Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek early this year launched a new model to much fanfare internationally, but the company’s technological breakthroughs did not come from independent research and development, they relied on the technological achievements accumulated by the US and other Western countries.
As early as 2017, the Chinese government proposed a plan for a “new generation of AI,” with the goal of becoming a global leader in the technology by 2030. This is not only about tech competition, but also an important step for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to achieve “digital totalitarianism.”
Chinese companies use AI to monitor the nation’s people and bolster censorship at home. They promote Chinese-made AI technology abroad through large-scale subsidies and low bidding, coercing developing countries into dependence on Chinese technology and expanding the CCP’s digital authoritarian influence.
Last year, the CCP proposed a global AI governance initiative to promote its censorship system and surveillance technology internationally in the name of “responsible AI,” which is tantamount to asking the world to accept an AI version of its social credit system.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) has said that China is willing to cooperate with other countries to develop AI and help developing countries benefit from “the intelligence dividend,” but such support often comes with control over data and monopoly of infrastructure.
Under Beijing’s Digital Silk Road initiative, Chinese companies provide AI technology and surveillance systems in Africa and Southeast Asia, but transmit local data back to China and use technical barriers to tie the countries into China’s digital ecosystem, endangering national security and tying recipient countries to Beijing.
Nations should be wary of China’s use of AI technology to expand its authoritarian influence. They should bolster protections of intellectual property to prevent technological innovators from being defeated by China’s theft and subsidy strategies.
Ryan Xu is a freelancer.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
The Comedy Club on Fuxing N Road in Taipei was vandalized with paint bombs mixed with feces on May 29, allegedly because one of its performers had satirized Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). The incident has triggered concerns about the growing threat from China’s cross-border repression within Taiwan. On the day of the attack, a comedian surnamed Huang (黃), who is known for mocking Xi, was the headline performer. The Comedy Club founder said the assault was obviously politically motivated. China, which Freedom House said “conducts the most sophisticated, extensive and far-reaching campaign of transnational repression in the world,” has
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) at a press conference last week repeated the same, tired line, claiming that Taiwan’s future should be “decided jointly by the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots.” The statement is absurd. Virtually every word is incorrect, with some parts mistaken to an astonishing degree. First, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never included Taiwan. When the Republic of China’s (ROC) original five-colored flag was established in 1912, Taiwan was still under Japanese rule. When the PRC was founded in 1949, Taiwan was under the control of president Chiang
Following the outbreak of conflict in Iran, TikTok was flooded with videos targeting Taiwanese users. Many featured artificial intelligence (AI)-generated anchors posing as Taiwanese broadcasters with localized traditional Chinese subtitles. The videos warned of imminent social collapse due to liquefied natural gas shortages, blamed the Democratic Progressive Party and its alleged failed energy policies for a fabricated crisis, and used recycled footage from unrelated events to create the impression Taiwan stood on the edge of systemic breakdown. By saturating the information environment with falsehoods or selectively edited material designed to trigger emotional responses, malign actors can exploit cognitive vulnerabilities and
Taiwan’s leading position in the global semiconductor industry is not, as some claim, based on misconceptions, a result of “stealing.” It was built upon formal, transparent and costly technology transfer agreements between the Taiwanese government and US enterprises half a century ago. According to the oral history of Hu Ding-hua (胡定華), a pioneer in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, the origin of Taiwan’s integrated circuit (IC) technology dates back to the “IC pilot factory” in the 1970s. The implementation of this project fully complied with international commercial standards and legal procedures. First, the project completed formal contract signing and payment. In 1975,
RSS