Technology, AI & Cyber
China calls US AI theft accusations groundless
China's Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday rejected US accusations that Chinese artificial intelligence labs systematically stole capabilities from American models, calling the claims “groundless”.
A US cyber defence agency advisory released Tuesday accused top Chinese AI labs, including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, of using “industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns” to copy the capabilities of US systems.
Distillation is a method in which an AI model is trained to mimic the output of a larger or more capable model. The method is widely used in the industry, but Washington says Chinese firms used it at scale to illicitly copy American systems.
The US advisory named DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun and Z.AI. It alleged they used millions of exchanges and requests to take capabilities from models run by companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI.
The advisory said the actions had taken place since at least late 2024 and were carried out “likely with Chinese government awareness”.
China's Ministry of Commerce said the US approach was “a typical case of using the crackdown on distillation as a pretext to achieve industrial monopoly” and called the accusations a “case of double standards”.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the United States should “refrain from making unfounded accusations against and smearing China”. She said China and the United States should strengthen cooperation in AI.
Moonshot AI declined to comment to AFP. StepFun was not immediately reachable.
The dispute comes ahead of an expected White House meeting this month between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where AI could be an important discussion topic.
Update
The US accusations came ahead of an expected White House meeting this month between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, where AI could be an important topic.
The item adds broader context on US pressure over Chinese AI models, startup warnings against broad curbs on foreign-made AI models, and Beijing's earlier accusation that US AI used Chinese examples for training.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 14:39:09 UTC.
Update
China's Ministry of Commerce called the US accusations groundless.
The ministry said the US approach used a crackdown on distillation as a pretext for industrial monopoly.
The ministry accused the United States of double standards.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 14:16:23 UTC.
Update
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said she had not seen the specific US report but urged the United States to refrain from what she called unfounded accusations against China.
Mao said China's artificial intelligence development was the result of self-reliance in science and technology and said China and the United States should strengthen cooperation.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 07:45:46 UTC.
Uncertainty notes
The US allegations remain disputed by China.
The supplied information does not establish independently whether the named Chinese companies carried out the alleged activity.
Responses from most of the named Chinese companies were not reported.
Source
AFP news report published on .