China's Pragmatic AI Optimism: From Defeat to Technological Hegemony

Just 19 miles from where the burning of opium that sparked the Opium Wars in 1839 took place, in the southern Chinese town of Humen, lies Huawei's magnificent Songshan Lake campus. Built as a charming replica of European towns, this campus is filled with over a hundred cafes, directly reflecting the company's global ambitions. Upon examining the technologies displayed in the company's palace-like buildings, it is clear that Huawei is at the very heart of China's artificial intelligence boom. Thanks to its Ascend chips and the HarmonyOS ecosystem powering millions of devices and automobiles, the company is almost single-handedly fueling this massive technological transformation. All this infrastructure, combined with the strength of Huawei's telecommunications equipment, forms the backbone of the country's digital and technological development.

Unlike all other Chinese companies, Huawei has become the most striking symbol of the country's resistance against Western efforts to halt and weaken China's technological rise. In 2019, the first Trump administration added Huawei to a trade blacklist, banning American companies from selling parts to the giant telecommunications company. The US not only excluded Huawei from its own market but also conducted intensive diplomatic lobbying to persuade other countries to act similarly. Although such severe restrictions were perceived at the time as virtually a death sentence for China's technological development, contrary to expectations, they could not stop its artificial intelligence efforts. Instead, a different artificial intelligence future—much more controlled, optimistic, and highly pragmatic than the US approach—has blossomed on Chinese soil.

In the background of China's new artificial intelligence vision, the deep shadow of the historical 'Century of Humiliation' is always felt. Statements made last year by US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, advocating that Chinese developers be made dependent on the American technology stack, have brought the echoes of the historical Opium Wars to the present day. Because of this historical trauma, when companies like Huawei and DeepSeek achieve global success, their founders are seen by the Chinese people as heroes defending the nation's pride and national destiny. When evaluating artificial intelligence, the ordinary Chinese people focus on the vital importance of mastering technology, rather than the excessive concentration of power and resources, as Westerners often do. For China, there is a very clear lesson: You will either become a force that conquers technology, or you will be conquered by the technology of others and disappear into history.

Artificial intelligence is actually just the latest link in an uninterrupted march of disruptive technologies; some older Chinese have experienced an incredible transformation within a single lifetime, from an era of melting steel in backyard furnaces and surviving on food coupons, to Douyin livestreams and using Alipay. For this generation, artificial intelligence feels as inevitable, ordinary, and everyday a technology as an internet browser or smartphones. Today, China has adopted a deeply future-oriented vision due to economic and demographic necessities and can no longer afford the cost of not building its own future. The Chinese economy is slowing noticeably due to reasons such as the collapse in housing prices hitting household wealth, adverse winds in global trade, and an aging population. The Beijing administration deeply hopes that new high-tech industries like artificial intelligence and robotics will fill the massive void left by the real estate sector and put the country on a more modest but much more sustainable growth path.

According to a recent study by Stanford University, 84% of participants in China stated they are excited about artificial intelligence, while this rate remains at only 38% in the US. Today, more than 600 million Chinese actively use artificial intelligence tools, and this figure represents a staggering increase of approximately 142% compared to a year ago. Among ordinary citizens, there is a widespread fear that if they do not learn the new technology fast enough, they will become obsolete in the business world or society. A rhetoric taught even to Chinese students, arguing that falling behind will lead to being beaten by others, perfectly summarizes the society's deep technological anxiety. Despite all these concerns, and a fatalism and forced acceptance prevalent especially among the youth, it is extremely difficult to find individuals who openly hate artificial intelligence; because China is a country of reluctant but highly pragmatic techno-optimists.