China's security chief warns of AI risks while pushing for tech dominance

State security minister Chen Yixin urged China to keep tight control over AI development, citing military, espionage and cognitive-warfare threats, as Beijing rejects US calls to slow the technology.

US Silicon Valley executives recently highlighted AI risks, prompting Beijing to label the warnings as attempts to curb its fast-growing AI sector, according to one outlet and a foreign ministry spokesperson. Yet within the Chinese leadership, concerns are mounting; on Sunday, state security minister Chen Yixin delivered the most forceful appeal yet, insisting that China must retain absolute control over AI development and oversight to safeguard political, systemic and ideological security.

He warned that AI will become a “key role” on future battlefields, that foreign AI models pose heightened espionage risks, and that the technology could be weaponised for cognitive warfare. The Communist Party has already tightened regulations, forcing platforms to block queries about Xi Jinping, the Cultural Revolution, or anti-government protests, and demanding clear labeling of AI-generated content. Despite these controls, Xi Jinping sees AI as essential to building a socialist planned economy that outperforms market economies and to achieving military parity with the United States, a goal rooted in the party’s fear of repeating past industrial lag. Upcoming talks in Washington between the two AI superpowers are drawing calls for a binding AI governance framework, though experts doubt China will agree to limits that could hinder its strategic ambitions.