Who is trapped by the United States in building walls and barriers in the field of AI?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced that foreign produced power inverters and advanced robotic equipment will be included in the "coverage list", and related new models of products will not be able to obtain FCC certification authorization and cannot be sold in the US market, citing so-called "national security risks". Foreign media generally believe that this move has a very clear implication for China.

For some time now, the United States has been continuously introducing and upgrading restrictions in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which has sparked criticism from various parties, including many American technology companies. Experts point out that building walls and barriers in the field of AI in the United States is not only detrimental to the development of related industries in the country, but also cannot stop China's footsteps in independent innovation.

The more you block yourself, the more anxious you become

The accelerated loss of technological advantages has intensified the anxiety of the United States, causing it to fall into a cycle of increasing blockade, faster breakthroughs in Chinese technology, and more severe self anxiety

Advanced robotic equipment is the embodiment of AI technology, while power inverters are the energy "heart" of AI computing infrastructure. Statistics show that in 2025, Chinese companies will account for 90% of global shipments of humanoid robots, with the United States being the largest export destination for Chinese made humanoid robots; Among the top ten global power inverter manufacturers in 2026, Chinese companies account for seven seats.

CNN reported that Washington's import ban on these two devices is aimed at responding to the increasingly fierce competition with China for advanced technology and AI dominance.

For some time now, the United States has continued to generalize the concept of national security, creating discriminatory lists under various pretexts to comprehensively suppress and contain China in the upstream and downstream of the AI industry chain.

According to Reuters, the FCC is brewing a new import ban, with a focus on optical modules - the core components of AI data centers.

Recently, the Chinese open-source model Kimi K3 has attracted a lot of attention. Some senior officials in the United States have claimed that they will investigate Chinese AI companies for allegedly "distilling" cutting-edge American models, and may sanction Chinese companies on grounds such as "stealing American intellectual property".

In June of this year, the US Department of Defense once again updated the list of "Chinese military related enterprises", including several Chinese technology companies such as Yushu Technology.

Wang Peng, a researcher at the School of Marxism/National Governance Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, analyzed in an interview with this newspaper that the current US restrictions on China in the field of AI continue to escalate. The means not only include export controls on advanced chips and semiconductor equipment, but also extend to multiple tools such as entity lists, cross-border jurisdiction, and market access, with a wider range of control targets and policy boundaries. The concept of "national security" is constantly being generalized. This series of actions serves the strategic goal of the United States to maintain its technological advantage and global industrial influence.

In recent years, the severe external environment has forced China's AI industry to accelerate independent breakthroughs and domestic substitution, achieve breakthroughs in cutting-edge fields such as large models, and steadily advance independent innovation in key areas such as AI chips and semiconductors.

Zhang Monan, Deputy Director of the US Europe Research Department at the China International Economic Exchange Center, analyzed that the United States not only needs to rely on AI to continue its hegemony, but also has strong anxiety about the rapid rise of China's AI industry. For example, previously the United States attempted to widen the 24 month technology gap with China in the field of basic large-scale models, but current evaluations by relevant institutions show that the gap between the two sides has narrowed to about 8 months. The accelerated loss of technological advantages has intensified the anxiety of the United States, causing it to fall into a cycle of increasing blockade, faster Chinese technological breakthroughs, and more severe self anxiety.

It is likely to produce the "boomerang" effect

Similar to the outcome of provoking the trade war back then, these measures taken by the United States not only fail to achieve its expected goals, but also further strengthen China's position in the global AI field

The US business community is strongly opposed to the government's restrictions on China in the field of AI.

According to US media reports, nearly 200 Silicon Valley startup founders recently wrote a letter to the US President urging the government not to cut off American companies' access to China's open weight AI models. More than 20 American tech giants, including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta, have jointly signed an open letter, explicitly stating that decision-makers should not confuse legitimate model development techniques with theft, and calling for a "one size fits all" crackdown and restrictions not to be implemented based on this.

Bloomberg believes that Chinese AI models have been widely applied in the US market, and if restrictive measures are to be implemented, it will be difficult to avoid causing interference to US users and businesses. Forbes magazine believes that banning advanced robot equipment produced abroad from entering the United States may cause domestic robot companies to lose external competitive pressure to some extent, and the speed of technological iteration may slow down. Counterpoint Research, a global technology market intelligence company, believes that once the import of new Chinese optical modules is completely banned, it will have an impact on Amazon, Microsoft, and other companies in the United States Meta、 Google and other data center operators have caused serious impacts.

