Exactly. Especially when you say that they will export their version of AI to their colonial satellites in Africa, Latin America, etc.
So the only reasonable way to counter that is to let the Western private sector to keep working on it, faster and harder even, so we have not one, but many versions of it, publicly and openly available to everyone, per market demand.
The problem with people like those whose signed that stupid letter, many of which are "experts", is that in the end they suffer the same intellectual malaise - they truly believe that THEY can plan sucessfully. If only THEY were in charge...