Descriptions:
US-China AI tensions have escalated sharply, with two major developments breaking in the same news cycle: China has moved to block Meta’s acquisition of Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, while the White House has formally accused China-backed actors of running industrial-scale campaigns to extract capabilities from American AI labs by querying systems millions of times through VPN-masked proxy accounts.
In this episode of China Decode from The Prof G Pod, hosts Alice Han — who recently returned from three weeks in China — and James King discuss what they call a new “cold war curtain” descending over the AI competition. They break down the mechanics of alleged distillation campaigns, the strategic significance of DeepSeek’s open-source model releases, and why Silicon Valley is increasingly becoming a political actor in the rivalry rather than just a commercial one.
The episode also explores a striking contradiction: even as Washington warns about China exploiting American innovation, Goldman Sachs and other US banks are quietly borrowing record sums in Chinese yuan through offshore “dim sum bonds,” attracted by yields roughly half of comparable US instruments. A final segment covers the growing “pretend to work” office culture emerging in China amid economic pressure. For anyone tracking the intersection of AI technology, geopolitics, and global finance, this episode captures a significant inflection point in 2026.
📺 Source: The Prof G Pod – Scott Galloway · Published April 28, 2026
🏷️ Format: News Analysis
