Elizabeth Economy sits down with Martin Chorzempa to ask whether the United States and China are in an AI race—and, if so, what the prize is. Drawing on his work on Chinese fintech, Chorzempa explains how lessons from that sector’s boom and crackdown have shaped Beijing’s approach to AI, from registration and censorship requirements to quiet, behind-the-scenes supervision of its labs. The two examine why China may not be as far ahead in AI adoption as many assume and compare US labs’ proprietary models with China’s open-weight approach. Chorzempa outlines three races—for frontier capabilities, domestic diffusion, and international diffusion—and weighs the trade-offs of chip export controls before turning to what the new US-China AI dialogue could achieve. They close with Chorzempa’s recommendation of Ray Huang’s 1587, A Year of No Significance and his advice for the White House on AI strategy.
Watch the next episode of China Considered: https://www.hoover.org/china-considered?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=ccp_youtube&utm_content=10082026
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