{"id":1265,"date":"2026-08-01T05:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2026-08-01T05:37:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:37:01","slug":"china-inc-is-winning-the-ai-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265","title":{"rendered":"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

C<\/span>hina\u2019s rapid rise in artificial intelligence has caught the world\u2019s attention \u2014 and given America\u2019s AI leaders good reason to lose sleep.<\/p>\n

Read more Why Healthcare Price Transparency Will Fail<\/a><\/p>\n

China was a latecomer to the current wave of generative artificial intelligence. The leading large language models, advanced AI chips, and much of the underlying research infrastructure were initially dominated by American firms. Yet within a remarkably short period, Chinese firms have emerged as serious competitors. Models from DeepSeek, Alibaba\u2019s Qwen series, Moonshot AI\u2019s Kimi, and others have reached near-parity with leading U.S. systems on many benchmarks for coding, reasoning, and other tasks.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The characteristics that helped China dominate solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and other industries are now being applied to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The speed of China\u2019s catch-up has surprised many observers. It should not. We have seen this pattern before in solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, telecommunications, and other industries. AI increasingly looks like another application of what I call \u201cChina Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n

China Inc. describes a political-economic system in which the Chinese Communist Party manages the country much like a giant corporation. The government, state-owned enterprises, banks, universities, research institutions, and even nominally private firms are not independent actors in the Western sense. They operate within a system in which the party can mobilize resources across organizational boundaries, direct investment toward strategic industries, absorb losses, acquire technology, and coordinate economic activity toward broader goals. Individual firms may compete fiercely with one another, but the party remains above them all.<\/p>\n

AI has now become one of China Inc.\u2019s strategic priorities.<\/p>\n

The Chinese Communist Party has mobilized substantial resources to develop it. Central and local governments have provided financing, subsidies, computing infrastructure, research support, and other assistance to domestic firms. Intense competition among Chinese technology companies has further accelerated model development and commercialization.<\/p>\n

Technology acquisition has also generated controversy. Chinese developers have been accused of using outputs from leading American models to train or improve their own systems through model distillation and related techniques. In February 2026, Anthropic detailed what it described as industrial-scale campaigns by DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax to extract Claude\u2019s capabilities through large volumes of specially crafted queries. OpenAI had earlier raised similar concerns involving DeepSeek. Such practices raise obvious intellectual-property and contractual questions.<\/p>\n

Then comes price.<\/p>\n

Chinese AI companies have offered models and application programming interfaces at prices far below those of leading U.S. providers. Increasingly capable open-weight Chinese models can also be downloaded, modified, and deployed by users around the world.<\/p>\n

Again, the pattern is familiar: learn from foreign competitors, restrict their access to the Chinese market, encourage intense competition at home, cut prices, scale rapidly, and then expand globally \u2014 with state support and the ability to sustain losses along the way.<\/p>\n

The growing Chinese embrace of open-weight AI is particularly revealing. For an individual company, giving away model weights or charging extremely low prices may seem economically puzzling, especially given the enormous cost of developing and running advanced AI models.<\/p>\n

But it makes much more sense if the relevant unit is not DeepSeek, Alibaba, or another individual company. It is China Inc.<\/p>\n

China Inc. does not need to maximize the profits of every AI developer. It can benefit by maximizing the global adoption of Chinese AI technology.<\/p>\n

Open-weight models can accelerate that process. Developers around the world can build applications, fine-tune models, create tools, and train employees around Chinese model families. As adoption increases, complementary technologies, skills, and applications develop around them. Over time, compatibility, accumulated expertise, ecosystems, and switching costs can make Chinese AI increasingly difficult to replace.<\/p>\n

Read more Birthright Citizenship Upheld: Inside the Supreme Court\u2019s 5-4 Decision in Trump v. Barbara<\/a><\/p>\n

From the perspective of China Inc., Chinese AI firms therefore do not have to be immediately profitable. The sector can function partly as a loss leader. Subsidized computing, continued financing, aggressive price competition, and open-weight models can make economic sense if they expand the global use of Chinese AI and strengthen China Inc.\u2019s position in the technological ecosystem. Losses at one company can be investments for China Inc. as a whole \u2014 building technological capabilities, influencing standards, attracting users and applications, and strengthening China\u2019s competitive position in the global economy.<\/p>\n

