Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief. Generative AI in China recently started a regulatory campaign. A homicide in Handan sparked public anger. Additionally, a Chinese-born professor has gone missing on a return trip to China. To subscribe to China Brief every Tuesday, sign up below. China’s internet watchdog has initiated a process to monitor and manage generative artificial intelligence. This movement comes amid efforts to cleanse online content disliked by the government, coupled with discussions on AI regulation in Beijing forums featuring international experts. Premier Li Qiang has conducted official site visits to AI companies and other tech entities, promising a more relaxed regulatory environment that appears dubious. AI has been a prominent focus for China since 2017, with plans to become a global leader in the field by 2030. The recent surge of interest in AI, driven by generative models like ChatGPT, has raised concerns among officials that China is lagging behind U.S. rivals. There are worries that AI-generated content could overwhelm China’s controlled internet environment, generating potentially unacceptable opinions, like the chatbot opposing Russia’s actions in Ukraine. However, AI regulation in China stretches beyond political concerns, including fears of scams and crime and paternalistic control targeting various societal aspects. Chinese censors frequently work to sanitize online streaming content, combat excessive sports enthusiasm, or regulate celebrity gossip. AI regulation now reflects the apprehensions of an older political leadership hesitant to trust the younger generation generating the bulk of online content. While top leaders showing an interest in AI can provide funding and visibility to Chinese businesses, it also entails official visits by authorities with limited knowledge of the industry eager to demonstrate action. China’s prior tech achievements benefited from allowing the market to determine winners, supported by government backing. However, under President Xi Jinping’s leadership, political endorsement has become crucial, especially after the tech industry crackdowns in 2020 that saw a market devaluation of over $1.1 trillion. The new regulations emphasize fraud prevention, addressing a prevalent issue in China in recent years, including deepfake incidents and unauthorized Chinese individuals forced to work in online scam hubs in Southeast Asia. Despite the presence of scammers and counterfeits in the AI space, the political leadership’s interest in AI could potentially be exploited due to officials’ limited understanding of the field. China’s regulatory approach to cryptocurrency serves as a positive example, where early investment led to inflated growth fueled by money laundering, eventually curtailed by strict regulations. If China can effectively channel AI investments while avoiding prevalent scams, it might achieve its 2030 AI leadership goal. Beijing’s lax intellectual property enforcement could even attract AI development due to potential cost concerns associated with copyright disputes in the West. Nevertheless, AI’s complex landscape conflicts with the CCP’s structured internet model, posing challenges to achieving regulatory balance. The recent tragedy in Handan involving the killing of a 13-year-old boy has incited public outcry. Three left-behind children were arrested for the crime, reflecting concerns about parental supervision and widespread truancy among such youth. Meanwhile, the disappearance of Chinese-born professor Hu Shiyun during a visit to mainland China has raised suspicion of potential espionage-related involvement, evoking parallels with other cases of foreign residents facing arrest or exit bans in China. The U.S. State Department maintains a travel advisory for China, urging caution due to the risk of arbitrary detention. The debunking of Havana syndrome, previously attributed to foreign adversaries like Russia and China, raises questions about the origins of the symptoms experienced by U.S. diplomatic staff, highlighting the influence of heightened U.S.-China tensions on public perception. The upcoming China Development Forum will host Western business leaders seeking face-to-face meetings with Chinese officials, yet uncertainty looms over which leaders will attend, impacting the level of engagement with foreign delegates. The chosen translation of the standard Chinese poetry textbook, Poems of the Masters, showcases the enduring appeal of Meng Haorun’s “Spring Dawning” poem, reflecting on renewal and impermanence in a timeless, evocative manner.
