In early March, the Chinese Communist Party released its “14th Five-Year Plan” (2026-2030), with the digital industry ranking behind the economy and technology, being elevated as a special area to high priority status, with a focus on artificial intelligence.
The plan includes comprehensive implementation of the “AI+” action, seizing the high ground of AI industry applications, empowering various industries comprehensively; building a global digital partnership network, constructing offshore computing power facilities, infrastructure for cross-border data flow services; actively participating in international governance in the field of artificial intelligence; supporting developing countries in strengthening their AI capabilities, among others.
This official discourse essentially sets out the CCP’s AI agenda, which is a continuation of the State Council’s 2017 “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan.” The plan aims for China to become the global leader in AI by 2030. While actively expanding the application of Chinese AI technology, it aims to enhance the CCP’s international influence in AI governance.
Wang Xiuwen, Assistant Researcher at the Chinese Academy of National Defense and Security Concepts, expressed to Dajiyuan that the “14th Five-Year Plan” is China’s national development strategy for the next five years, with the “AI+” action being a key core focus, preparing to expand AI applications from single points to various industries to achieve scalability. China is already gearing up for digital transformation in economics, military, healthcare, finance, among other sectors, ultimately aiming to establish a digital state and a digital authoritarian regime. Put simply, while the U.S. is currently promoting global AI infrastructure construction, China is vying for influence spheres.
In the eyes of the CCP, the wave of digitalization is not a gateway to openness and freedom for China but rather a tool for surveillance and societal control.
Early in the development of the internet, the CCP focused on blocking online content, investing heavily in the “Golden Shield” project, claiming so-called network sovereignty to isolate the Chinese internet from the global internet, creating an “info-island” where it dictated the narrative.
Simultaneously, the CCP has banned the likes of Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook from entering the Chinese market, developing alternatives such as Baidu, Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu.
According to Chinese law, these platforms must cooperate with the CCP in matters of national security and intelligence, assist in surveillance, and provide backdoors for accessing encrypted data, which is systematically transferred to government agencies.
Since taking office, Xi Jinping has intensified these controls. In a meeting in August 2013, Xi stated that the internet is the “greatest variable” facing the CCP, serving as the primary battleground of public opinion struggle, directly related to the ideological security and political power of the CCP.
In 2017, Xi stressed, “Without cybersecurity, there is no national security,” adding that “If we fail the internet, we will fail with long-term governance.”
This peculiar logic exposes the CCP regime’s insecurity about its legitimacy. The internet enhances transparency of information, reflecting genuine voices and perspectives in society, with online discussions worldwide focusing on freedom of expression in political, economic, and other public domains. If a step like internet control is crucial, it only underscores how precarious the CCP’s foundation is, built upon deception.
The CCP has long operated the world’s largest and pervasive surveillance network, known as the “Sky Net Project” and “Sharp Eyes Project,” collecting Chinese citizens’ communication, travel, and health data.
Since AI breakthroughs in areas like speech recognition, image recognition, and natural language processing since 2012, AI has become a force multiplier in surveillance, with the CCP prioritizing AI tools like facial recognition, speech recognition, and gait recognition, integrating situational and comprehensive analysis through algorithms to predict behavior. Today, China’s industrial application of AI for surveillance far surpasses other AI applications.
With the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) in recent years, the CCP has once again “politicized” AI.
In 2023, the CCP released the “Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services,” stating that generative AI must “uphold socialist core values,” with “national security” being the primary target in threat prevention measures.
These measures explicitly set content restrictions, requiring all generative AI originating from China (LLMs) to be government-approved before publication.
The measures also outline procedural requirements: LLM companies must (1) conduct security assessments before service public release; (2) register algorithms; (3) ensure the legality of training data; (4) prevent illegal content through model screening and retraining. Article 17 of the measures mandates that generative AI service providers with “opinion attributes or social mobilization capabilities” must complete a security assessment and submit algorithm records to the National Cyberspace Administration before releasing services to the public.
Since the DeepSeek incident last year, experts and journalists worldwide have quickly realized that the DeepSeek-R1 model refuses to answer a range of politically sensitive questions, incorporating information control mechanisms, not only about concealing information but also selecting information.
Recent research by scholars from Stanford University and Princeton University on the impact of CCP government regulation on LLM information manipulation further highlights that “China’s (CCP) AI regulation is an extension of its censorship system.”
Shen Mingshi, a researcher at the Taiwan Institute for National Defense and Security, told Dajiyuan that there are no completely independent private enterprises in China; the CCP uses regulatory power to control these tech companies, incorporating national security or intelligence needs into them. Thus, what were meant to be private AI data centers have become excellent databases for the CCP in gathering intelligence.
Wang Xiuwen stated that for communist regimes that strictly enforce social control, the politicization of AI models is an inevitable phenomenon. Because AI models infer based on training data, they may provide answers that go against the dogma of Communist regimes, so the CCP should exercise strict control from the data (information) input stage. The primary motive is the fear that AI model responses could destabilize the CCP regime.
A significant goal of the CCP’s “14th Five-Year Plan” is to pursue global leadership in artificial intelligence and cyber security.
In 2017, the CCP leader stated, “The current cyberspace has become a new arena of global governance, which must comprehensively strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in cyberspace to promote China’s governance proposal to become an international consensus.”
This situation reached a peak in 2019 when the CCP mobilized all its diplomatic personnel to launch a comprehensive information warfare campaign overseas.
In his 2025 speech, Xi Jinping advocated for promoting cooperation and governance with large Southern countries globally, injecting lasting and profound power into the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity.
The specific approach taken by the CCP is leading the world in digital infrastructure construction, with tech giants like Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei expanding into global markets, bolstering developing countries’ dependency on China. Based on this, the CCP is establishing a new set of rules for a global digital authoritarian future that aligns with its vision, constructing a global digital order centered around the CCP rather than the United States.
These practices threaten freedom of speech and information integrity worldwide, with Chinese AI models avoiding negative facts about China’s human rights records, expanding control from sensitive domestic politics to shaping its preferred global narratives.
Wang Xiuwen expressed that the CCP’s fundamental position aims to surpass the US in AI applications and become a global leader, but all processes must remain under CCP control. Thus, through politicizing AI models, they provide people with information that aligns with CCP’s interests domestically and become a cognitive weapon for the CCP globally, especially in Southern and Belt and Road countries. This development should be an anticipated direction.
She explained that European and American democracies have long been wary of the expansion of the CCP’s digital authoritarianism, leaving the CCP to target developing or yet-to-develop “Southern countries” instead. On one hand, these countries lack experience in democracy and are willing to cooperate with the CCP to sustain their regimes; if Southern countries support the CCP, it will grant the CCP significant influence in various areas, such as setting AI standards and regulations, AI governance, especially pushing the CCP’s narrative of a “community of shared future for humankind.”
Shen Mingshi mentioned that the CCP seeks to seize the digital markets of Southern countries, creating dependence on the CCP. Additionally, through AI, they can simultaneously transmit specific ideologies and values, essentially providing a free channel for the CCP’s propaganda in the online world.
However, the global ambitions of CCP AI are being met with increasing vigilance and resistance worldwide.
As of January 2026, the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek reached its one-year anniversary, facing increasing scrutiny globally. Over ten countries have taken substantive restrictive actions against DeepSeek, lengthening the global watch list.
In 2025, DeepSeek faced the world’s first lawsuit in India, emphasizing in the complaint that DeepSeek’s operation posed an “immediate and urgent threat” to India’s “sovereignty, data security, and public order.”