China on Monday offered a subdued protest against the US’ latest tariffs without announcing retaliatory actions, but adopted a more aggressive tone in response to Washington’s proposed sanctions on Chinese AI firms.
Beijing said that Washington had agreed to cap tariffs at 20% as part of the countries’ trade truce, with analysts noting the new duties would likely have a limited impact on China. Meanwhile, Beijing said it would take “all necessary measures” to counter Washington’s threat to penalize Chinese firms for their alleged theft of American IP through distillation.
The rhetoric signals the extent to which AI is now central to the superpowers’ economic jousting: The White House has also considered banning China’s open-source models.