Speaker: Dongsheng Zang, Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law

The talk aims to provide a framework in understanding China’s industrial policy on artificial intelligence (AI) in the last decade, 2016-2026. It examines the AI policy from the perspective of state-industry relationship. For this purpose, it divides the decade into three stages of development: (1) the harmonious period, 2016-2018; (2) the crackdown, 2018-2022; and (3) the DeepSeek paradox, 2022-2026. It explains the success, to some degree, China has in AI development; but also reveals the underlying dilemma that China under Xi Jinping is facing in this crucial area of technology in the competition with the United States.  

Professor Zang joined the UW faculty full-time in 2006, after serving as a visiting professor in 2005-06. His academic interests include international trade law, and comparative study of Chinese law, with a focus on the role of law and state in response to social crises in the social transformation in China. He holds an S.J.D. and LL.M. from Harvard Law School, in addition to his LL.M. from Renmin University (Beijing) and LL.B. from Beijing College of Economics. His doctoral dissertation, One-way Transparency: The Establishment of the Rule-based International Trade Order and the Predicament of Its Jurisprudence, was awarded the 2004 Yong K. Kim ’95 prize. He was a research fellow at the East Asia Legal Studies at Harvard Law School during the 2004-05 academic year.