New York, 21 October 2026: America's Trump administration has imposed strict economic sanctions on five Chinese companies linked to a former Google engineer. This former Google employee is seriously accused of stealing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and important intellectual property. China's Commerce Ministry has lodged a strong protest against this strict action of America and has termed it as unfair.
China's Commerce Ministry has issued an official statement saying that this unilateral action by America has seriously harmed the legal rights and economic interests of Chinese companies. The Ministry considered this action very serious and appealed to America to immediately correct its mistake. Along with this, China has warned that it will take necessary counter measures to protect its interests, although it has not clarified about the specific steps.
According to the US State Department, these sanctions have been imposed on a Chinese engineer named Linwei Ding and his associated companies. Linwei Ding had formed a company named 'Shanghai Xisuan Technology' in China. Ding boasted about his experience working at Google and told investors that his company could recreate the basic AI technology associated with Google's superintelligence.
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China claims: “Our AI development is the result of independent research”
The five companies sanctioned by the US include Linwei Ding's main company 'Shanghai Xisuan Technology', its initial funding startup program 'MiraclePlus' and three other Chinese entities associated with it. American investigative organizations allege that after January 2023, these companies stole large-scale trade secrets of American citizens and tech companies and took financial advantage of them.
It is noteworthy that Linwei Ding, while working at Google in the year 2024, was accused of secretly working for two Chinese companies and stealing Google's highly confidential AI secrets. A San Francisco court convicted him of commercial theft and sentenced him to 12 months in prison. However, the US Justice Ministry is currently appealing the final verdict in a higher court, dropping some charges of economic espionage.
On the other hand, China has termed all America's allegations as baseless. China's Ministry of Commerce has claimed that China's development in AI is the result of long-term foundational research and scientific capacity. China's technological successes have nothing to do with the theft of American secrets.