-led institutions. India’s refusal to simply sign on to a Chinese-designed cloud platform and open source community suggests that even within the bloc, Beijing’s leadership is not a given.
For now, BRICS has agreed in principle that AI cooperation is worthwhile — but the mechanisms and infrastructure remain a source of contention, with the New Delhi statement leaving the door open for future talks but stopping well short of the Chinese blueprint. Whether that stalemate can be broken may depend on whether the two Asian giants can bridge a trust deficit that shows few signs of narrowing.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2026/09/15/brics-fail-china-doesnt-trust-india-enough-to-cooperate-on-ai/