China Salon on Emergent Digital Repression: How the PRC is using AI to Censor, Surveil, and Troll

July 17, 2025
11:00 am - 12:15 pm

Since the ChatGPT breakthrough in November 2022, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been racing to catch up with U.S. companies in the development of AI language models. Its recent advances in this area, underscored by the global popularity of DeepSeek, threaten not only the U.S. technological advantage, but also freedom of speech and information worldwide. 

At this “China Salon,” hosted by the National Endowment for Democracy, China Digital Times  founder and editor-in-chief Xiao Qiang and the Special Competitive Studies Project’s David Lin will explore how large language models (LLMs) and other advanced AI developments fit into the PRC’s wider apparatus of digital repression and worldwide influence projection. How do LLMs change the equation for China’s censorship ambitions, and in what ways are PRC information controls influencing AI outputs in China and around the world? As global scrutiny on China grows and as the PRC accelerates its drive toward self-reliance and indigenous innovation, how is Beijing reinventing its “Great Firewall” up and down the technology stack?

Join us as the discussants unpack the PRC’s authoritarian approach to AI and consider steps that can be taken to prevent these ambitions from shaping our digital future.

Speakers 

Damon Wilsonopening remarks
President and CEO, National Endowment for Democracy

Xiao Qiangpanelist 
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, China Digital Times

David Linpanelist 
Senior Director for Platforms, Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP)

Beth Kerleymoderator  
Senior Program Officer, International Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy

 

details

Date: Thursday, July 17

Time: 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

livestream the event here.

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