Gordon Chang Warns of Existential Struggle as China AI Theft and Military Buildup Threaten U.S. Security

WASHINGTON — In a stark warning regarding national security, Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang highlighted the escalating existential struggle between the United States and Beijing, pointing to recent allegations of China AI theft targeting American tech firms alongside a rapid Chinese military buildup in the Pacific.

According to Chang, the White House recently accused the Chinese AI startup Moonshot of copying Anthropic’s most advanced AI model. Chang affirmed the validity of these claims, explaining that the company utilized a technique known as “distilling,” where a smaller AI model is trained to mimic a more capable one. He noted this is part of a broader, ongoing pattern, referencing previous incidents where entities like DeepSeek distilled OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

To combat this intellectual property (IP) theft, Chang advocated for imposing direct economic consequences. He pointed to warnings issued consistently, including during the Trump administration’s AI diffusion rules, emphasizing that the U.S. must leverage China’s trade dependence. “When they stop stealing, we will hit them on trade,” Chang stated, asserting that the U.S. must continue to impose these costs until the espionage halts. He estimated that the nation is currently losing between $500 billion and $1 trillion annually in U.S. intellectual property, a massive economic burden ultimately absorbed by American families.

Beyond cyber and economic threats, Chang drew attention to China’s massive new military ship. At 885 feet long, it is the largest replenishment ship in the world, specifically designed to rearm and refuel aircraft carriers at sea. When questioned about its strategic purpose, Chang bluntly stated it is built to “go to war” and attack the United States.

This naval expansion supports increasingly belligerent Chinese activity across the Indo-Pacific region, particularly against the Philippines, Japan, and Vietnam in the South China Sea. Chang also noted that Beijing recently attempted to annex a portion of international waters east of Taiwan, signaling an eastward territorial expansion that directly threatens U.S. territories like Guam and Hawaii. He further warned that Chinese operatives are actively attempting to stir up separatist activities within Hawaii itself.

Highlighting the pervasive nature of Chinese espionage, Chang described the United States as an open society that remains highly vulnerable to smuggling and manipulation by foreign actors. He cited unconventional but deliberate tactics, such as unsolicited seed packets mailed to individuals across all 50 states—sometimes disguised with jewelry—as an apparent attempt to plant invasive species throughout the country.

Framing the broader conflict, Chang asserted that the U.S. is already engaged in a “People’s War” initiated by Beijing. He referenced authoritative Chinese publications from May 2021 and Communist Party rhetoric from March 2023 that explicitly declared this hostile stance, utilizing phrases dating back to Maoist times.

Drawing a parallel to historical intelligence failures, Chang urged that the U.S. must recognize the severity of the threat immediately. While acknowledging that confronting this aggression is not “cost-free” and that the U.S. will take casualties in this fight, he emphasized that failing to stop China’s grievous intellectual property wounds and aggressive expansion now will require much greater sacrifices later. “We can stop them now,” Chang warned. “Later on, it is going to take a lot more.”