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Beijing hits back at Anthropic CEO's call to curb China's AI development
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In an editorial published Sunday, China's state-run Global Times newspaper dismissed Amodei's essay as a veiled call to "contain" China. like Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT.
claims as groundless and said "distillation" has been commonly used by many AI companies. It also said that the U.S. was pursuing a "monopoly of the AI industry."
Both China and the U.S. want "to make sure the other side cannot establish a tech chokepoint over them," said Lizzi C. Lee, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.
"So from Beijing's perspective, there is an obvious question: if the U.S. wants China to cooperate on frontier safety while also restricting its access to frontier compute, what exactly does that cooperation look like?" Lee said.
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− Technology Beijing hits back at Anthropic CEO's call to curb China's AI development September 14, 20266:09 AM ET By
The Associated Press
Visitors walk past a display depicting artificial intelligence and a human hand at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing on Monday, June 22, 2026.
+ Technology Beijing hits back at Anthropic CEO's call to curb China's AI development Updated September 14, 20262:10 PM ET Originally published September 14, 20266:09 AM ET By
The Associated Press
Visitors walk past a display depicting artificial intelligence and a human hand at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing on June 22.
− Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption
BEIJING — China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday hit back at a call from the head of Anthropic for the U.S.
+ Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption
BEIJING — China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday bristled at the Anthropic CEO's call for the U.S.
− to curb China's artificial intelligence capabilities, which he issued as he argued for a global slowdown on AI development.
+ to curb China's artificial intelligence capabilities as part of a wider argument for a global slowdown on AI development.
− Politics Trump downplays calls for AI slowdown U.S.
+ Politics Trump downplays calls for AI slowdown In a lengthy essay published Saturday, Dario Amodei warned that a "Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world." To enable the U.S.
− President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to discuss AI governance, among other topics, at a meeting planned on Sept. 24.
+ to keep its technological edge, Amodei called for maintaining restrictions on sales to China of the most advanced AI chips and chipmaking equipment.
− Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a lengthy essay published on Saturday warned that a "Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world." He called for continuing restrictions on sales of cutting-edge AI chips and chipmaking equipment to China in order to keep the U.S.'s AI edge.
+ A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Amodei's dire warnings about China were counterproductive and that all parties should work together on AI.
− China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to a question about Amodei's essay by saying that all parties should work together on AI.
+ "Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance -- which serves no one's interest," spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press conference in response to a question about Amodei's essay.
− "Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance which serves no one's interest," spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular press conference on Monday.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump downplayed calls for his administration to step in to slow down AI development, saying that the U.S.
+ Understanding AI Anthropic and OpenAI CEOs call for AI development to slow down, OpenAI to delay IPO For their part, Chinese leaders have also sounded the alarm about AI, warning of the risks posed by foreign entities with advanced capabilities.
− was leading China on AI and that "whoever wins AI, wins."
Amodei also predicted that a swarm of AI "agents" could be able to take over the internet in six to 12 months unless researchers agree to slow down.
+ A top security official in China's government published an essay on Sunday in which he accused "certain nations" — a reference to the U.S.
− He said that "global pacing will require cooperation with China, the autocratic country with by far the most advanced AI capabilities."
U.S.
+ — of leveraging AI advantages to hinder other countries' innovation.
On Monday, President Donald Trump pushed back against calls for his administration to step in to slow down AI development, saying such efforts were part of a "SICK conspiracy" which could allow China to eclipse the U.S.
− President Donald Trump is expected to discuss topics including AI governance with Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting planned for late September.
+ on AI.
− Chinese companies have developed powerful AI models that are often cheaper to use than advanced models from U.S.-based companies, even as by some measures, they are just as capable.
+ Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to discuss AI governance, among other topics, at a meeting planned on Sept. 24.
− China's Xi has called for the setting up of a global AI governance framework among Global South, while pitching China as a pioneer in establishing an open-source AI community.
+ Chinese companies have developed powerful AI models that are often cheaper to use than advanced models from U.S.-based companies; by some measures, they are just as capable.
− The head of China's Ministry of State Security has also called for "accelerating the establishment of a system for preventing and managing AI security risks" in a recent article.
+ Among the concerns outlined in his essay, Amodei predicted that a swarm of AI "agents" could be able to take over the internet in six to 12 months unless researchers agree to slow down. He said that "global pacing will require cooperation with China, the autocratic country with by far the most advanced AI capabilities."
Xi has called for the setting up of a global AI governance framework among the Global South, while pitching China as a pioneer in establishing an open-source AI community.
− It said that Amodei's essay may appear on the surface to be focused on global AI security, but, that it is "packed with containment provisions targeting China and is, in essence, a 'Cold War playbook' for the AI sector."
Amodei's essay was published a few days after the FBI, National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint cybersecurity advisory last week, saying Chinese AI developers had engaged in "aggressive, malicious" efforts in extracting, or "distilling," capabilities from some of the most advanced AI models in the U.S.
+ It said that Amodei's essay may appear on the surface to be focused on global AI security, but, that it is "packed with containment provisions targeting China and is, in essence, a 'Cold War playbook' for the AI sector."
Amodei's essay was published a few days after the FBI, National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint cybersecurity advisory last week.
+ That advisory said Chinese AI developers had engaged in "aggressive, malicious" efforts in extracting, or "distilling," capabilities from some of the most advanced AI models in the U.S.
− Understanding AI Anthropic and OpenAI CEOs call for AI development to slow down, OpenAI to delay IPO China's Commerce Ministry dismissed the U.S.
+ China's Commerce Ministry dismissed the U.S.
+ In an essay posted Sunday on social media, Chen Yixin, head of China's Ministry of State Security, warned that, in the hands of "hostile forces and individuals with ulterior motives," this technology could pose a direct threat to "our political, institutional, and ideological security."
Citing the capabilities of powerful technologies from U.S. companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, Chen warned that "certain nations and organizations" now have the capabilities to "rapidly discover vulnerabilities at scale ... and execute complex hacking tasks." That, he wrote, poses "serious risks to my country's critical information infrastructure."
Foreign spying agencies are turning to AI to "aggressively harvest sensitive data, including critical national data, trade secrets, and citizens' personal privacy information," Chen wrote.