BEIJING — In stark contrast to recent high-profile warnings from Silicon Valley, China’s leading artificial intelligence companies have largely remained quiet regarding calls to slow down AI development. When contacted by CNBC about the alarms raised by American tech executives, firms including Z.ai, Moonshot, MiniMax, Alibaba, and Tencent offered no public commentary.
The silence comes after OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei urged a pause in AI progress over the weekend, citing uncontrollable risks. Although Nvidia’s Jensen Huang pushed back, arguing that safety and speed can coexist, the U.S. industry displayed rare unity on the need for caution. Chinese officials and business leaders, however, have responded with skepticism.
China’s foreign ministry described the American executives’ statements as “fear-mongering” on Monday. State-affiliated English-language media outlets echoed this sentiment, with articles characterizing the warnings as a “Cold War playbook” and comparing the situation to “Dr. Frankenstein.”
Ranjie Guo, founder and CEO of JoyIn, suggested the timing was suspicious. “Once Chinese companies have created superior AI, we see U.S. companies issuing AI warnings. I don’t think this is a coincidence,” Guo said, adding that he believes AI poses no greater danger than its creators and will inherently strive for truth and goodness.
Ray Von, CEO of Tencent-backed startup OpenPie, agreed that the U.S. narrative was exaggerated. “That’s why in China, we don’t pay too much attention to that, because that’s not the first time [the U.S. execs] say these things,” Von said. “They should just do it.”
Emphasis on Commercialization Over Theory
While American firms have raced toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), Chinese companies have prioritized commercialization, particularly given U.S. restrictions on advanced semiconductor access. By early 2026, domestic chatbots were competing aggressively for users, often offering lower costs than models from OpenAI and Anthropic. This affordability has helped open-source Chinese models gain traction in the U.S. and other international markets.
Alex Lu, founder of LSY Consulting, characterized the recent U.S. safety speeches as “marketing communication” designed to position Anthropic as the sole guardian of AI safety. “In terms of the AI labs, people are talking less about AI safety,” Lu noted, pointing out that Chinese firms are more focused on practical application and revenue generation.
However, content moderation remains strict. DeepSeek and other models continue to refuse inquiries about sensitive political topics, such as the events of June 4, 1989, while readily providing information on other historical incidents like the September 11 attacks. The Chinese government maintains rigorous approval processes for generative AI services through its cybersecurity regulator.
Governance and Economic Integration
Beijing has also taken proactive steps in regulation, launching its annual cybersecurity week and releasing the third edition of an “AI Safety Governance Framework.” The bilingual document provides guidelines for labeling AI-generated content and establishing rapid risk detection systems.
President Xi Jinping has championed these efforts on the global stage. In July, he emphasized the need to ensure AI is “secure and controllable” during the launch of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. More recently, at the BRICS summit in India, Xi reiterated China’s commitment to fostering AI and technology cooperation among member economies.
Despite the lack of alarmist rhetoric, Chinese leaders acknowledge the challenges. “We are not looking for the most impressive AI models, but trying to unlock AI potential,” Lu said, highlighting regulatory rules on data security and video labeling as key areas of focus. He noted that hallucinations in AI outputs remain a significant hurdle, which companies are addressing through reinforcement learning and “harness technology” rather than solely relying on cutting-edge models.
Ray Von observed that many enterprises are utilizing older or smaller models from providers like Alibaba and DeepSeek. “The vast majority of enterprise… they see a lot of productivity increases but they haven’t seen anything generate profits or reduce cost immediately,” he said, adding that the current publicity surrounding AI safety is diverting attention from the slower reality of enterprise application results.
Makes you wonder if these safety warnings are just another form of tech nationalism disguised as concern for humanity.
The fact that Chinese firms prioritize affordability and open-source models is actually quite impressive given the chip restrictions.
I’m skeptical of the ‘safety first’ arguments when they’re coming from companies already dominating the market.
Is it really just fear-mongering though? Or are they trying to slow down competition by controlling the narrative?
It’s fascinating how differently the two regions approach this. China seems far more pragmatic about immediate commercial use.