WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang is issuing a stark warning regarding the escalating crisis of China AI theft and the broader, systemic threat of U.S. intellectual property espionage. As Beijing accelerates its technological mimicry and military expansion, Chang emphasizes that the United States is engaged in a definitive struggle that demands immediate, costly countermeasures to protect national security and economic stability.
The urgency of this warning follows recent White House accusations that the Chinese artificial intelligence startup Moonshot replicated Anthropic’s premier AI model. Chang validated these allegations, explaining that the firm employed a technique known as “distilling,” a process where a smaller, less capable AI is trained to mimic the outputs of a superior model. He contextualized this as a recurring tactic, pointing to similar actions taken by DeepSeek against OpenAI’s ChatGPT in January of last year.
To combat this technological plunder, Chang argued that the U.S. must actively leverage China’s trade dependencies. Referencing earlier warnings and AI diffusion rules established during the Trump administration, he advocated for imposing strict economic costs on Beijing until the intellectual property theft ceases entirely. Currently, Chang estimates this ongoing espionage drains between $500 billion and $1 trillion annually from the U.S. economy, a staggering financial wound ultimately absorbed by American households.
Beyond cyber and economic threats, Chang highlighted alarming developments in China’s naval capabilities. Beijing is constructing an 885-foot-long vessel, currently the world’s largest replenishment ship, specifically designed to refuel and rearm aircraft carriers at sea. Chang characterized this asset’s strategic purpose bluntly: to facilitate war and enable future attacks against the United States.
This expanded naval capacity fuels aggressive territorial maneuvers across the Indo-Pacific. Chang pointed to heightened hostilities directed at the Philippines, Japan, and Vietnam in the South China Sea. Furthermore, he noted that just last month, Chinese forces attempted to annex international waters east of Taiwan. This eastward push directly threatens U.S. territories, with Chang warning of active Chinese efforts to foment separatist movements in Hawaii and encroach upon strategic hubs like Guam.
The threat also permeates U.S. borders. Chang described how China exploits America’s open society, occasionally manipulating unwitting citizens to advance their espionage goals. He cited bizarre yet deliberate campaigns, such as mailing seed packets—sometimes accompanied by jewelry—to residents across all 50 states in an apparent bid to introduce invasive ecological species nationwide.
Framing the overarching conflict, Chang asserted that Beijing has officially declared a “People’s War” against America. He cited a May 2021 declaration in a top-tier Chinese publication, which was reinforced in March 2023 by the use of historical Communist Party rhetoric dating back to the Maoist era.
Drawing a sobering parallel to past intelligence oversights regarding Osama bin Laden, Chang stressed that China possesses vastly superior capabilities and must not be underestimated. While confronting this multifaceted aggression will not be without casualties or economic friction, he insisted that the U.S. must act decisively now. Delaying action, he warned, will only make the eventual confrontation far more devastating.
