China Criticizes US Ban on AI Startup DeepSeek

China has voiced strong opposition to a U.S. ban on Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek's products for federal civilian agencies, escalating tensions in the ongoing technology race between the two nations. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a notice Monday, made public that day, directing agencies to remove DeepSeek and its affiliated products, as well as third-party offerings developed using DeepSeek, from their IT systems.

The directive, which dates back to late July, also prohibits civilian agencies from procuring DeepSeek's products and services. DeepSeek is recognized as one of China's prominent AI companies, with its open-source models widely accessible and largely free to use in countries including the United States.

The Federal Register notice cited that DeepSeek's models "present multiple threat vectors." Concerns raised include the location of its servers in China, which could potentially allow Chinese authorities access to private company infrastructure and sensitive U.S. data.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated at a regular press conference that China "will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies." She added that China opposes the "overstretching of the concept of national security and the politicizing of science, technology, economic and trade issues."

DeepSeek did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Artificial intelligence is anticipated to be a key topic during an upcoming meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled to take place in mid-November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in Shenzhen, China.

Despite recent progress in some areas of AI governance collaboration, such as a U.S. proposal for an incident notification system related to national security, the U.S. and China remain at odds on numerous issues. U.S.-led restrictions already prevent China from accessing certain advanced AI chips and manufacturing equipment. Last week, Beijing introduced new proposed plans to restrict exports of specific advanced AI models.

The U.S. has also accused Chinese AI startups, including DeepSeek, of engaging in large-scale "distillation"—the extraction of capabilities—from frontier American AI models, claims that China has refuted. Earlier this year, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission moved to ban imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots, a measure seen as targeting China.