AI a Direct Threat to Ruling Communist Party: Warning From China’s Top Intelligence Agency
Artificial intelligence (AI) has created a new concern in international politics and the technology sector. China’s top intelligence chief has warned that the uncontrolled development of AI could become a direct threat to the rule and power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Chen Yixin, head of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), strongly called for strict state control over AI to protect national security and political stability in an article published in China Cyberspace, a government mouthpiece magazine.
The report said that while Western countries, particularly the United States, are discussing the risks of AI causing the extinction of humanity or allowing technology to go beyond human control, China is viewing the issue mainly from the perspective of political security and the struggle for power.
International Espionage and Information Technology Risks
Chen Yixin directly mentioned US technology companies and their advanced models, including Cloud Mythos and GPT-5.5-Cyber. He said foreign powers could use such technologies to carry out large-scale espionage in China. At the same time, concerns have grown over possible cyberattacks on China’s critical national infrastructure. The concerns have intensified after a group of US researchers recently unveiled a hacking tool capable of taking control of millions of accounts on WeChat, one of China’s most widely used messaging apps.
Fear of Propaganda War and Damage to Government Image
Kyle Chan, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, said China’s main concern is deepfake technology. If a foreign or opposition group creates fake audio or videos of President Xi Jinping or other senior leaders and spreads them on social media, it could create extreme political chaos in the country within a short time.
Military Competition and Cyberwarfare
China has made it clear that AI has now changed the nature of warfare. The recent use of AI-based precision weapons and tracking systems by the United States in the Middle East and during the Israel-Iran conflict has raised concerns in China. China believes that the side that gains an advantage in using AI algorithms on the battlefield will essentially gain control of the battlefield.
US-China Tensions and Upcoming Summit
A possible meeting between US President Mr. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to take place in Washington on September 24. China’s tough stance on AI security just before the meeting has made the path for international discussions somewhat more difficult.
Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University, said, “China is giving greater priority to its own data sovereignty and political security than to international security agreements.”
Meanwhile, Dario Amodei, CEO of US technology company Anthropic, has called for maintaining restrictions on the sale of advanced AI chips to China. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun described such allegations as “groundless and politically motivated” and warned that attempts to stop China’s development of artificial intelligence would not succeed.
Overall, the warning from China’s intelligence chief is strong evidence that artificial intelligence is no longer merely a tool for business or research. It has become one of the key instruments of global politics and national security.
