“As a matter of economic and national security, we have to beat China in the AI race,” read an excerpt from Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) opening remarks. “China has made AI central to its national strategy and aims to lead the world in AI by 2030, investing heavily in AI adoption across industries like manufacturing and defense.”

Cruz is correct that the CCP has made incubating China’s AI industry a national priority. Microsoft’s research activities through Microsoft Research Asia have bolstered China’s access to knowledge and software relevant to AI advancement. Notably, Microsoft Remote Assistance has trained thousands of researchers who have gone on to work for major Chinese AI companies, according to MIT Technology Review.

DeepSeek, one of China’s best-known AI companies, has historically recruited top talent from MSRA to fill its ranks, according to a review of personal websites and social media pages. A host of AI researchers boasting elite educations, as well as a former project lead and the current head of its large language model alignment team, are all alumni of MSRA now staffing DeepSeek. 

MSRA reportedly played a key role in the growth and development of Dahua Technology and Megvii — firms that have been linked to the Chinese military and accused of collaborating with the Chinese government in its repression of Uyghurs. 

As a result of these efforts, some have taken to calling MSRA the “cradle of Chinese AI.”

The research center does, however, have safeguards in place to reduce risks.

“MSRA requires full-time employees and internship candidates in China to sign confidentiality and [internet protocol] transfer agreements to prevent any inadvertent IP leaks,” a Microsoft spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “Microsoft has established company-wide principles and rules for the development and use of responsible AI, including, among other things, review of sensitive use cases to help ensure that Microsoft’s responsible AI principles are upheld in its research, development, and deployment work.”

The spokesperson also noted that Microsoft makes MSRA’s work publicly available. 

Microsoft was one of the first Western tech companies to establish a foothold in China, opening a branch in 1992 and establishing MSRA in 1998. Since then, the company has invested over $1 billion in Chinese research and development. The relationship between the company and the authoritarian nation has long been cordial, with Microsoft often bending to Beijing’s desires.

For example, Bing, the software giant’s search engine, faced bipartisan criticism in 2024 following reporting that it was excluding results from searches at the CCP’s request. In 2017, Microsoft agreed to develop a custom version of Windows 10 for the Chinese government. 

Republican lawmakers have questioned Microsoft’s presence in China, citing national security concerns. 

“Microsoft should know better,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told the New York Post in December 2023. “The Chinese Communist Party wants AI supremacy so that it can degrade and defeat U.S. capabilities, seize Taiwan, and make the world less safe. No American company should be wined and dined into thinking otherwise. And Congress should block partnerships like this.”

Indeed, Microsoft has partnered with many entities linked to the Chinese military. 

The company has partnered with multiple firms that appear on the Department of Defense’s 1260H entity list, an enumeration of entities that the federal government believes are controlled by, or collaborators with, the Chinese military. China Mobile, Inspur, China Telecom, Quectel, and the China Communications Construction Group are among the Pentagon-designated Chinese military companies with which Microsoft has collaborated.

The Financial Times reported in 2019 that MSRA collaborated on three academic papers with researchers affiliated with China’s National University of Defense Technology, an institution run by the People’s Liberation Army. One of the papers, according to experts, contained research that applied to China’s repression of ethnic minorities. 

BIG TECH, COZYING UP TO TRUMP, HOLDS ON TO CHINESE MILITARY TIES

“We must ensure that American business interests are not enabling the [CCP’s] oppression,” Cruz commented at the time. “American companies need to understand that doing business in China carries significant and deepening risk.”

Microsoft has denied rumors that it is seeking to exit the Chinese market and, according to its website, is actively hiring researchers for MSRA.