Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
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Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development
Top Trump Official Touts Enforcement Wins as Firms Warn China Is Gaining Ground

A top Trump administration official defended export controls in a congressional testimony Wednesday, insisting the government is aggressively targeting illegal exports of sensitive technologies despite industry concerns that the rules could benefit competitors like China in the long run.
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U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations Committee that “new export controls are protecting cutting-edge technologies and finally protecting critical industries and American innovation.” His remarks come after the Bureau of Industry and Security blacklisted 12 East Asian companies with ties to the Chinese military for importing advanced U.S. technology to build advanced artificial intelligence. Commerce in May revoked a Biden-era artificial intelligence “diffusion” rule that imposed a tiered export restriction system for AI technology, replacing it with guidance to block advanced AI technologies from reaching adversaries (see: GOP Targets State AI Regulation and Export Restrictions).
The endorsement also comes just days after the world’s most valuable chip maker told investors that cutting U.S. access to Chinese markets weakens American global leadership. Nvidia founder, president and CEO Jensen Huang described China as “one of the world’s largest AI markets and a springboard to global success,” but said the “$50 billion China market is effectively closed to U.S. industry” (see: Nvidia CEO Huang Warns Export Bans Empower Chinese AI Firms).
Huang warned that current export controls will backfire by strengthening Chinese competitors and threatening American dominance in critical technologies like AI, as well as 6G and quantum computing. Cutting off China from U.S. tech, he said, not only weakens American infrastructure leadership but also pushes top global talent toward rival nations.
“The U.S. has based its policy on the assumption that China cannot make AI chips,” Huang said. But China has “enormous manufacturing capability.”
“Export controls should strengthen U.S. platforms, not drive half of the world’s AI talent to rivals,” he added.
The commerce secretary stood by the wide range of export controls enacted in recent months, as well as tariffs on countries like Vietnam, which he said will continue to face tariffs even if the country were to remove all trade barriers against U.S. imports.
A series of escalating U.S. restrictions on advanced chip exports failed to stop Chinese firm DeepSeek earlier this year from achieving a major technical breakthrough, fueling demands for stricter controls and faster innovation by American companies. DeepSeek relied on Nvidia’s H800 chip, a slower version of the H100 built to meet Biden-era export control rules, though by late 2023 even that compliant model faced tighter export limits (see: DeepSeek’s Rise Shows Limits of US Chip Controls).