According to information on the Ministry of Commerce website on the 20th, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce answered reporters' questions regarding the federal procurement exclusion and removal orders issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security against Chinese enterprises.
Question: On October 19th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a ban on the procurement by federal government civil administrative agencies of products and services developed by Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek and its affiliated companies. It also required the removal of these products and services from the information systems of relevant agencies. What is the comment from the Ministry of Commerce on this?
Answer: We have taken note of the relevant situation. The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes this.
The Chinese government adheres to the principle of balancing development and security. Upholding the concept of "people-oriented and intelligent towards goodness," it ensures the safety, controllability, and reliability of artificial intelligence. It promotes the development of artificial intelligence on a path of compliance, trustworthiness, and goodness. The government has introduced several laws and regulations, such as the Cybersecurity Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, to protect network security and data privacy in accordance with the law. Chinese artificial intelligence companies have always committed to providing safe and reliable services to global users, comply with the laws of their home countries, and are widely welcomed by global users.
The US, ignoring the important consensus reached between the Chinese and US leaders, and disregarding the overall situation of Sino-US economic and trade relations, has taken discriminatory restrictions against Chinese artificial intelligence companies on the grounds of so-called national security. This is a typical example of generalized use of the concept of national security and abuse of administrative measures to suppress Chinese enterprises. In essence, it politicizes and instrumentalizes technology and economic issues, using the pretext of national security to carry out suppression and containment efforts. This seriously damages the legal rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, undermines a fair market environment, and disrupts normal commercial cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence between China and the US.
The Chinese side urges the US to respect facts and market laws, immediately correct its wrongful practices, stop unjustly suppressing Chinese enterprises, and revoke any discriminatory restrictions. It seeks to create favorable conditions for normal exchanges and cooperation between enterprises of both countries. The Chinese side hopes that the US will earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state. By moving forward in coordination with the Chinese side, the US should make good use of the Sino-US artificial intelligence dialogue mechanism to enhance mutual trust and manage differences, thereby jointly promoting artificial intelligence to develop in a positive and virtuous direction. The Chinese side will closely monitor the developments and will take all necessary measures to protect its legitimate rights and interests in case of any substantial harm to China’s interests.
