Angela Huyue Zhang, professor of law at the University of Southern California, is the author of High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, and Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation.
While China was an early mover in regulating generative AI, it is also highly supportive of the technology and the companies developing it. Chinese AI firms might even have a competitive advantage over their US and European counterparts, which face strong regulatory headwinds.
China’s exit from zero-Covid poses huge logistical challenges and health risks, but its centralised system of governance offers some advantages. During its years of economic reform, centralised planning allowed China to open up city by city, gradually building confidence and containing risks.
Beijing sees a tit-for-tat strategy as essential to ensuring US cooperation. But weaponising administrative sanctions could produce an unwanted backlash, even as a new US law targeting Huawei is unlikely to succeed.
The passage of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act in 2016 and its impact offer a glimpse into the possible knock-on effects of US lawsuits against China over its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.