China slams US accusations of AI theft as ‘groundless’

By the Editorial Team · Friday, September 11, 2026

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency accused several Chinese AI firms of illegally copying American AI technology through extensive data-driven methods, a claim China has firmly denied. These allegations highlight escalating tensions in AI development ahead of a high-stakes U.S.-China summit, with both countries accusing each other of intellectual property violations.

China rejected allegations from the United States that Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) laboratories have stolen the capabilities of American AI models, calling the accusations “groundless” amid intensifying competition in the technology sector.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a security advisory on September 8 accusing leading Chinese AI firms, including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, of systematically appropriating American AI technology through “industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns.” Knowledge distillation is a technique where a smaller AI model is trained to replicate the behavior of a larger, more advanced model. While this method is common in the AI industry, the U.S. agency claimed that Chinese companies have used it extensively to illicitly copy capabilities from U.S.-developed models.

According to the advisory, companies such as DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI allegedly used millions of data exchanges and requests to steal advancements from prominent American AI providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and X.AI. The advisory also suggested that these activities have likely taken place with awareness from the Chinese government since at least late 2024. It further noted that employing this approach has allowed the implicated Chinese firms to accelerate AI development timelines and reduce training costs for cutting-edge models.

China strongly denied the allegations on September 9. The Ministry of Commerce described the U.S. claims as “a typical case of using the crackdown on distillation as a pretext to achieve industrial monopoly,” and accused the United States of applying double standards. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning called on Washington to “refrain from making unfounded accusations against and smearing China.” She emphasized that China’s AI development reflects high-level scientific self-reliance and strength, and urged both countries to enhance cooperation in the AI field.

The accusations come ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House in September, where technology competition, including AI, is expected to be a key topic. The U.S. faces growing pressure to respond to the rising success of Chinese AI models, which some companies prefer over more expensive American alternatives from providers like Anthropic and OpenAI.

In a related development earlier this year, dozens of start-ups cautioned the Trump administration against imposing outright bans or stringent restrictions on foreign-made AI models, suggesting such measures be confined to government use only. Meanwhile, Beijing has accused U.S. AI developers of incorporating Chinese data into their training processes, indicating mutual concerns over intellectual property and data use.

Attempts to contact the Chinese companies named in the advisory met with limited responses. Moonshot AI declined to comment, and StepFun was unavailable for comment at the time of reporting.

This article was reported by synthesizing coverage from multiple independent news outlets to present a balanced, unbiased account. Read about our editorial standards. Spotted an error? Let us know.