China pushes ahead with AI as Western tech leaders urge caution China is pushing ahead with the development and deployment of artificial intelligence, rejecting calls from some of the most prominent figures in the Western technology industry to slow advances in powerful AI systems and accusing critics of using safety concerns to constrain Beijing’s technological rise. The divide has widened after Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei called for the development of frontier artificial intelligence to be paced to give governments and researchers more time to understand and contain potentially catastrophic risks from increasingly autonomous systems. His proposal received support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, while other leading researchers and technology executives have raised similar concerns about the speed at which AI capabilities are advancing. Amodei has warned that increasingly capable AI agents could soon operate computers, write sophisticated software and conduct cyber operations with limited human supervision, creating risks that existing safeguards may struggle to contain. But his proposals have also become entangled with the intensifying technological rivalry between the United States and China. Amodei has urged Washington to maintain tight controls on exports of advanced semiconductors to China and crack down on what Anthropic says are attempts by Chinese laboratories to extract capabilities from American AI models through a technique known as distillation. That combination — slowing the frontier while restricting China’s ability to catch up — has drawn a sharp response from Beijing. China’s state-backed Global Times on Monday described Amodei’s proposal as a “Cold War playbook”, saying the safety argument concealed an attempt to preserve American dominance in advanced technology and restrict China’s development. “This ‘silent AI Cold War’ is hypocritical and short-sighted,” the newspaper said.( China’s Foreign Ministry took a more measured position but rejected what it described as attempts to exaggerate the threat posed by artificial intelligence. “Fomenting various threats, engaging in confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the process of global governance of artificial intelligence and is not in the interests of any party,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday. Beijing instead called for an “open, inclusive and benevolent” approach to the technology. CHINA ACCELERATES Behind the rhetorical dispute lies a technological race that has intensified rapidly. China has made artificial intelligence a central part of its industrial strategy, encouraging domestic companies to develop models, computing infrastructure and semiconductor technology capable of reducing the country’s dependence on American suppliers. Chinese developers including DeepSeek, Alibaba, Moonshot AI and have produced increasingly capable models, many released with open weights that allow developers around the world to download, modify and deploy them. Beijing has presented that approach as an alternative to the more tightly controlled models developed by several leading American companies. President Xi Jinping told the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in July that countries should seize the “historic opportunity” presented by open-source AI and expand access to the technology, particularly in developing countries. Xi said China would work with developing economies to build AI capacity and warned against inequalities emerging from unequal access to the technology. China is simultaneously attempting to build the hardware required to sustain that expansion. Huawei is preparing its next-generation Ascend 950DT AI accelerator for availability in the fourth quarter of this year, as Chinese companies seek domestic alternatives to Nvidia’s advanced processors. Huawei and Chinese chipmaker Cambricon have recently raised prices for some forthcoming AI processors as shortages of high-bandwidth memory increase production costs, according to people familiar with the matter. DeepSeek is also planning to deploy at least 160,000 Huawei Ascend 950DT accelerators at a large data centre under construction in Inner Mongolia, Bloomberg reported this month, potentially creating one of the world’s largest known clusters of Chinese AI processors. Those investments illustrate the scale of Beijing’s effort to build an AI ecosystem capable of operating despite American restrictions on the sale of the world’s most advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. DIFFERENT VISIONS OF AI SAFETY The disagreement between China and Western technology leaders is more complicated than a simple divide between regulation and unfettered development. Beijing has itself warned about the possibility that advanced artificial intelligence could escape effective human control. China’s AI safety framework has since 2024 explicitly considered scenarios in which advanced systems might autonomously obtain resources, replicate themselves and seek greater power. An updated framework released last year warned that AI could undergo an unexpectedly rapid increase in intelligence and subsequently compete with humans for control. China has also introduced guidelines covering autonomous AI agents. Rules issued in May require developers to build mechanisms capable of detecting, intervening in, blocking and recovering from improper behaviour by AI systems. The guidelines identify “operational loss of control” as a potential security risk and say humans should retain final decision-making authority over autonomous agents. Xi has similarly said AI should “always remain under human control”, while calling for stronger laws, technological monitoring and emergency-response systems. The difference increasingly lies in how those risks should be managed — and who gets to determine the rules. Amodei has proposed independent safety evaluations of frontier models and international coordination to prevent an uncontrolled race toward increasingly capable systems. But he has simultaneously argued that advanced American chips should remain unavailable to China, presenting Beijing with what Chinese officials regard as a contradiction: Washington wants international cooperation on AI safety while maintaining technological restrictions designed to prevent China from reaching the frontier. Chinese officials have instead promoted international governance alongside continued technological development, particularly through open-source systems and cooperation with countries in the Global South. Xi announced in