The idea that the US is comfortably ahead in the global AI race is a dangerous myth. Experts warn that the real threat isn’t who can build the smartest AI; it’s what the worst actors could do with it.
Under its Digital Silk Road, China has been quietly reshaping parts of the world, exporting “smart” city AI systems that double as surveillance networks.
Yet President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy barely addresses this growing influence. Instead, his decision to allow Nvidia to sell its second-most advanced chip, the H200, risks giving China a boost in both technological and military power.
China’s Digital Dictatorship
China’s economic and political weight has made it the leader of a rising class of digital dictators.
It likely already leads in certain AI applications, particularly cost-efficient open-source models.
By rapidly deploying these systems, Beijing is rewriting how governments operate and how the state interacts with society, consolidating power in ways that are hard to counter.
AI was once hailed as a tool for freedom, but in the hands of autocrats, it has become a tool for repression.
The Chinese Communist Party uses AI across surveillance cameras, facial recognition systems, malware, and data processing to monitor and target dissenters.
The Western province of Xinjiang offers the starkest example: AI-powered surveillance allows the CCP to profile Uyghurs and collect vast amounts of data, tightening the regime’s control with chilling efficiency.
Exporting Authoritarian AI
The Digital Silk Road is exporting these tools to other countries, both democracies and autocracies.
Pakistan, for instance, received $600 million to implement Chinese AI, installing Huawei cameras equipped with the same recognition and analysis systems used by the CCP.
Authorities there have used the technology to monitor citizens both online and offline, showing how reliance on Chinese AI extends Beijing’s influence far beyond its borders.
As more countries adopt Chinese AI to automate governance, they become vulnerable to coercion and political pressure.
Amid what some scholars call a new Cold War, China’s ability to increase strategic leverage and undermine American security represents a major win for the CCP.
Access to data, or even the threat of shutting off AI infrastructure, gives Beijing new forms of soft power in an era of cyber warfare.
Trump’s Blind Spot
Despite these growing risks, Trump’s National Security Strategy largely ignores China’s digital expansion and fails to outline a response.
Allowing the sale of Nvidia’s H200 chip may offer short-term economic benefits, but it strengthens China’s military and technological capabilities in the long term.
If the US wants to counter this influence, it must work closely with the private sector to develop AI applications and forge long-term technological alliances with countries seeking alternatives to Chinese systems.
China isn’t chasing artificial general intelligence; it is focused on applying AI today to automate state functions efficiently. This gives it an edge in low-cost, practical AI that governments around the world find attractive.
The US must not just innovate — it must export solutions that replace Chinese infrastructure while avoiding the authoritarian pitfalls.
A Different Model
While autocracies will continue to turn to China for cheap and invasive AI, the US can offer a different model: AI that powers cities, manages energy and waste, and automates municipal functions without giving governments new tools for repression.
Strategic cooperation with the CCP is inevitable in global trade, but the US must balance engagement with competition.
The alternative is ceding influence and letting Chinese AI reshape the rules of global power.
Aston Davies is an undergraduate at Stanford studying political science and research assistant at the Hoover Institution.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Military AI.