There is another Chinese advantage in the AI race, one that is less comfortable to discuss.<\/p>\n

I call it the \u201clow human rights advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Low human rights by themselves do not produce economic success. North Korea has extremely low human rights and an extremely poor economy. But when a country combines weak protections for individual rights with a capable state and access to global markets, those weak protections can reduce the costs and constraints of production. China demonstrated this during its rise as the world\u2019s manufacturing powerhouse. Workers had fewer opportunities to organize independently, land could be acquired more easily, environmental and regulatory constraints were weaker, and the state could mobilize resources on a scale and at a speed difficult to match in liberal democracies.<\/p>\n

Now the same advantage may be moving from the factory floor to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

In the United States and other liberal democracies, AI development increasingly encounters concerns over privacy, data use, ethics, environmental impact, and the construction of massive data centers. In China, privacy protections and ethical objections impose weaker constraints on state-prioritized data collection and AI development, while local communities have far less ability to block data centers and related infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Electricity may make this difference even more important. AI consumes enormous amounts of power. In democracies, new generating capacity, transmission lines, data centers, and related infrastructure can face lengthy permitting, environmental reviews, litigation, and local opposition. China can mobilize land, capital, electricity, and infrastructure much more rapidly, while expanding coal, renewable, and nuclear generation with considerably less political resistance.<\/p>\n

This creates an uncomfortable irony. Artificial intelligence is one of the most advanced technologies humanity has ever developed, yet China\u2019s ability to compete in it may derive partly from the same low human rights advantage that helped it dominate much more traditional industries.<\/p>\n

The same political system that limits individual rights can reduce constraints on data acquisition, infrastructure construction, and energy expansion. China\u2019s low human rights advantage has not disappeared as the country moves up the technological ladder. It may simply be taking a new form.<\/p>\n

For the United States, this development deserves close attention. America still holds major advantages in advanced semiconductors, frontier AI models, research, entrepreneurship, and concentrations of world-class talent. But the AI race will not be decided by technological brilliance alone. It is increasingly a competition over cost, scale, energy, infrastructure, adoption, and the institutional systems capable of supporting them.<\/p>\n

That is where China Inc. matters.<\/p>\n

The characteristics that helped China dominate solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and other industries are now being applied to artificial intelligence. This time, however, China is not merely competing to manufacture more physical products at lower prices. It is competing in the production and global diffusion of knowledge, intellectual property, technological platforms, and digital ecosystems.<\/p>\n

China Inc. is making the leap from manufacturing things to manufacturing intelligence.<\/p>\n

America should pay attention.<\/p>\n

READ MORE from Shaomin Li:<\/strong><\/p>\n

China\u2019s New Import<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why I Chose America<\/strong><\/p>\n

250 Years and Still Sailing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shaomin Li is a professor of international business at Old Dominion University. This essay is adapted from his forthcoming book, <\/strong><\/em>The Low Human Rights Advantage and the Challenge of China Inc<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Meet the Five Species of Summer Celebrity<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A most wonderful article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china-watch"],"yoast_head":"\nChina Inc. Is Winning the AI Race - National Logistics Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race - National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A most wonderful article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-01T05:37:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc\"},\"headline\":\"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-01T05:37:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265\"},\"wordCount\":1254,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"China Watch\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265\",\"name\":\"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race - National Logistics Post\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-01T05:37:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1270},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1265#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"National Logistics Post\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race - National Logistics Post","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race - National Logistics Post","og_description":"A most wonderful article","og_url":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265","og_site_name":"National Logistics Post","article_published_time":"2026-08-01T05:37:01+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc"},"headline":"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race","datePublished":"2026-08-01T05:37:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265"},"wordCount":1254,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg","articleSection":["China Watch"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265","url":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265","name":"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race - National Logistics Post","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-01T05:37:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c422e19cb97a1f3212dceeaf0d13e8b6.jpg","width":2560,"height":1270},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1265#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"China Inc. Is Winning the AI Race"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/","name":"National Logistics Post","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com"],"url":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}