China Paper Says AI Is No 'Monopoly of Great Powers' Ahead of US Talks

China's flagship state newspaper has pushed back against the framing of artificial intelligence as a contest reserved for major powers, calling for Washington and Beijing to jointly manage the risks surrounding the technology.

In a commentary published under the pen name "Zhong Sheng," a byline the paper typically uses for foreign-policy views, the People's Daily argued that AI belongs to humanity's shared future rather than to a handful of dominant states, and warned against turning the field into a zero-sum contest.

The United States and China are the two principal engines behind frontier AI research and the technology's spread worldwide. The two governments have repeatedly clashed over AI policy and industry practice, and the subject is expected to be a major item when bilateral talks are held next week.

Earlier this year, the White House accused China of appropriating intellectual property from American AI laboratories on a large scale.

The commentary countered that China backs open-source development and open practices, giving firms — including those based in the United States — access to open models. It also pointed to reports that American companies make wide use of "distillation," a technique in which a smaller model is trained on the output of a larger one to cut the cost of building capable systems.

The paper said the US treats distillation as accepted industry practice when its own companies use it, but characterises it as an attack when Chinese firms do the same, describing that position as a clear double standard. By recasting a common industry method as a national-security matter, Washington is pursuing dominance of the sector under the cover of countering distillation, the commentary added.

Despite the criticism, the paper said China remains ready for constructive and professional discussions with the United States aimed at promoting AI development that is open, inclusive, broadly accessible and beneficial.