China's AI push isn't about domination — it's rooted in a deep fear of falling behind, shaped by memories of poverty and foreign exploitation. Xi's open-source stance at the Shanghai summit reflects a genuine effort to share AI gains globally, not hoard them. The US, meanwhile, is racing toward AGI with reckless spending while its own public grows angrier about the technology by the day.
Xi's lofty Shanghai summit speech about open-source AI and global cooperation masks a far darker reality: China's AI rise is built on industrial-scale theft, chip smuggling and iron-fisted CCP control. Beijing blocks foreign acquisitions of Chinese AI firms and jails founders who try to leave, proving the "open" rhetoric is pure performance. Trusting Xi's vision of AI as a global public good ignores what Beijing actually does.
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 7.4.1