Wang Peng pointed out that the United States building a wall and barrier against China in the field of AI is likely to have a "boomerang" effect. On the one hand, export controls have directly caused American chip giants such as NVIDIA to lose large orders from China, resulting in a loss of revenue and weakening their ability to maintain high R&D investment. On the other hand, such restrictive measures will force China's supply chain to accelerate its beautification, which will reshape the industrial ecology in the long run and may even marginalize American companies in future technology standard setting. Moreover, the obstruction of talent and academic exchanges will indirectly slow down the basic innovation rate of the United States itself.

A study by the Brookings Institution suggests that Chinese companies are increasingly developing by improving model efficiency, expanding applications, and promoting the integration of AI and physical industries, as they struggle to compete with American companies solely based on computing power scale. Another study by the think tank suggests that US related restrictions are stimulating China to accelerate semiconductor autonomy and promote stronger software and hardware collaboration between AI laboratories and local chip companies.

Wang Peng analyzed that the so-called AI "security tools" of the United States are difficult to suppress China's continuous innovation in this field, let alone determine the long-term competitive outcome.

AI competition is a comprehensive competition that includes hardware, software, computing infrastructure, market size, and industrial ecology, rather than a single technological competition. ”Zhang Monan analyzed that China has a huge population base, rich industrial application scenarios, a complete manufacturing system, and strong energy and power infrastructure to provide underlying support for computing power operation. The suppression and containment by the United States is difficult to overturn these systemic advantages, and will instead force China to accelerate independent innovation. Similar to the outcome of provoking the trade war back then, these measures taken by the United States not only fail to achieve its expected goals, but also further strengthen China's position in the global AI field.

It is necessary to establish 'cooperation in competition'

Retaining necessary technical exchanges, corporate cooperation, and governance dialogues is a safeguard for long-term competition, which is conducive to reducing the risk of misjudgment and loss of control

Not long ago, the globally renowned AI open-source platform "Hug Face" based in New York, USA, was invaded by intelligent agents. When technicians attempted to analyze the attack, the top commercial closed source model in the United States was blocked by security filtering mechanisms and could not be used. The company turned to an open-source model developed by a Chinese enterprise, which enabled timely response measures to be taken.

China has always emphasized that the development of AI should be a symphony of global cooperation, actively leading the global AI open source ecosystem. According to OpenRouter, a global AI model aggregation platform, in July, Chinese companies' self-developed AI models dominated the top five global call volumes. The platform published an article stating that if brand preference factors are aside, the "Chinese model" of open weighting is becoming the default choice for global developers.

In July of this year, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High Level Conference on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence were held in Shanghai. The "Action Plan for Collaborative Development of Artificial Intelligence" adopted at the conference proposes eight actions, including universal access to intelligent computing power, open source ecological sharing, joint education of intelligent talents, and joint construction of rules and standards, which have aroused international resonance.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center in the United States shows that the view that "China is a more reliable partner" is gaining recognition in many parts of the world, and China has a vision of viewing AI as a "global public good".

The MIT Technology Review website published an article stating that in the field of AI, world powers must work together to ensure that this technology truly benefits all humanity.

Retaining necessary technological exchanges, corporate cooperation, and governance dialogue is a barrier to long-term competition, which is conducive to reducing the risk of misjudgment and loss of control. Wang Peng believes that China and the United States cannot eliminate competition in the field of AI, but it is necessary to establish "cooperation in competition"——

One is to strengthen AI security and crisis management. In May 2026, the leaders of China and the United States had constructive exchanges on the issue of artificial intelligence and agreed to engage in intergovernmental dialogue on artificial intelligence. A US think tank suggests that both sides should focus their dialogue on addressing common technological risks such as cybersecurity threats, weapon related abuse, and insufficient AI reliability, rather than attempting to resolve all strategic differences at once.

The second is to strengthen communication on security evaluation, content identification, and global governance rules. The United Nations has established an independent international scientific group on artificial intelligence and a global dialogue mechanism on artificial intelligence governance, providing a multilateral platform for countries to discuss AI risks and governance. If China and the United States reach a certain technical consensus on model risk assessment, deep forgery governance, and security testing, it will help reduce global rule fragmentation.