The US-China AI Race: Competing Models, Global Stakes

In a new episode of China Considered, Elizabeth Economy sits down with Martin Chorzempa, the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, to ask whether the United States and China are in an AI race—and, if so, what the prize is. Drawing on his work on Chinese fintech, Chorzempa explains how lessons from that sector’s boom and crackdown have shaped Beijing’s approach to AI, from registration and censorship requirements to quiet, behind-the-scenes supervision of its labs. The two examine why China may not be as far ahead in AI adoption as many assume and compare US labs’ proprietary models with China’s open-weight approach. Chorzempa outlines three races—for frontier capabilities, domestic diffusion, and international diffusion—and weighs the trade-offs of chip export controls before turning to what the new US-China AI dialogue could achieve. They close with Chorzempa’s recommendation of Ray Huang’s 1587, A Year of No Significance and his advice for the White House on AI strategy.

Recorded on October 5, 2026.

RELATED SOURCES

• Martin Chorzempa, paper on AI and China for the Hoover Global Commons Project. Coming soon.
• Martin Chorzempa’s PIIE profile and research
• Martin Chorzempa, The Cashless Revolution: China’s Reinvention of Money and the End of America’s Domination of Finance and Technology (PublicAffairs, 2022). 
• Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan (The White House, July 2025). Cited by Martin on U.S. support for AI diffusion and adoption, not just frontier capabilities.
• Jeffrey Ding, “Shallow, Narrow, and Slow — the reality of China’s DeepSeek adoption” (ChinAI newsletter, #321). Jeff Ding’s analysis of China’s post-DeepSeek AI adoption, referenced by Martin.
• Martin’s book recommendation: Ray Huang, 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline (Yale University Press, 1981). Publisher link.
• Related episode: China’s AI Breakthrough: DeepSeek vs. American Dominance with Amy Zegart (China Considered, July 10, 2025).