China's national technology agenda drives open-source AI leadership amid geopolitical competition

China Positions Open-Source AI as Strategic Alternative

At the recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, President Xi Jinping positioned China as a champion of low-cost open-source AI, framing it as a global public good in contrast with US alternatives2

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. This strategic positioning reflects China's national technology agenda, which emphasizes science and technology independence and self-strengthening, known as keji zili ziqiang1

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. The Chinese government has made open-source development a cornerstone of its technological strategy, with companies and institutions actively redefining how open-source technology is developed, licensed, and deployed3

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Major China's AI models such as Qwen, DeepSeek, Kimi, and GLM are generally open-weight, not truly open-source, meaning that model software and final parameters are made available, but not the training data and methodology1

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. Open-weight models lower adoption costs, expand developer communities, and allow companies to work around constraints imposed by lack of access to the most advanced chips2

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. They are especially attractive to emerging markets but are gaining popularity among developers worldwide because of their cost efficiency and adaptability to different workloads.

US Export Controls Inadvertently Fuel China's Strategic Push to Lead in Open-Source Technology

US export controls have inadvertently become an organizing principle for China that goes beyond technological self-reliance2

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. After the US government blacklisted telecom giant Huawei for its ties to the Chinese military, Google revoked the company's access to licensed services and apps. But Huawei used Android's open-source code to maintain its smartphone operating system, eventually developing an alternative called HarmonyOS NEXT and releasing its own open-source version as OpenHarmony1

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Before DeepSeek threw open-weight AI into the limelight in 2025, Huawei had already made a major contribution to China's open-source development. After being placed on the US Entity List in 2019, restricted access to American hardware and software pushed the company to build open-source software ecosystems such as HarmonyOS and MindSpore2

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. By imposing real costs on Chinese AI, US export controls have inadvertently created an increasingly appealing alternative to the rest of the world.

Building Infrastructure for Technological Independence

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other government bodies have supported domestic platforms, such as the state-guided OpenAtom Foundation for open-source technology, and Gitee, a Chinese alternative to GitHub3

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. Domestic open-source operating systems such as openKylin and openEuler play a key role in securing China's information technology infrastructure1

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China is also positioning itself as an indispensable player in setting global standards for open-source hardware. Work on RISC-V allows Chinese technology companies to reduce dependence on foreign intellectual property in semiconductors, making Chinese companies less vulnerable to export controls and bans3

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. China's strategy of "overtaking on a turn," or closely following and then passing the front-runner, appears to be paying off as Chinese telecommunications companies, already leaders in 5G technology, are working with international alliances to shape 6G, the next-generation standard for mobile communications1

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Geopolitical Competition Over Global AI Standards

China is beginning to construct its own self-sustaining, internally reinforcing AI ecosystem and is increasingly offering it abroad2

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. Beijing's geopolitical foothold in critical infrastructure is increasing, and countries adopting Chinese AI will, over time, absorb Chinese approaches to technical standards and governance principles. The contest over AI has moved beyond export controls of AI chips toward who leads open-source AI development1

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Within China, open-weight models are also an economic necessity. The country's old growth engines are under strain and domestic demand remains weak. For the technology sector, this creates a basic problem: enormous spending on AI models, computing infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing requires access to customers capable of generating returns. With domestic revenue limited, going global with lower-cost models that spread quickly helps solve that problem2

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AI Governance and Cybersecurity Implications

The proliferation of open-weight Chinese AI has heightened the country's interest in speeding up AI governance and safety2

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. Once model weights are released, they can be downloaded, modified, redistributed, and stripped of safeguards. The original developer loses the ability to revoke access or update protections. This is already shaping discussions around "selective openness"—keeping models open while potentially delaying or restricting access to the most advanced frontier systems.

China's thinking around governance is still nascent. Authority is distributed across an overlapping system: Shanghai is building much of the technical evaluation infrastructure while Beijing works on risk frameworks and regulation. Organizations such as the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee play roles alongside universities and private companies2

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. The Open-RAN standard being developed has complex implications for cybersecurity and strategic competition3

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What This Means for Global Technology

Xi Jinping's ambition is to accelerate the global proliferation of Chinese technology, build a stronger strategic foothold abroad, diversify China's exposure to geopolitical risk, and shape the global system more in China's favor2

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. The momentum behind what observers call "China shock 4.0" is strong. Unlike previous waves based on manufacturing, cleantech, or digital technology exports, this shock will be based not only on the export of Chinese technology but on China's approach to innovation as a national project.

The success of China's efforts may depend on building global trust. Chinese companies, backed by the government, have long been known to acquire advanced technology through intellectual property theft and by applying pressure in joint ventures and licensing agreements1

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. Countries that lead the technical and legal standards governing open-source technology will gain a competitive edge for decades to come, making technological self-reliance a central battleground in geopolitical competition.