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Recently, China\u2019s embassy in Washington posted an AI-generated video mocking President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s proposed Shield of the Americas\u00a0summit.\u00a0The point was\u00a0to\u00a0paint the United States as paranoid, overbearing\u00a0and desperate to cling to influence in Latin America<\/a>.<\/p>\n The video was\u00a0cheap, Chinese Communist Party\u00a0propaganda. But it was also revealing.<\/p>\n Beijing no longer feels the need to hide its contempt. It is comfortable\u00a0jeering at the United States in public, and\u00a0specifically its influence\u00a0in the Western Hemisphere, a region Washington once treated as its uncontested strategic backyard. That shift should concern Americans far more than\u00a0the video itself.<\/p>\n Today, under President Donald Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio<\/a>\u2019s leadership, an economically stable and secure Western Hemisphere is now a key national security priority of the United States. Most notably, that includes confronting and limiting the expansion of Chinese influence in the region.<\/p>\n AI RAISES THE STAKES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY. HERE\u2019S HOW TO GET IT RIGHT<\/a><\/p>\n China has spent years extending its reach across Latin America<\/a>\u00a0through ports, power projects, mining, telecom equipment,\u00a0and digital infrastructure. That influence is not just commercial\u00a0but\u00a0political. It creates dependency, builds leverage, and gives Beijing a foothold in\u00a0America\u2019s backyard. It also creates significant national security threats to the American people.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now add artificial intelligence\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0picture.<\/p>\n China\u2019s use of AI propaganda<\/a> is more than a gimmick.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a reminder that Beijing sees\u00a0this all-important\u00a0technology not only as a business opportunity\u00a0but\u00a0an instrument of state power.<\/p>\n PALANTIR CTO WARNS US HAS ONLY ‘EIGHT DAYS OF WEAPONS’ IN HYPOTHETICAL BATTLE AGAINST CHINA<\/a><\/p>\n Those are the real stakes.\u00a0Not who posts the cleverest video on social media, but\u00a0who builds the hardware, writes the standards, controls the networks and supplies the systems\u00a0that\u00a0everyone else\u00a0will depend\u00a0on\u00a0in an AI age. Washington has started to\u00a0grasp\u00a0this, though not always gracefully. One sign is the way policymakers have begun looking at technology dealmaking through a national\u00a0security lens.<\/p>\n Take Hewlett Packard Enterprise\u2019s acquisition of\u00a0Juniper Networks\u00a0that the Department of Justice\u00a0cleared\u00a0and the U.S. intelligence community blessed. It received\u00a0regulatory scrutiny<\/a>, as mergers should, but\u00a0few antitrust concerns existed. However,\u00a0the broader question was\u00a0whether the United States could afford to hobble one of its own networking players while China continues backing\u00a0its\u00a0national champions with the full weight of the state.<\/p>\n That does not mean every merger should get a free pass because China exists. It does mean Washington has to stop pretending this is a normal market contest between firms operating on a level playing field. It\u00a0isn\u2019t. American companies answer to shareholders and regulators. Chinese firms, in the end,\u00a0answer to the state, their intelligence apparatus and its strategic ambitions.<\/p>\n AMERICA MUST POWER AI WITH SPEED AND DISCIPLINE \u2014 OR CHINA WILL DOMINATE<\/a><\/p>\n That matters in telecommunications. It matters in AI. And it matters in every layer of the digital economy<\/a>, which is\u00a0growing\u00a0inseparable from geopolitical power.<\/p>\n The same logic applies to semiconductors, cloud capacity, export controls and secure communications networks. These are often discussed as technical policy issues. They are not. They are the plumbing of power. Countries that control them shape the choices of countries that do not.<\/p>\n Beijing understands this\u00a0well.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why it subsidizes key industries, protects its own firms, pushes its standards abroad, and uses state media and diplomatic channels<\/a> to attack American initiatives before they gain traction.<\/p>\n WHITE HOUSE UNVEILS ITS FIRST FEDERAL AI FRAMEWORK, PUSHES CONGRESS TO ACT ‘THIS YEAR’<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0The mockery aimed at President Trump\u2019s Shield of the Americas\u00a0follows that pattern. It is not\u00a0a serious\u00a0argument. It is narrative warfare: make U.S. efforts look absurd, make Chinese expansion look normal and encourage\u00a0the notion\u00a0that America is in retreat.<\/p>\n That is how influence erodes. Not all at once, but piece by piece.\u00a0The real threat facing the American people is a global political and cultural elite that believes Beijing is the\u00a0future\u00a0and Washington is too divided, slow, or unserious to compete.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION<\/a><\/p>\n The answer is not to imitate China\u2019s propaganda machine. America does not need better AI taunts from its embassies. It needs strategic seriousness.<\/p>\n That means investing in domestic technological strength, building trusted alternatives with allies, and making sure regulators understand that market structure and national power are no longer separate questions. It also means recognizing that America cannot defend its position in the world while treating\u00a0the tech sector\u00a0as if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0politically neutral.<\/p>\n