Robert Rust

库尔勒喝酒培训基地：”Korla【City】 drinking alcohol training base” in the video. “Training” was a term used for the internment camps peaking 2017-2020. 基地 ”base” also seems to me a really weird term in this weird context: same word as for “guerrilla base” etc.

Distillation is largely an industry standard and not just something done by Chinese labs targeting OpenAI/Anthropic. Many American companies also distill Chinese (open) models.

Sorry but that just isn’t true—distillation attacks are illicit activity, not an industry standard. They are against the terms of service of all frontier AI labs. There is a reason OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google all put out reports warning about it: none of them do it.

Disingenuous, imo, to compare the US sanctions regime with Beijing's sanctions, which (at least pre-Trump) were generally short-lived and limited in scope. But if anyone had actually bothered to read the article, they'd see that that's more or less what it argues too.

It is a kind of orientalism to suggest a China is an exception to typical great power behavior. China indeed developed tools for economic coercion long ago. This article written in *2012* discusses several cases of economic coercion from rare earths to salmon to bananas.

China's government has set up Alcohol Drinking Training Centre (ADTC) for Uyghurs, especially for those who are 70 or older, to push them intoxicate themselves in Korla city in East Turkistan with intensives and rewards. you cannot draw a picture of evil, however, you can finger point and name it.

Do you remember that TikTok (ByteDance) has sued the U.S. government twice in American courts? That’s exactly how rule-of-law systems work — companies and individuals have real legal avenues to challenge government decisions. Now contrast that with China: Is there any meaningful legal rectification process available to companies or individuals when the government blocks a deal with a one-line announcement and exit bans? In practice, no. On a more personal note relevant to you as a journalist: Journalism consistently ranks among the least desirable majors for students in Chinese universities — for obvious reasons. You currently enjoy legal protections, freedom of speech, and the ability to question power here in the U.S. It might be worth reflecting on how rare and valuable those freedoms actually are.

After China's cancellation of Meta's purchase of Manus, why would any founder start an AI company in China if they had a choice? In China you have access to less compute, less capital, and salaries are lower than in the West. And if you are so successful that a non-Chinese firm tries to acquire you for billions of dollars, the Chinese government will lure you back to Beijing, ban you from leaving the country, and take your profits by canceling the acquisition. Manus did everything right. They even moved their entire business to Singapore to comply with U.S. outbound investment restrictions. Their only mistake was that they originally founded the company in China. It's not even clear what it means for China to force Meta to unwind the transaction. Is it going to force Manus's researchers to return to China and place exit bans on them too? Is it going to force Manus's founders and shareholders to pay back $2 billion to Meta? This is what happens when you regulate by fiat rather than rule of law. Ultimately, this is a much larger defeat for the Chinese AI ecosystem than for the United States. Meta will be fine without Manus. But Chinese nationals looking to found AI companies will increasingly just start them overseas. The message from the Chinese government here is that every AI company founded in China will forever remain subject to Chinese government regulatory pressure and manipulation, regardless of its legal status or location. Lastly, given the Chinese government clearly believes that the US and Chinese AI ecosystems should be completely separate, we should stop helping their ecosystem succeed! China's AI companies remain extremely reliant on US compute, AI models, and chipmaking tools. If we tighten the screws on China's access to US tech, the Chinese ecosystem will be even less attractive to founders, and more will just start companies overseas.

It is a kind of orientalism to suggest a China is an exception to typical great power behavior. China indeed developed tools for economic coercion long ago. This article written in *2012* discusses several cases of economic coercion from rare earths to salmon to bananas.

Like what in the fuck? You would steal priceless works of art from the public in order to private enrich yourself because... socialism reasons?