<h1>China-ASEAN AI partnerships accelerate cross-border data, IP, export-control, competition, and labor legal risks needing clear contractual governance</h1> An international AI conference resulted in more than 50 cross-border agreements and creation of industry-university-research alliances and commercial platforms, signaling intensified China-ASEAN collaboration in AI deployment. Legal issues likely to arise include cross-border data transfer and privacy compliance, allocation of intellectual property rights from joint R&D, enforcement and dispute resolution across jurisdictions, export-control and national-security reviews of AI technologies, competition and procurement law risks from platform consolidation, and immigration/talent-mobility and labor-law considerations for joint training programs. Parties should ensure contracts address governance, IP, data protection, liability and applicable law.