China's spying apparatus is on a whole other level. They've been using AI for years to "turbocharge" their domestic surveillance state; now they're trying to take that capability global--with quite some initial success.

As a side note, I don't understand why so many folks aren't worried about another superpower replacing the US's slowly waning stranglehold. Look at all the fucked up shit the US has done around the world, and that's with a quasi-democratic government that at least has a modicum of domestic and international accountability. Now replace that with a totalitarian regime that virtually answers to no one. I mean, this is the same regime that has committed a genocide within just the last decade. Can you imagine what they'll be capable of when they're the main powerbroker that has no peers?

And no, this is not me wanting the US empire to remain in place. I'd prefer a transparent, egalitarian governing system across the globe.