AI 'warning shots' make Beijing turn its focus to national security risks

AI 'warning shots' create Beijing turn its focus to national security risks.

Key points

• "Chinese AI policy focuses more on real, present-day harms to society and people, " remarked Brian Tse, CEO at Concordia AI, a Beijing-based consultancy focused on AI safety.
• "In my view, no new technology develops completely smoothly, " remarked 42-year-old Xie Zongbo.
• But unlike in America, these "don't get litigated or go viral in public in China", Xu informed AFP.
• Sun remarked, "China is concerned that 'security' may be used as a tool to restrict its technological development".
• Nevertheless, the cybersecurity impact of AI agent bots acting without human oversight "would rank very high among the Chinese government's biggest concerns".

AI 'warning shots' create Beijing turn its focus to national security risks. AFP Published September 20, 2026 Updated September 20, 2026 08: 35pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

While AI researchers in the United States fret over out-of-control superintelligence wiping out humanity, Chinese policymakers have until now been more focused on immediate risks, from deepfakes to child safety.

But the alarming hacking ability of top artificial intelligence models is leading Beijing to see the dangers in a new light, with the spy agency chief warning this week that the technology could jeopardise national security.

In practice, the potential vulnerability of Chinese mega-app WeChat was additionally disclosed lately when a small team of programmers in California remarked it had applied AI to build a cyberattack "worm" that, if unleashed, could easily compromise millions of WeChat accounts.

"There are more similarities than differences when it comes to AI safety issues" in China and the United States, remarked Kevin Xu, founder of US-based technology hedge fund Interconnected Capital.

As the topic grabs global headlines, the pressure is on for President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump to discuss tackling the AI threats to both countries at in-person discussions on Thursday – despite their rivalry in the field.

Both powers are "developing a more realistic and shared understanding of these risks, thereby heightening the sense of urgency" to work together, Sun Chenghao of Tsinghua University's Centre for International Security and Strategy informed AFP.

Cooperation on shared safety evaluations for AI models or alert systems when crises emerge might be undermined by the fierce competition, nevertheless.

"We're leading China in AI. And frankly I want to keep it that way, " Trump remarked when asked concerning calls from top US labs for a coordinated slowdown of their cutting-edge work.

Meanwhile, Sun remarked, "China is concerned that 'security' may be used as a tool to restrict its technological development".

For context, a stark warning of the existential threat posed by self-improving future AI systems, posted on X by a researcher resigning from US startup Anthropic, has fuelled debate worldwide over how the technology should be governed.

China is already actively regulating how it is applied, such as by prohibiting the creation of an AI-generated avatar in someone's likeness without their consent.

"Beijing treats AI as a general-purpose technology – not a 'god-in-a-box', " he remarked.

It sees it as "something closer to electricity or the automobile: enormously beneficial for society and industry, but ultimately manageable through regulation", Tse remarked.

He continued that "recent AI capability jumps, high-profile incidents acting as 'warning shots', and a worrying pace of AI development through automation" had all pushed the technology up the list of priorities.

On the streets of Shanghai, AFP discovered a mix of concern and pragmatism concerning AI.

He remarked news of the cyberattack "worm" that could hack into WeChat may in fact be "a good thing: identifying the problem, solving it, and patching the loophole ultimately benefits the advancement of cybersecurity". There was additionally broad backing for tight regulation.

"I believe that no business. Would ever impose restrictions on themselves, " remarked a 50-year-old pharmaceutical worker. This person provided her name as Jenny.

"Take traffic as an example: drivers would never say, 'I want all red lights'." Jia Zijian, founder of Singapore-based Inspired AI, remarked his greatest concern was highly capable AI models learning to crack complex passwords.

Suppose these critical passwords or national security key codes were to be effortlessly cracked. In such a scenario. Both China and the US would find themselves vulnerable: if our (China's) capabilities are solid enough, they would feel exposed.

"And if theirs are strong enough and we lack defences, we would be in a similarly vulnerable position."

In short, AI ' warning shots' make Beijing turn its focus to national security risks is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.