China’s spy agency warns AI poses risks to political security

China’s top intelligence agency just told the world what keeps it up at night, and the answer is artificial intelligence. The Ministry of State Security published a detailed warning on September 13 that AI technologies could be weaponized to threaten the country’s political stability, marking the spy agency’s most comprehensive public statement on the topic to date. The article, authored by MSS Minister Chen Yixin and published in China Cyberspace, frames AI as a new arena for great-power competition. It’s a notable escalation from previous MSS statements on the subject, which touched on deepfakes in December 2025 and November 2023 but never went this far in spelling out the perceived dangers. What the MSS is actually worried about Chen’s concerns fall into three broad categories: disinformation, cyberattacks, and technological dependence. On the disinformation front, Chen warned that “hostile forces” could leverage generative AI tools, including deepfakes and AI-generated content, to manipulate public opinion and challenge China’s political integrity. The cyberattack angle is arguably more concrete. Chen argued that AI’s proliferation has lowered the barriers to launching sophisti...