China: We will respond with "all necessary measures" if the USA imposes sanctions on Chinese AI companies
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has warned of retaliation if the USA imposes sanctions on Chinese AI firms. This follows White House accusations that Moonshot AI stole intellectual property.
China will respond with "all necessary measures" if the USA imposes sanctions on Chinese AI companies, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce warned on Monday.
Last week, the White House accused the Chinese company Moonshot AI of developing its breakthrough AI model, Kimi K3, through the "distillation" of Anthropic's Claude—a method the US claims is equivalent to reverse engineering. US Secretary of Commerce Scott Bessent stated that the USA would carefully examine Chinese models to identify signs of intellectual property theft and would impose sanctions on foreign AI companies found to have stolen American intellectual property.
On Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce criticized the accusations from the Donald Trump administration, labeling them a "smear campaign."
"The accusations lack factual basis or legal support and constitute a policy of double standards, a typical creation of AI hegemony," the ministry stated, according to a Bloomberg report. "China will take all necessary measures to protect its legitimate rights against actions that cause significant harm to Chinese interests."
The ministry argued that distillation is an accepted technology widely used in the AI industry. Officials further claimed that many American AI companies have distilled Chinese models, though the ministry provided no examples or evidence to support this assertion.
In September, the USA and China are scheduled to hold talks on AI, which will address intellectual property theft and the need for the regulation of powerful models. Scott Bessent will lead the negotiations on the American side.
