Henry Gao

But those efforts are also creating a more complicated landscape for companies that operate across borders.

At the Risk Journal Summit in Singapore this week, Dow Jones' Nick Elliott spoke with Henry Gao, a professor of law at Singapore Management University, and Priya Mahajan, Verizon's head of public policy and regulatory counsel for Asia Pacific.

Pacific.The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

[upbeat music] I want to bring Professor Gao Henry into this conversation now.

If you want to serve the US market, you go to US and do it from the US.

The good old days when you can serve your China client from the US or vice versa is really over, and you really have to choose now.

That was Nick Elliott of Dow Jones, Priya Mahajan of Verizon, and Henry Gao of Singapore Management University.

And that wraps up this edition of the Dow Jones Risk Journal Podcast.

So it's a matter of, so it's a matter of, of managing these frictions as they arise and seeing if you can find a few areas for constructive cooperation.

Steve, maybe to adopt another metaphor, th-this was put to me by Professor Henry Gao, who I think we all know well.

Yes.

It's like a heavyweight boxing match, the US and China, where there, there is no limit on the number of rounds.

So what's happening with those excess capacity tariffs, and would it lead to them coming out of their corners and duking it out again?

Yeah.

Well, well, look, in, in terms of Henry Gao's analogy about it being a heavyweight title fight, that would be fine.

I'm worried sometimes that it might turn into a steel cage death match.

Yeah.

Well, look, in terms of Henry Gao's analogy about it being a heavyweight title fight, that would be fine.

I'm worried sometimes that it might turn into a steel cage death match.

So let's hope we're not heading down that road.

Chen called for more party control over AI and stricter government oversight.

This, he said, was necessary to protect political stability at home, to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns from hostile forces, and to compete militarily with countries like the United States." Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University, said, "Beijing is going into these talks viewing AI safety not as a shared humanitarian mission, but through an adversarial lens." He added that the government is making it clear that, quote, "Data sovereignty and political security will never be traded away for international safety accords." Last Monday, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs made their position on an AI slowdown abundantly clear.

He said, "The development of artificial intelligence concerns the common well-being of all humanity.

All parties should jointly promote an open, inclusive, universally beneficial, and ethically sound approach to AI.

The primary objective is to prevent nuclear weapons and sensitive technology from ending up in the wrong hands, be it the global black market network or even extremist groups elsewhere," Shen added.

Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University, called on the United States and its allies to develop a clear roadmap.

Prepare to integrate a democratic, peaceful, and prosperous China or risk facing another Russia, or worse, several Russias, he wrote on X on September 16th.

Gordon Chang, China commentator and author of Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America, echoed the message on social media.

Logically, avoiding the potential negative outcomes from AI should also be a cause for global cooperation, which you could do from a regulatory point of view without necessarily getting in the way of the competition of various companies to develop distinctive and effective products – that whole capitalism thing – But so long as it's defined as the do-or-die race for supremacy, the US versus China, then it's not possible to do any of that.

As Henry Gao of Singapore Management University told the New York Times, Beijing is going into these talks viewing AI safety not as a shared humanitarian mission, but through an adversarial lens.

It is making clear to Chinese tech firms and foreign rivals that data sovereignty and political security will never be traded away for international security accords.

Now, while Mr Gao might have put all that on China, it's fair to say it's identical to the attitude of Trump and his senior team.