China’s Ministry of Commerce has called on the United States to stop threatening sanctions against Chinese AI companies, accusing Washington of pushing an “AI hegemony” agenda. The ministry warned it would take all necessary actions to protect China’s interests if these threats continue.
The tension arises as US officials consider restricting the use of affordable Chinese open-source AI models, which currently process a larger share of routed traffic than American equivalents. A US investigation into Chinese labs is underway, focusing on alleged unauthorized use of advanced American AI models, with possible sanctions over intellectual property concerns.
Dispute over AI innovation and model use
China’s spokesperson rejected the accusations, labeling them as baseless and legally unfounded. Highlighting that several Chinese models launched concurrently with US counterparts, some even excelling in specific fields like frontend coding, the ministry stated that innovation does not belong to any single country. It pointed out that many US AI firms have integrated Chinese models during development. on top of that, nearly 200 US startups have expressed concerns that cutting off access to Chinese open-source models could hamper their competitiveness.
Beijing has dismissed theft claims as prejudiced smears and urged both nations to honor prior agreements made by their top leaders. Meanwhile, data shows Chinese AI models now account for 46.4% of token traffic on OpenRouter, exceeding the 35.7% share of US-based models, with DeepSeek contributing 17.6% alone.
