China's security chief turns AI critic

China's top security official has added his voice to the global chorus of AI skeptics, arguing that artificial intelligence brings "a large number of uncertainties to social governance and public order." The remarks, published in China Cyberspace Magazine, place the technology squarely within Beijing's national security calculus.

Chen Yixin, party secretary and minister for State Security, used the flagship publication of China's Cyberspace Administration to lay out a case that AI has become a central arena of geopolitical competition — and a potential source of domestic instability.

AI as battleground and threat

In Chen's view, "the field of AI has become the main battleground for global technological competition and a new arena for strategic rivalry among major powers." The article also repeats familiar grievances about US sanctions and raises the possibility that AI could be weaponized to detect and exploit software vulnerabilities, attack important infrastructure, or steal industrial and state secrets.

The minister's concerns extend to specific classes of software. He flagged OpenClaw and similar products, which he said have "structural problems such as remote control of device management permissions and leakage of sensitive user information."

Domestic users as a weak point

Chen also identified what he described as a homegrown problem: insufficient security awareness among some Chinese users. "Some domestic users lack sufficient security awareness, using foreign AI products to process sensitive information and export data overseas, resulting in large-scale data leaks from within the country," he wrote.

That concern about data leaving China's borders sits alongside broader worries about how AI affects the Communist Party's ability to govern. "The application of artificial intelligence brings a large number of uncertainties to social governance and public order," Chen observed. "The 'black box' of algorithms and the 'poisoning' of data may amplify existing social biases. The abuse of personal information during data use may trigger a crisis of user trust. The automatic decision-making of the system creates problems in attribution of responsibility."

He further argued that the "rapid development of artificial intelligence has broken through the traditional technology governance framework, causing existing legal norms, ethical principles and governance mechanisms to frequently lag behind in practice, making it difficult to form an effective institutional constraint and supervision system."

Prescription: sovereignty and central control

Chen's proposed remedy is for China to follow the direction set by President Xi Jinping and modernize its national security system and capabilities so they are ready for AI. The minister said China must "ensure the independent control of key core technologies, firmly grasp technological sovereignty, and achieve a virtuous cycle and synergistic progress between innovation empowerment and security governance."

He also called for "special laws and regulations targeting the research, development, application, and supervision of artificial intelligence technology," plus improvements to standards and laws "covering the entire chain of technology research and development, application implementation, risk prevention and control, and accountability, focusing on prominent issues such as algorithm security, data protection, ethical norms, and privacy rights."

Framework update follows

The day after Chen's article appeared, the Cyberspace Administration of China published version 3.0 of the nation's AI Safety Governance Framework. That document calls for China to "actively employ risk-controllable institutional mechanisms such as regulatory sandboxes to make room for error and correction in the development of new technologies and new applications."

China also plans to "make every effort to ensure AI safety" and to "take timely measures to address any risks that infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of individuals, harm public interests, threaten national security, and endanger human survival and development."

Contrast with Washington

The Chinese position stands in sharp contrast to that of US president Donald Trump, who on Monday labeled concerns about AI safety a "hoax" and suggested "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!"

What Chen's article covers

• AI described as "the main battleground for global technological competition" and "a new arena for strategic rivalry among major powers"
• Concerns about US sanctions
• Potential weaponization of AI to detect and exploit software vulnerabilities
• Risks of attacks on important infrastructure
• Risks of theft of industrial and state secrets
• OpenClaw and similar products flagged for "structural problems such as remote control of device management permissions and leakage of sensitive user information"
• Domestic users lacking security awareness, leading to "large-scale data leaks from within the country"
• Potential for AI to disrupt social governance and public order
• Calls for "special laws and regulations" and "technological sovereignty"

Why it matters

Chen's intervention suggests that China's security apparatus is treating AI governance as a matter of state control, not merely economic policy. The rapid follow-up with an updated governance framework indicates that the regulatory direction is already being operationalized. For foreign companies, this could mean a more restrictive environment for AI products and chips, while Chinese firms may face both tighter oversight and room to experiment inside regulatory sandboxes. The contrast with Washington's rhetoric — where AI safety concerns have been dismissed as a "hoax" — highlights how differently the world's two largest AI powers are framing the risks and rules of the technology.

"The field of AI has become the main battleground for global technological competition and a new arena for strategic rivalry among major powers."

— Chen Yixin, party secretary and minister for State Security