July that China would provide developing countries with 5,000 places in AI training and seminar programmes over the next five years and establish AI application cooperation centres with ASEAN, the African Union, Arab states, Latin American countries, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS members. A RACE NEITHER SIDE WANTS TO LOSE The debate exposes a dilemma confronting both Washington and Beijing. American AI developers increasingly warn that the technology may be advancing faster than society’s ability to control it. But slowing American development while Chinese laboratories continue advancing could allow China to narrow or eliminate the U.S. technological lead. Amodei described that possibility as the “toughest dilemma” facing his proposal. U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected calls for a significant slowdown, citing precisely that competition. “We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins,” Trump said on Sunday. The result is an emerging technological version of a classic security dilemma: both sides recognise that increasingly powerful systems could create profound risks, while neither is willing to allow the other to gain a decisive advantage by moving more quickly. The tension is already spreading beyond models themselves. Washington has restricted China’s access to advanced AI chips and semiconductor equipment, while American authorities and companies have accused Chinese developers of using distillation to reproduce capabilities developed by U.S. laboratories. Anthropic said last week it had identified large-scale campaigns involving Chinese companies seeking to extract capabilities from its models. Chinese companies have previously rejected accusations of improper model copying. The dispute is likely to become increasingly important in relations between the world’s two largest economies. U.S. and Chinese officials are expected to discuss frontier AI safety this month, and the subject could be raised when Trump and Xi meet on Sept. 24. For Beijing, however, cooperation is unlikely to mean accepting restrictions that leave the technological frontier controlled by American companies. China’s emerging position combines aggressive investment in domestic AI capabilities with regulation aimed at keeping advanced systems under human control — while rejecting Western proposals that Beijing believes would institutionalise an American technological advantage. That leaves Washington and Beijing confronting the same underlying problem from opposite sides: both increasingly acknowledge that advanced AI may carry serious risks, but neither appears willing to slow sufficiently if doing so means allowing the other to pull ahead.

Thailand: A United Nations of Grey by @voranai From Chiang Mai to Bangkok’s Huai Khwang district, eastward to Pattaya (the Sodom and Gomorrah by the sea), and south to Phuket, Phang-nga and Samui: Is Thailand becoming, or has it already become, a hub for international criminals and a treasure chest for grey capital? The color grey has become shorthand for criminality and corruption. And the grey comes in every nationality: Chinese, Israeli, British, French, American, German, Indian and many others. Hence, a United Nations of Greyness. But there is an inconvenient truth. Foreign grey cannot thrive in Thailand without local grey to accommodate it, facilitate it and profit from it. Somebody locally has to provide the companies, nominees, licenses, documents, property, bank accounts, political connections and protection — for a taste in return, of course. Foreign grey exploits the system. Local grey enables the system. Welcome to the Land of Smiles. Except the average Thai isn’t smiling anymore. Online gambling. Scam networks. Money laundering. Nominee businesses. Illegal drugs. Illegal casinos. Criminal proceeds transformed into hotels, restaurants, property and other seemingly legitimate investments. Fasttrack citizenships for the right money and the right connection. Public anger is growing. Social pressure is mounting. And the government is finally acting. In early August 2026, authorities launched “Operation Huai Khwang Integration”, a crackdown on suspected money-laundering networks, nominee structures and illegal businesses in the Bangkok district. Meanwhile in Phuket, authorities target what has been described as “grey Israeli capital” amid allegations of intimidation, tensions with local residents and foreign influence over tourism businesses through nominee arrangements. Ask an ordinary Thai what they think of these crackdowns, and one popular answer may be: “Yeah, sure. It’s all for show (la-korn, TV drama).” Why such cynicism? Meet Tuhao Few names fan the hopes and dreams of “grey aspiration” more than Chaiyanat “Tuhao” Kornchayanan, a Chinese-born businessman who acquired Thai citizenship and built an extensive network of businesses and relationships in Thailand. His name became synonymous with Thailand’s so-called Chinese grey capital after the 2022 police raid on the Jinling nightclub in Bangkok. Investigators uncovered drugs and cash and subsequently pursued allegations involving drug trafficking, money laundering, nominee companies, and the movement of criminal proceeds into legitimate businesses and property. Then came an alleged leaked audio recording attributed to Tuhao: “I’ve got a lot of money, understand? If this doesn’t end, I’ll really shoot you. I have a gun. Just look at Phuket — could they arrest me? If you have money, you can do anything. Thai people have died too. You can even go to prison. Believe me?” Those words suggest confidence not just in one’s wealth, but in a system washed in grey — a system that can be bought and sold. Tuhao’s subsequent legal battles only reinforced public skepticism. Citing insufficient evidence, the court dismissed serious allegations including transnational organized crime, conspiracy, money laundering and drug-related offences. He still faces lesser charges, such as illegal gambling. Incidentally, his former Thai wife was a police major, while her family includes senior police generals. Which, of course, has nothing to do with the case. No, really. From Chinese grey capital to Israeli grey capital, from European and American operators to Indian and other foreign networks, it would take the naïveté of a fairy-tale princess dancing with unicorns in a lavender field to believe that foreign criminal capital can exist without local assistance. It takes two to tango, or in this case, do the Dirty Dancing, not starring Patrick Swayze.  Foreign grey is the symptom. Local grey is the disease.