China doubles down on AI and tech as Trump ratchets up trade pressure

BEIJING — The undercurrent of China’s annual parliamentary meetings this week is U.S. trade tensions — and how Chinese technology is offsetting that pressure.

The largely ceremonial gathering of delegates in Beijing this year came just as U.S. President Donald Trump addressed Congress and imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods. It’s a clear drag on exports, while Chinese companies have only faced tougher restrictions on accessing high-end semiconductors and other advanced tech.

“Internationally … an increasingly complex and severe external environment may exert a greater impact on China in areas such as trade, science and technology,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in his annual report on government work at the opening ceremony of the National People’s Congress on Wednesday, according to an official English translation of the Chinese.

It was an unusually grim assessment at least among the seven parliamentary meetings I have attended. But I also sensed a greater willingness to support the private sector than in the past — especially as it relates to tech innovation, such as with Chinese AI company DeepSeek.

“We will promote the healthy and well-regulated development of the platform economy and give better play to its role in inspiring innovation, expanding consumption and stabilizing employment,” Li said in the work report.

That marked the latest signal that Beijing now wants to support the private sector after previously taking a far more restrictive stance and imposing large fines on tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, often called “platform“ companies in China. Many companies and industries in China have historically been dominated by the state.

DeepSeek’s recent rise demonstrated to many international investors — who had grown cautious on the slowing economy — how a Chinese company could compete with the U.S. on AI, regardless of White House sanctions.

Beijing was quick to affirm the startup’s success. DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng attended a meeting with Premier Li in January, and a symposium with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February.

While DeepSeek didn’t get a specific mention in the government work report, a member of the team that drafted the report named it — and applications such as Kuaishou’s Kling AI for video generation — while talking to the press on Wednesday about China’s rapid AI development.

“Historically, technological progress is often an important force for breaking through barriers and protectionism,” Chen Changsheng, who is also deputy director of the State Council Research Office, said in Mandarin translated by CNBC.

“We look forward to how under the current international backdrop, AI will become a positive energy to promote cooperation and multilateralism,” he said.