China's Foreign Ministry Rejects US Joint Advisory Accusing Six AI Firms of Model Distillation

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Commerce both rejected the September 8 joint NSA/CISA/FBI advisory accusing DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI of industrial-scale distillation of US frontier AI models. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters September 9 that "China's AI development is the result of high-level technological self-reliance and strength," and urged Washington to "refrain from making unfounded accusations or smears," while calling for both countries, as major AI powers, to strengthen cooperation. MOFCOM separately called distillation "a common practice through which AI models learn from one another," arguing US labs distill from Chinese models too, and characterized the US advisory as "pursuing an industry monopoly under the pretext of cracking down on distillation" by tying corporate interests to national security. Beijing said it was open to constructive talks but would take countermeasures if Washington used the distillation issue to contain Chinese AI firms. Neither ministry disputed the advisory's technical claims about fraudulent accounts, bulk subscriptions, or proxy routing. The exchange comes roughly two weeks before Xi Jinping's planned September 24 Washington visit, where AI governance is expected on the agenda.