China urges US to stop ‘false allegations’ over AI companies

Saadet Gokce

China on Wednesday urged the US to stop its “false allegations” after Washington accused China-based AI companies of extracting proprietary capabilities from US AI models.

“The development of AI in China comes from greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and is fueled by China’s vision of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit and commitment to open cooperation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a news conference on Wednesday.

She said that Beijing believes all parties need to ensure AI development is open and inclusive and promotes the well-being of humanity as a force for good and for all.

Mao urged Washington to “earnestly act on the important common understandings reached between the two presidents and stop leveling false allegations to smear China.”

“As two major powers in AI, China and the U.S. should step up cooperation,” she added.

The remarks came after the US Cyber Defense Agency said Tuesday that China-based AI companies are systematically extracting proprietary capabilities from US AI models.

It said industrial-scale knowledge distillation is a core part of their AI development strategy, rather than merely a “supplement.”

The agency specifically accused DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun and Z.AI of extracting billions of tokens through millions of exchanges with US frontier AI models, including Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok, since at least late 2024, “likely with Chinese government awareness.”