Beijing Hits Back at Anthropic CEO’s Call to Curb China’s AI Development

China and the United States are currently locked in a strategic competition surrounding the development of artificial intelligence. U.S. officials, including the FBI, National Security Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have warned of ‘aggressive, malicious’ efforts by Chinese AI developers to extract capabilities from advanced U.S. models like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT – a process described as ‘distillation.’ The U.S. is pushing for restrictions on AI technology exports to China, citing concerns about maintaining its AI leadership.

China, meanwhile, is advocating for a global AI governance framework, emphasizing its own advancements in AI and its role as a pioneer in establishing an open-source AI community. Chinese officials have called for ‘accelerating the establishment of a system for preventing and managing AI security risks.’

U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed calls for intervention, stating that the U.S. is leading China in AI development, and that “whoever wins AI, wins.” The situation is framed as a desire to prevent either nation from establishing a “tech chokepoint” over the other.

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper dismissed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s essay as a “Cold War playbook” for the AI sector, alleging it contained provisions designed to ‘contain’ China. Both nations seek to ensure the other cannot establish a dominant technological advantage in AI.

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