US draft says AI coalition partners must choose Washington or Beijing

A proposed letter for the 35 signatories of the AI Opportunity Statement would treat simultaneous participation in the US-led Pax Silica and the China-led WAICO as a conflict, according to reports of a leaked US State Department draft dated August 15, 2026 AEST. The text is a draft; no final official wording has been confirmed.

If adopted, model, chip, cloud and research decisions could be affected. But a leaked draft is neither a procurement rule nor an export control.