THE SHORT VERSION

Beijing just approved DeepSeek and MiniMax for global use

Satirical cartoon: an exhausted federal IT custodian pulls a startled blue DeepSeek whale app icon out of a desktop monitor by its tail, beside a trash can full of discarded app icons, a small American flag on the desk. — Machine Age Cartoon · Zimbo

DeepSeek and MiniMax have won Chinese state approval for the global use of their AI models, Reuters reported Friday, citing a Thursday post from Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV. The account added that overseas users were urging other Chinese open-source models to follow suit.

The timing is the whole story: the green light lands three days after Washington ordered DeepSeek purged from every federal civilian computer, and in the same week the lab closed a roughly $15 billion round from Tencent- and CATL-linked backers. Beijing is pushing its models outward while D.C. pushes them off.

The approval sits alongside Beijing's October 16 proposal to control exports of 23 AI technologies; the commerce ministry says most AI tech — including open-source exports — stays licensable. Neither lab commented.