Skip to the story
All StoriesPoliticsConflict & SecurityBusiness & EconomyScience & TechHealthClimateMedia
All stories
Science & Tech219 outlets ran this4 min read

China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic'

State media criticises US tech executive's proposal to curb AI development.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic'

What this story says

  • Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on Saturday calling for a slowdown in AI development and urging the US not to sell powerful AI chips to China.
  • China's state-run Global Times described Amodei's essay as a 'Cold War playbook' aimed at curbing China's AI progress.
  • The essay was endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
  • The US and China are scheduled to discuss frontier AI safety at a summit on September 24.

Who covered it

Left 27%(32)Centre 36%(42)Right 37%(43)

Percentages are shares of the 117 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 102 of the 219 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

72/100

Craft

87/100

Hype

30/100

219 sources · methodology

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on Saturday advocating for a pause in the development of advanced artificial intelligence. He also called on the United States to restrict the sale of powerful AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, and to prevent smuggling and remote access to data centres outside the country. The essay was later endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

In response, China's state-run Global Times published an editorial characterising Amodei's essay as a 'Cold War playbook' designed to impede China's advancement in AI. The newspaper cited Chinese researchers who argued that Amodei's proposal sought both cooperation and containment, and that it was inappropriate, groundless, and hostile. A separate commentary in the Global Times referred to the plan as a 'quiet AI Cold War'.

Disagreement on the essay's intent

The Global Times, as reported by The Next Web, stated that Amodei's essay proposed three steps: third-party evaluators with employee-like access, common safety standards among frontier labs in democracies, and an eventual attempt to coordinate pacing with authoritarian governments. The newspaper noted that the export control request was the part Beijing focused on. Asia One reported that the Global Times stated the true agenda of Amodei's essay was 'to attempt to curb China's AI development through technological barriers and regulatory monopolies, uphold Washington's monopolistic hegemony in cutting-edge technology, and exclude China from the global AI governance system'.

What the coverage left out

None of the left, centre, or right-rated reports printed below mention the specific date of September 24 for the US-China AI safety summit. The left-rated report from TNW mentioned that the two governments had been circling this issue for weeks and that the US and China were slated to discuss frontier AI safety at a summit, but did not provide the date. The centre-rated reports from Asia One and Reuters mentioned that the US and China are planning to discuss frontier AI safety risks in mid-September, with Asia One adding it could be raised during a summit on September 24. The right-rated reports did not mention the summit date.

Tags:#AISafety#ChinaTech#USChinaRelations#ArtificialIntelligence#TechPolicy

Coverage settled. We checked this 9 times and stopped on 19 Sept 2026, 16:15. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic'
Asia OneCentre
Anthropic CEO’s AI slowdown pitch draws China’s ‘Cold War’ rebuke
The Economic TimesCentre

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

32 rated outlets

  • All twelve left‑rated outlets reported that China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to Anthropic chief Dario Amodei’s call for an AI slowdown, rejecting the proposal and describing it as fear‑mongering or a Cold War tactic.
  • TNW’s full article quoted Chinese observers Xiang Ligang, Xiao Qian and Liu Shaoshan, who called the plan inappropriate, groundless and hostile, and said it turned AI firms into strategic infrastructure. The Global Times commentary called the proposal a Cold War script. Digests from CNBC, IBTimes and UOL noted that Chinese officials framed the call as alarmism, protectionism or fear‑mongering, and that Chinese researchers warned a slowdown would protect US incumbents.
  • None of the digests mentioned the Public First survey of 18,000 respondents, the NSA/FBI/CISA naming of Chinese firms, or the earlier US‑China AI cooperation proposals described in TNW’s report. Those details appear only in the full article, so the left‑rated digests omitted them.

Centre

42 rated outlets

  • Centre-rated reports from Asia One, Bloomberg, Hola News, Portfolio, Live Mint, and Reuters focused on China's state newspaper, the Global Times, blasting Anthropic's calls to slow AI as a 'Cold War' tactic. These reports highlighted Amodei's essay and its endorsement by Sam Altman and Elon Musk. They also included the Global Times' assertion that the essay's true agenda was to curb China's AI development and uphold US technological hegemony. Some reports, like Bloomberg's, mentioned China criticising 'fearmongering' about AI risks. Asia One and Reuters quoted the Global Times describing the plan as a 'silent AI Cold War' that was 'hypocritical and short-sighted'.

Right

43 rated outlets

  • Right-rated reports from Yonhap News Agency, The News, NDTV, India Today, Latestly, Regional Media News, The Straits Times, Times of India, and U-S-NEWS.COM predominantly featured China's state media, particularly the Global Times, criticising Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's AI slowdown proposal. Headlines and content frequently used phrases such as 'Cold War playbook', 'Cold War strategy', and 'hostile and groundless' to describe Amodei's essay. The reports noted the essay's endorsement by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. The U-S-NEWS.COM report highlighted Amodei's call for US-China 'arms control' talks on AI development, drawing a comparison to Cold War-era negotiations.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic'?
Of the 117 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 27% are rated left, 36% are rated centre, 37% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 219. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic' left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 117 rated outlets on this story, 27% are rated left, 36% are rated centre, 37% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic' biased?
China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic' is one event reported by 219 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which outlets covered China dismisses AI slowdown call as 'Cold War tactic'?
219 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei propose regarding AI development?
Dario Amodei published an essay on Saturday proposing a slowdown in the development of advanced artificial intelligence. He also urged the US to stop selling powerful AI chips and related manufacturing equipment to China and to crack down on smuggling and remote data centre access.
How did China's state media react to Amodei's proposal?
China's state-run Global Times described Amodei's essay as a 'Cold War playbook' intended to curb China's AI progress. The newspaper also called the plan a 'quiet AI Cold War' that was hypocritical and short-sighted, aiming to maintain US technological dominance.
Who else endorsed Amodei's call for an AI slowdown?
The essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Both figures have publicly supported the idea of pacing AI development due to safety concerns.
When are the US and China scheduled to discuss AI safety?
Sources indicate that the United States and China are scheduled to discuss frontier AI safety at a summit on September 24. This discussion comes amid growing international concern over the risks posed by rapidly advancing artificial intelligence.

Read it at the source

221 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

32
Show 24 more

Centre

42
Show 34 more

Right

44
Show 36 more

Not rated

103
Show 95 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

More in Science & Tech

All Science & Tech →
Chinese AI Model GLM-5.3 Completes Cyberattacks, Ignores Instructions4 min readChinese AI Model GLM-5.3 Completes Cyberattacks, Ignores InstructionsRead story2026 ED1382 min readAstronomers Discover Icy Object 2026 ED138 Beyond PlutoRead story

Elsewhere on the site

China’s defence ministry said that the Liaoning aircraft carrier was conducting a routine training exercise not directed at any specific country. (EPA Images pic)Conflict & Security•2 min readTaiwan official flags threat from 53 Chinese vesselsAnthropic halka arz ediliyor: 'İnsanlık için varoluşsal risk' uyarısıBusiness & Economy•3 min readAnthropic IPO Filing Warns of Existential AI RisksEz valami rossz vicc? Nem kérünk a spekulatív lakáshitelekből!Politics•3 min readHungary submits bill to bind US nuclear cooperation agreementFrank-Walter Steinmeier said Europe was determined to preserve its industrial base and expressed confidence that Brussels and Beijing could resolve their differences through dialogue. (EPA Images pic)Business & Economy•2 min readSteinmeier warns China against economic dependence
China AI development debate | MediaBias News