Over the past year, the Trump administration’s efforts to position the United States as a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) have drawn increasing left-wing criticism. And that’s just the way the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) likes it. CCP-linked actors have aggressively amplified anti-data center voices in America, even as Beijing generously subsidizes China’s own AI rollout and data center construction.
Data centers, which power AI development and Large Language Models (LLMs), are a critically important component of America’s technological arsenal amid an escalating AI arms race with China. Beijing doubtless understands America’s advantages in the current AI race. It also knows slowing American AI development can help China to close the gap and narrow America’s lead.
Chinese entities have a long history of collaborating with far-left causes, and they have again found common ground in opposing the construction of data centers. They are pushing mutually reinforcing messages that criticize a host of alleged environmental and ethical concerns as reasons to disempower American growth in a critical economic and competitive sector. Officials at the federal, state, and local levels should recognize this noxious alliance as they field criticism of data centers.
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In April, two Chinese academics with ties to the Chinese government, invited to the Capitol by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), spoke about the need for “safe” approaches to AI, in conjunction with Sen. Sanders’ general call to stall American data center construction amid concerns that AI constitutes an “existential threat.” The scholars in question, Zeng Yi and Xue Lan, are longtime representatives—either directly or informally—of CCP institutions. Their call for AI restraint in Washington, while Beijing plows full speed ahead with its own AI rollout, cannot help but raise questions about their sincerity.
Chinese information warfare takes more subtle forms as well. A study released by the Bitcoin Policy Institute in May revealed how far-left financial interests tied to the CCP have financed anti-data-center campaigns under the guise of environmental preservation. Repeated criticisms have come from entities such as Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a Malthusian, left-wing group funded by Neville Roy Singham. A dyed-in-the-wool Marxist and billionaire, Singham, the husband of Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, is based in Shanghai with extensive documented ties to the CCP.
In other cases, what may seem like run-of-the-mill leftist narratives have clear links stretching back to China. In July, the New York Times reported that Chinese actors used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to create comic strips depicting wealthy data center overlords supposedly stealing from local residents and imposing higher prices on consumer goods and services. The Chinese creators tried to make the cartoons appear as if a Maryland news outlet had published them.
CCP misinformation operations have long targeted sub-national audiences at the state or even local levels to spread harmful narratives discouraging American growth and production. In response, House Republicans have rightfully launched queries into potential foreign sources of anti-data center opposition. But further action at both the local and national levels is necessary. State-level policymakers must learn to distinguish between organic political debate for or against data centers, and those narratives that originate in or are fueled by Beijing and other adversarial capitals.
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The debates raging over AI data centers represent a new horizon for the CCP to target state- and local-level civic society and government, promoting pro-China and anti-America narratives by finding vulnerable or nefarious co-conspirators within local society.
The implications of the AI race are hard to overstate, impacting everything from economic growth to job creation to cybersecurity. If America falls behind China in the AI race, and the Chinese AI tech stack begins proliferating worldwide, it faces the real possibility that not only neutral countries, but allies and partners, will fall deeper into China’s techno-economic orbit.
While Beijing’s propaganda mechanisms won’t derail the Trump administration’s laudable efforts to retain American technological dominance, Chinese narrative warfare can make the process more costly than necessary, at both the local and national levels.
It’s time for policymakers at all levels of leadership to cultivate awareness and craft policies to counteract Chinese anti-American tech narratives while exposing CCP efforts to boost or co-opt destructive far-left causes for their own purposes.
This piece originally appeared in The National Interest
