Communist founder Vladimir Lenin once said: “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” That appears to be taking place in the Trump administration with the recent loosening of restrictions on selling advanced artificial intelligence microchips to China.
Mr. Trump’s former White House deputy national security adviser, Matthew Pottinger, warned in a recent article that the decision to lift restrictions on Nvidia selling its H20 AI chips to China will help Beijing defeat the U.S. in the high-technology race to develop the technology.
“President Donald Trump’s team just gave China’s rulers the technology they need to beat us in the artificial intelligence race,” Mr. Pottinger said in an article, co-written with Liz Tobin, in The Free Press.
“If he doesn’t reverse this decision, it may be remembered as the moment when America surrendered the technological advantage needed to bring manufacturing home and keep our nation secure.”
Mr. Pottinger and Ms. Tobin are currently with Garnaut Global, a research and advisory firm focused on China’s geopolitical and technological aspirations.
Mr. Trump reversed his policies on limiting NVIDIA chips after initially calling for NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to resign over past close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. But Mr. Huang, who recently met with the president, was successful in persuading Mr. Trump to lift the ban on H20 chips that China urgently needs to make its AI more effective.
Mr. Pottinger and Ms. Tobin, who was China director on the White House National Security Council staff from 2019 to 2021, said that in exchange for allowing the AI chip sales, the U.S. government will be a financial beneficiary of the process.
Reports indicate that NVIDIA and another advanced microchip maker, AMD, agreed to provide 15% of their China chip revenues in exchange for U.S. export licenses.
Mr. Pottinger and Ms. Tobin said the arrangement“effectively monetizes what was supposed to be a national security restriction.”
NVIDIA’s H20 chips, which the administration claims are comparable to Chinese AI chips, were used in China’s unique DeepSeek AI that shocked the world last January for using low-cost technology.
“China’s lack of unfettered access to U.S.-designed AI chips is America’s clearest advantage in the AI race,” Mr. Pottinger and Ms. Tobin said. “By reversing the ban, the White House is helping Beijing’s Communist regime close the gap.”
They noted that in April, China’s military released a video titled “The Robot Dog’s Time to Kill Has Come.” The video shows an AI-enabled, four-legged terminator unit, made by Chinese robotics firm Unitree, with an assault rifle mounted on its back, running alongside human soldiers and firing at a target.
The video is a clear indication of China’s AI-enabled military plans.
The two China analysts urged Mr. Trump to immediately halt all H20 sales to China.
“This is Trump’s legacy moment,” they said. “Will he be remembered as the president who secured American AI dominance? Or as the president who triggered a second China shock for Nvidia’s short-term profit margins?”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.