DeepSeek may give China the soft power edge it’s looking for, particularly in Global South

If DeepSeek is cheaper alternative 'it is possible that AI development and adoption in the Global South could take a Chinese turn': analyst

has faced considerable scrutiny from some Western countries but that is unlikely to be the case in the Global South where observers say it offers great potential.

last month, has been touted by one professor as a "gift to the developing world".

According to observers, this means DeepSeek's success could be a huge boost for China's soft power, especially in the developing world, as Beijing seeks to further expand its influence in the Global South.

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that would make it "easier for others to learn from and iterate".

DeepSeek grabbed global attention by creating a powerful AI model at a significantly lower cost. And unlike its Western competitors, it adopted an open-source approach, meaning its algorithm is freely available for anyone to use and access.

"The DeepSeek developments ... suggest that the opportunities for Global South nations to develop and deploy AI are larger than previously appreciated and subject to less constraints," Minas wrote in Eureka Street, adding that DeepSeek's AI model would be of "great interest to resource-constrained developers".

Already, India has said it will host DeepSeek's large language model on its domestic servers, which could allow the country to potentially speed up development of its own AI model.

with DeepSeek's code as its basis. The bank claimed it would solidify Russia's standing as a major AI power.

In Africa, DeepSeek has been described as giving the continent hope that AI technology will help solve social and economic issues.

Christopher Tang, a distinguished professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, wrote in a China Daily commentary that DeepSeek's cost-effective model "democratises AI development, making it possible for more countries and companies to participate in and benefit from AI advancements".

"DeepSeek's success demonstrates that developing countries with limited resources can learn from its approach to develop their own innovative AI models. This can help bridge the gap between developed and developing countries in terms of technological capabilities," he said.

Diao Daming, a professor of international relations at Renmin University, said the global popularity of DeepSeek was a "manifestation of China's growing soft power", and that the firm's rapid rise had improved China's reputation and influence on the world stage.

Soft power is a term popularised by American political scientist Joseph Nye and is defined as a country's ability to influence others without coercion.

Citing DeepSeek's open-source approach, Diao said the foundation of China's soft power lay in its willingness to share its technological achievements with other countries, unlike some Western nations which Diao said similarly possessed advanced technologies but "refuse to share [them] with the world".

"This is why China has been able to gain greater influence," he said.

indicated that Chinese firms could cater to the diverse needs of users from different countries.

Jonathan McClory, a partner at British advisory firm Sanctuary Counsel and an expert in soft power and foreign affairs, noted a marked shift in the nature of soft power, with sources now more aligned to technology, science and innovation.

He said this was "broadly good news for Chinese soft power" as China had a successful track record of taking cutting-edge technology and producing or deploying it more efficiently.

"Said differently, China is good at expanding access to technology to consumers through offerings at lower price points," he said, adding that DeepSeek seemed to be another example of this.

McClory said DeepSeek's cost-effective model was a huge technical achievement and its open-source nature could offer developers the ability to build new products on DeepSeek models at lower cost.

He suggested that if DeepSeek indeed offered a cheaper alternative to more expensive, closed models such as those produced by OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed firm behind ChatGPT, "then it is possible that AI development and adoption in the Global South could take a Chinese turn".

"We already know China's reputation is much stronger in the developing world than it is in West, so many of these markets would be less concerned than consumers and commercial partners in the West," he said.

Richard Cullen, an adjunct professor at the University of Hong Kong's law faculty, said he believed that China's soft power was steadily growing while the US was "white-anting its own still extraordinary, long-established soft power".

But despite the emerging examples of China's soft power in the technology realm - including the popularity of DeepSeek and RedNote, which is also known as Xiaohongshu - he suggested that China must still wrestle with the influence of the mainstream Western media.

"Chinese 'soft power breakthroughs' need to get past this each time. Though once they do, they can become a soaring story in the mainstream Western media too," he said. "There is the language or culture barrier [too] - China is exceptionally stand-alone [and] different [as] perceived by much of the rest of the world."

McClory added that if China was ultimately offering its cutting-edge technology at a lower price point than its Western peers, "it will be a boost to China's overall global reputation and thus its soft power".

But he also cautioned: "That said, it's one thing to build up stores of goodwill, but another to try and leverage that as soft power."