The World: The Rise of China's DeepSeek and Huawei Challenges U.S. Dominance in Technology, Politics, and Military

An article published in the forum section of France's Le Monde argues that China's ascent in the field of artificial intelligence is posing a strong challenge to the United States—not merely on the technological front, but potentially undermining American supremacy in political and military domains as well. The author of the article is Mathieu Corteel, a philosopher and historian of science, who serves as a postdoctoral supervisor at Sciences Po in Paris and is also affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has authored works on artificial intelligence.

Not Just Incremental Progress—But a Revolution

In a commentary published Thursday in France’s Le Monde, Mathieu Corteel warns that facing competition from China, the United States may experience an "imperial decline" in artificial intelligence—especially given the growing wave of opposition against tech giants within the U.S.

The article notes that historically, American companies have dominated AI development—for instance, OpenAI and Anthropic were even planning to go public by late 2026. This would have symbolized a clear "victory for U.S. AI." But the situation has now changed: China’s DeepSeek is preparing to launch its fourth-generation model, DeepSeek V4—and there’s a crucial shift—this model can run directly on chips manufactured by Huawei.

Corteel emphasizes that the ability of DeepSeek’s fourth-generation model to operate natively on Huawei-produced chips is highly significant. In the past, China’s AI development relied heavily on U.S. or Western semiconductor technology. However, if DeepSeek truly can function entirely on domestically produced chips, it signifies China’s achievement of “self-sufficiency” in AI infrastructure. This is not just incremental progress—it is a revolution! By binding artificial intelligence to Huawei’s processors, China demonstrates full technological autonomy!

Faced with the aggressive push from Chinese firms, American companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have begun accusing China of "stealing technology," claiming that Chinese firms train their models through "distillation"—extracting responses from ChatGPT and Claude to refine their own systems.

Yet Corteel points out the irony in these accusations: American AI itself evolved largely through massive scraping of internet data, a practice that has long been controversial over copyright issues. Nonetheless, Corteel also notes that although DeepSeek opens its models to the public, its training data remains closed and proprietary.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies are adopting a disruptive strategy: releasing open-source code for their new models, dramatically reducing the cost of AI usage. As a result, not only Chinese enterprises but even developers in Silicon Valley may begin shifting toward Chinese technologies—because they are cheaper and more flexible.

Corteel further observes that this "low-cost + open" approach from China is already reshaping the market. For example, when DeepSeek was launched, it caused a sharp drop in Nvidia’s market capitalization. The reason is simple: if future users no longer rely on high-end U.S. chips or AI services, the value of such companies will be reassessed.

The Crucial Moment for America

Corteel stresses that the U.S. monopoly over AI infrastructure is being challenged. For the United States, this is a critical juncture. Yet, within the country, opposition to tech giants continues to intensify: on one hand, public discontent with big tech grows—evidenced by resistance to building data centers in the U.S. and skepticism about the power wielded by AI firms; on the other hand, some American AI companies (like Palantir) collaborating with governments on surveillance technologies have sparked controversy.

Moreover, a near-civil-war atmosphere is taking shape in the U.S., as seen in multiple failed assassination attempts against Trump. This latent unrest undermines market confidence. Meanwhile, the war in Iran and the potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could disrupt AI funding. If regional security does not recover swiftly, investment pledges from Gulf states may remain unfulfilled.

If capital begins to doubt the future of the AI industry, current sky-high valuations of AI companies could collapse—leading to what some call the "bursting of the AI bubble." This trend appears to be unfolding.

Paper Tigers

A great Chinese leader once wrote, "All reactionary forces are paper tigers." Corteel suggests that the AI crisis might prove that "new reactionaries" are also paper tigers. The rise of China’s AI infrastructure—represented by DeepSeek and Huawei—is directly threatening the value chain upon which U.S. neo-reactionary ideology depends for its technological, political, and military dominance. That empire may crumble like a house of cards. The relationship between master and slave seems poised for a turning point. U.S. sanctions against China have not curbed the adversary—they have instead driven it toward self-reliance and made it stronger.

Source: rfi

Original: toutiao.com/article/1864680735805449/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.