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Ann Cao

Ben Jiang

China’s OpenClaw craze has taken an ironic turn, with social media platforms now flooded with paid services offering to uninstall the artificial intelligence (AI) agent after users initially paid to have it installed.
On Xianyu, the second-hand marketplace under Alibaba, the keyword “uninstall OpenClaw” was trending on Thursday, based on a search by the South China Morning Post.
Records showed that a Shanghai-based seller named “mojito lime water” charged 299 yuan ($43.55) to uninstall the agent and had completed more than 10 transactions. Providers in other major cities were offering similar services.
The turn of events came as Chinese authorities, security experts and universities sounded the alarm after consumers and Big Tech firms rushed to embrace the AI agent.
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, which falls under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), launched a new initiative to develop standards for “Claw” agents that address their opaque decision-making processes, according to a statement on Thursday.
The institute said it would seek input from companies and industry experts for “Reliable Capability Requirements for Intelligent Assistant Agents (Claw) Products”, an important part of the standards.
These would outline requirements focused on quality control and the behavioural reliability of Claw products, including manageable user permissions and transparent execution processes, it said.


Released last year, OpenClaw has taken the world by storm for its ability to perform tasks on a user’s behalf, organising and responding to emails, drafting work reports and preparing slide decks.
Among the nearly 150,000 OpenClaw-related assets identified globally, more than 40 per cent of them were held in China, said Zhou Hongyi, co-founder and chairman of Chinese cybersecurity giant 360 Security Technology, citing company data.
“In the AI era, the biggest attack may no longer come from server vulnerabilities, but rather intelligent agents with the rights to execute tasks”, Zhou said on Wednesday, urging users to weigh security as much as costs.
That increasing level of autonomy has also prompted swift backlash from the country’s universities. Jiangsu Normal University, Anhui Normal University, the Zhuhai College of Science and Technology and other institutions issued emergency notices this week, warning against – or outright prohibiting – the installation of OpenClaw on equipment and campus networks.
The Zhuhai school said any installed OpenClaw programs should “be immediately and completely” uninstalled, while the Anhui university said students and faculty should “avoid use unless necessary”, according to local media reports.
The calls came as the MIIT’s National Vulnerability Database issued guidelines on best practices and prohibitions for adopting and using OpenClaw.
In an advisory released on Wednesday, users were told to use the latest official version, limit internet exposure and restrict permissions, and were warned against risky practices such as installing third-party mirror versions, browsing unverified websites and disabling detailed log-auditing functions.
Alibaba owns the SCMP.


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The shift comes as top cybersecurity expert warns country now home to 40 per cent of global assets linked to OpenClaw


The shift comes as top cybersecurity expert warns country now home to 40 per cent of global assets linked to OpenClaw.


China’s OpenClaw users paid to install viral AI agent. Now they spend to remove it

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The shift comes as top cybersecurity expert warns country now home to 40 per cent of global assets linked to OpenClaw

The shift comes as top cybersecurity expert warns country now home to 40 per cent of global assets linked to OpenClaw