Washington, Jan 20 (IANS) US lawmakers and former national security officials have warned that the accelerating artificial intelligence competition between the United States and China has become a central national security challenge, with advanced AI chips now underpinning modern warfare, intelligence and economic power.
Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, witnesses said last week that the outcome of the AI race will shape military dominance in the coming decade and determine whether the United States retains its technological edge over China.
Committee chairman Congressman Brian Mast described the stakes in blunt terms. “Winning the AI arms race is key to America’s national security and our economic security,” he said. “The outcome of this race directly affects military competitiveness of the United States versus China.”
Mast said artificial intelligence already powers military command and control, surveillance, cyber operations, and nuclear modernization. “AI dominance can decide who sees first, who decides first, and who strikes first,” he said.
Former US national security adviser Matt Pottinger warned against allowing China access to advanced American AI chips, saying such a move would accelerate Beijing’s military modernization. “Selling Nvidia’s H200 chips to China will supercharge Beijing’s military modernization,” he said, citing applications ranging from cyber warfare and autonomous drones to intelligence operations.
Pottinger said China’s national strategy of “military-civil fusion” makes it impossible to separate civilian and military uses of advanced technology. “There’s no such thing as civilian use in one compartment and military use in another,” he said.
Former Biden administration official Jon Finer said AI has become the most consequential arena in US-China competition and warned against complacency. “The most hotly contested area determining who eventually prevails will be this intense technology competition,” he said.
Finer said China increasingly views artificial intelligence as “the critical technology that will enable their economic and military ambition,” adding that export controls on advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing tools have been central to slowing Beijing’s progress.
Witnesses said China’s inability to manufacture advanced semiconductors at scale remains its primary bottleneck, despite massive state subsidies. Pottinger cited public statements by Chinese leaders acknowledging gaps in core AI technologies and the need to “face up to the gap.”
China, he said, is attempting to close that gap by purchasing advanced foreign chips. “China is doing everything that they can to catch up and dominate us,” Pottinger said.
Lawmakers also raised concerns that private Chinese technology companies purchasing US chips often work closely with the state. Pottinger cited firms such as DeepSeek, Alibaba and Tencent as examples of companies tied to China’s broader military objectives.
The hearing reflected bipartisan agreement that AI policy is no longer a theoretical issue limited to commercial innovation. “These chips affect real wars, real weapons and real casualties,” Mast said, calling for congressional oversight comparable to that applied to arms exports.
–IANS
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