# China fires back at Trump administration claims that its AI companies steal U.S. tech
Source: [https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/china-calls-us-ai-theft-claims-smear-sanctions-floated-rcna588813](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/china-calls-us-ai-theft-claims-smear-sanctions-floated-rcna588813)
July 22, 2026, 9:38 PM EDT/UpdatedJuly 22, 2026, 11:02 PM EDT
By[David Ingram](https://www.nbcnews.com/author/david-ingram-ncpn890161)
A Chinese government spokesperson fired back Wednesday at the Trump administration’s allegations that Chinese researchers are stealing American trade secrets about[artificial intelligence](https://www.nbcnews.com/artificial-intelligence)\.
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Beijing's commerce ministry accused American AI companies of using Chinese models for training via distillation, pushing back against US allegations of Chinese tech theft and threatening retaliation.
Argues that accusations of knowledge distillation by China from US AI models are legally baseless and amount to propaganda to protect overvalued US AI companies.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatens sanctions against Chinese AI models if intellectual property theft is found, escalating the technological competition between US and Chinese AI companies.