China's shaping the future of open‑source technology including AI
As you read this article on your computer or smartphone, you are almost certainly usingopen-source technologyin some way. It formsthe foundationof the global digital economy, from operating systems and web. . .
As you read this article on your computer or smartphone, you are almost certainly usingopen-source technologyin some way. It formsthe foundationof the global digital economy, from operating systems and web servers to databases and encryption protocols. While the United States and Europe have led the development of open-source technology, China is championing its own alternatives. The Chinese government has made open-source development part of itsnational technology strategy. Chinese companies and institutions have been active in redefining how open-source technology is beingdeveloped,licensedanddeployed. China’s open-source strategy could influence products and services used by people around the world, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes an everyday technology. The success of China’s efforts may depend on building global trust, however. Chinese companies, backed by the government, have long been known to acquire advanced technology throughintellectual property theftand by applying pressure injoint venturesandlicensing agreements. Open-source technology is increasingly becoming an arena of strategic competition between countries. As aChina expert and open-source researcher, I believe the countries that lead the technical and legal standards governing open-source technology will gain a competitive edge for decades to come. China’s long road to open-sourceThe open-source movement has taken various forms, fromcollaborationsaimed at bypassing corporate monopolies to business strategies for developing products quickly. Open-source softwarehas allowed developers around the world to reuse and improve on shared code. Linux, the core software powering Android phones and most of the internet, is an open-source technology. RISC-V, an emerging alternative to Intel and Arm chip designs, and next-generationmobile network interfacesare also open-source. Early Chinese engagements with open-source aimed to develop technologies that were free from foreign control. A government-run software institute developedRed Flag Linuxas an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which the government saw as costly to maintain and vulnerable to foreign intelligence gathering. A Chinese military university later createdKylin, an operating system for thePeople’s Liberation Armyand other government organizations. In recent years, Chinese tech companies have embraced open-source technology as a way around sanctions and export controls. After the US governmentblacklisted the telecom giant Huaweifor its ties to the Chinese military, Google revoked the company’s access to licensed services and apps. But Huawei used Android’s open-source code to maintain its smartphone operating system. Eventually, Huawei developed an alternative called HarmonyOS NEXT and released its own open-source version asOpenHarmony. Today, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is stressing the importance ofscience and technology independence and self-strengthening, known askeji zili ziqiang. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other government bodies havesupported domestic platforms, such as the state-guidedOpenAtom Foundation, for open-source technology, andGitee, a Chinese alternative toGitHub, a popular repository for open-source software. Domestic open-source operating systems such asopenKylinandopenEulerplay a key role insecuring China’s information technology infrastructure. China is also positioning itself as an indispensable player in setting global standards for open-source hardware. For example, itswork on RISC-Vallows Chinese technology companies to reduce dependence on foreign intellectual property in semiconductors. Open hardware standards make Chinese companies less vulnerable toexport controlsandbans. China’s strategy of “overtaking on a turn,” or closely following and then passing the front-runner, appears to be paying off. Chinese telecommunications companies, already leaders in5G mobile network technology, are working with aninternational allianceto shape6G, the next-generation standard for mobile communications. The Open-RAN standard the alliance is developing has complex implications forcybersecurityandstrategic competition. Open-source AI: With Chinese characteristics?The contest over AI has moved beyond export controls ofAI chipstoward who leadsopen-source AI development. Xi is expected to discuss AI with U. S. President Donald Trump onhis visitto the US in September. Major Chinese AI models such as Qwen, DeepSeek, Kimi and GLM are generallyopen-weight, notopen-source, meaning that the model software and its final parameters are made available, but not the training data and methodology. AI companiesoften offer models in proprietary, open-weight and smaller open-sourceversions. The White HouseandSilicon Valleyremain split over the prospects of open-source AI. AnthropicandOpenAIhave accused Chinese open-weight model makers of large-scale, unauthorizeddistillation, a technique used to copy proprietary AI models. The Trump administration and US lawmakers haveproposed restricting access to Chinese open-weight models, and some federal agencies and state governments have already moved toprohibit employees and contractorsfrom using DeepSeek, for security reasons. Users of Chinese AI face risks that are not widely understood. Chinese open-weight models are designed to align withgovernment censorship and propaganda. While Chinese models are often distributed under standard licenses, such asMITandApache 2. 0, some impose additional compliance obligations. Moonshot’sKimi K3 model license, for example, requires licensees exceeding specific revenue or user thresholds to “prominently” display the Kimi model name. MiniMax M3’s community licenselists uses prohibited by “applicable laws or regulations,” raising questions over which jurisdictions apply. Bilingual licenses developed underChinese government guidancegive Chinese users more access and Chinese courts more control. These include theMulan Permissive Software License, version 2. 0and theOpenAtom Model License, version 1. 0. Both are written in English and Chinese, but the Chinese version prevails in cases ofconflicting interpretation, especially inChinese jurisdictions. Open-source technology has always been globalThe US regulates AI through a patchwork offederalandstatelaws. Internationally recognized frameworks may offer a better approach to governing open-source AI. Examples include the European Union’sArtificial Intelligence Actand multilateral initiatives such as UNESCO’sRecommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, theHiroshima AI Processand the International Standards Organization’sISO/IEC 42001. Open-source technology could also benefit from such governance. Christopher K. Tongis an associate professor,University of Maryland, Baltimore County. This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.