China Isn't Buying Silicon Valley's AI Slowdown Call, Sees It as a Bad Deal

AlexTensor · x · 2026-09-16

Silicon Valley leaders have pivoted to urging US-China cooperation to slow the AI race, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's post "We Must Pace the Frontier" arguing global pacing requires China's involvement while democracies keep as large a lead as possible.

China's government and AI companies are deeply skeptical—not because they deny AI risks (China's AI safety community shares similar concerns), but because they see a bad deal: an Anthropic-led vision that would restrict and subjugate China first to maximize leverage, whereas China will only negotiate from equal footing.

Kevin Xu, founder of Interconnected Capital and former White House staffer, says the gulf lies between these two positions, not in risk perception.

Related event: China rejects Silicon Valley's call to slow down AI, WIRED reports(2 posts)→

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