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Opinion | Why the US should stop trying to target Chinese tech
In an interconnected world where innovation will find a way through, US measures to curb Chinese tech are not working as intended
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In late January, a Chinese start-up unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) model that it says outperforms its peers. As familiar as this sounds, the company in question is not DeepSeek. Rather, what the appearance of another Chinese AI model like Moonshot’s Kimi k1.5 shows is that China’s rapid AI iterations are no anomaly – they are the new norm.
When DeepSeek took the world by storm recently, it also ignited a geopolitical firestorm. Within days of the debut of its R1 model, US federal agencies banned use of DeepSeek’s technology, with officials citing concerns over national security and data privacy.
While some may argue that these restrictions are driven by politics, instead of genuine risks posed by DeepSeek, the question is no longer whether the United States can contain DeepSeek or any other Chinese AI player. Rather, the question the US ought to be asking is whether any attempt to curb Chinese technology would only help it grow.
This is not the first time a Chinese tech company has succeeded against steep odds. In 2019, the US cut off Huawei’s access to American technology, including semiconductors. Many expected the Chinese company to suffer an irreversible blow. Some thought it would collapse. Instead, the ban had the opposite effect of accelerating China’s hardware innovation. By 2024, Huawei had launched new products powered by advanced chips, and was developing 5.5G mobile network infrastructure.
DeepSeek, like Huawei, exemplifies how US measures used to protect American interests instead catalyse Chinese innovation. Despite US restrictions on exports of advanced AI chips to China, DeepSeek developed cutting-edge AI by optimising software to work around hardware limitations.
In an interconnected world where innovation will find a way through, diminishing returns are clearly setting in on the US’ unilateral export controls.
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