Chinese AI firms shunned US delegation over sanctions fears, commission says

Members stress value of Washington-Beijing dialogue as both sides prepare for dedicated talks on AI governance

A US congressional advisory body on China said on Friday that leading Chinese artificial intelligence firms declined to meet its members during a recent Beijing visit over concerns that doing so could expose the firms to US sanctions. But members also underscored the importance of the coming AI dialogue between Washington and Beijing.

“We were told you guys are a really scary commission, and you do hawkish anti-China things, and they’re afraid if they meet with you, they might be put on the entities list,” said Randy Schriver, the chairman of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) during a panel discussion at Johns Hopkins University.

“And we said, aha, actually meeting with us, we can help you get off the entities list. But [they] didn’t seem to buy it.”

The commission called the trip a fact-finding mission and said what it learned would inform its ongoing work, including its annual report to Congress on China’s military, economic and technological developments.

Created by Congress in 2000, the USCC examines the national security implications of US-China economic and trade ties.