Can open-source beat OpenAI?

Former Hugging Face executive Tiezhen Wang offers a clear-eyed account of how China's open-source AI strategy is reshaping competitive dynamics in the field, arguing that openness is being deployed not as an ideological stance but as a deliberate geopolitical and commercial lever. The piece is grounded and specific, avoiding both triumphalism and alarm. It is worth reading alongside the ongoing US export control debate, which increasingly looks like one front in a much longer contest.