Trump Rejects AI Slowdown to Counter China as Beijing Proposes Open Collaboration

Hong Kong — As global concerns mount over the potential risks of unconstrained artificial intelligence, the leaders of the United States and China have outlined contrasting approaches to the rapidly evolving technology. US President Donald Trump dismissed calls from AI scientists and executives from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google to slow development, emphasizing that maintaining America's lead over China in the AI superpower race is paramount. Speaking on Saturday, President Trump stated that whoever wins AI wins the global competition.

Conversely, China’s leader Xi Jinping advocated for greater international cooperation during a speech in India to Global South leaders on Sunday. He urged countries to encourage open source, openness, collaboration, and sharing, reiterating a proposal for a global AI governance pact without detailing its framework. The differing stances highlight a deep trust deficit between the two superpowers as they vie for AI dominance, with the US viewing the technology as a strategic asset to protect and China proposing a more open model ahead of an upcoming Trump-Xi summit in Washington.

Assessing the threat from Beijing, Chinese AI has historically trailed American competitors due to US technology controls restricting access to advanced AI processors. However, Chinese AI startups such as DeepSeek, Alibaba, Z.AI, Minimax, and Moonshot have rapidly advanced, challenging American frontier companies. This progress has been met with accusations from Washington, OpenAI, and Anthropic regarding industrial-scale intellectual property theft through model distillation, claims that Beijing has rejected while Chinese labs have largely remained silent.

Meanwhile, Beijing views the cyber capabilities and safety risks of American AI systems with alarm, criticizing US export controls and closed-source ecosystems as hegemonic threats that fragment global supply chains. While US researchers openly debate existential risks, China operates under a strict top-down regulatory environment with high public optimism and trust in AI, giving its labs less incentive to voluntarily constrain development as they seek to catch up with American advancements.