The problem with this is that at present, it is largely good people who are ahead in AI development and that gap might widen over time if China has difficulty acquiring large numbers of high end chips. China and Russia feel that they need to cheat in order to compete in many ways. China does invest a lot into AI and some good work does come from there, but any advantage they can gain that their opponent will not take is seen as a step closer to greater world influence.
If well meaning people pause, they cede some ground to those who are investing heavily in "western" failure and the pause could accelerate the exact thing it's trying to delay. On the flip side of that coin, if all advanced AI work is already infiltrated by foreign agents then it's also possible that pausing could slow down their greatest gains.
In either case, there may be an argument for holding back mainstreaming/productization for longer than is already normal or establishing an independent AI industry productization review organization that gets early access to any AI products which could qualify as concerning.
Unfortunately, governments heavily oriented towards censorship may be less afraid of spreading dangerous products out there while banning them domestically, because it might be seen as a method to legitimize authoritarian control by pointing to disasters in those other places.