China x AI Reference List: August 2025 Update

By Sarah Weiler, Gabriel Wagner, Saad Siddiqui, Sarah Godek @ 2025-09-09T07:31 (+27)

This is a linkpost to https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OJcHhhBfNwEbeUaT-d4RIq58I1oJ3XGxu2yCzsnieuo/edit?usp=sharing

We're excited to announce that we have updated the China x AI Reference list, which we had first published in Feb 2024. We had originally intended to produce updates every ~year, and this is the first such update. 

The full text of the updated version follows below, and can also be found in the original GoogleDoc.

Introduction

Background

Structure

Ways to get involved

Caveats around sources and structures

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Oliver Guest, Jason Zhou, and Jeffrey Ding for their feedback on earlier drafts of this list. We would also like to acknowledge Aris Richardson and Zach Stein-Perlman, whose reading lists we took inspiration from.

Compiled by (in alphabetical order): Gabriel Wagner, Saad Siddiqui, Sarah Godek, and Sarah Weiler

Domestic Governance

Chinese policymaking overview

Science and technology policy

Domestic AI policy

Broad approaches

Regulations

Standards

Model evaluations / benchmarks

AI ethics

AI safety funding

We do not know of any systematic analysis of AI safety funding in the PRC. Below are a few government-funded projects we happen to be aware of. They can, at best, serve illustrative purposes.

International Governance

Overview

Sino-western AI competition

Race dynamics

Several influential pieces take the AI arms race as a premise and further perpetuate the narrative. These pieces are not about the ‘race’ itself, but have shaped discussions.

‘Gap’ between Chinese and Western AI models

Sino-western AI cooperation

Cooperation can take many forms - including a range of different diplomatic dialogues (official, semi-official etc) to investment and scientific collaboration. It is worth noting that commercial and research collaboration has continued in many forms, but that both forms of exchange and collaboration are coming under increasing scrutiny from different parts of the American government.

Diplomacy / Dialogue

Business / commercial

Scientific  collaboration

Chinese engagement at multilateral fora

China’s own international AI governance initiatives

Key Actors and Their Views on AI Risks

Caveat: Besides the scan that Concordia and CSET have done, there are not yet many comprehensive overviews of key actors. Moreover, the CSET report has some errors that we flag below, which leads us to be less confident in the report’s overall accuracy. Where we are aware of other potentially relevant individuals, we have also included their names, even if we have no clear resources to link to.

Overview

Knowledge of and support for AGI

AI scientists / key academics

Industry

Military

Public opinion

AI Inputs

Here we try to provide more varied sources linked to the different inputs of AI models. Some sources will be repeated. For three of the sections (Algorithms, Capital and Talent), we only did a cursory survey of the literature; the pieces in these sections are thus just a snapshot and it is quite likely that relevant publications have been overlooked.

Overview: China’s AI ecosystem

Algorithms

For lack of time, we only did a cursory survey of the literature. The pieces in the section are thus just a snapshot and it is quite likely that relevant publications have been overlooked.

Compute

Semiconductors

Overview

Chinese semiconductor policy

Note that the overviews listed above also contain some commentary on Chinese policies.

International dynamics (esp. US-China relations)

Data centers

Data

Capital

For lack of time, we only did a cursory survey of the literature on the capital resources that go into AI developments in China. The pieces in the section are thus just a snapshot and it is quite likely that relevant publications have been overlooked.

Talent

For lack of time, we only did a cursory survey of the literature on AI talent in China. The pieces in the section are thus just a snapshot and it is quite likely that relevant publications have been overlooked.

Key resources

Appendix: US Export controls of 2022 and 2023: policy measures, effects, and China’s response

The articles linked here track the changing views on how well export controls have been able to actually impact Chinese chipmaking capacity. It is important to note that experts seem to disagree about how much of a lag one should expect to see between the introduction of these export controls and their actual impact on Chinese chipmaking, given that Chinese companies have some reserves of now-restricted chips, amongst other reasons.

Policy overview

Impact and China’s efforts to deal with the export controls

 

 

Erich_Grunewald 🔸 @ 2025-09-10T01:48 (+3)

Nice work!

On AI chip smuggling, rather than the report you listed, which is rather outdated now, I recommend reading Countering AI Chip Smuggling Has Become a National Security Priority, which is essentially a Pareto improvement over the older one.

I also think Chris Miller's How US Export Controls Have (and Haven't) Curbed Chinese AI provides a good overview of the AI chip export controls, and it is still quite up-to-date.