Artificial Intelligence Regulation and China's Future

China has announced to the world that it intends to become the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI), both in terms of developing and deploying the technology as well as governing it with appropriate laws and regulations. In light of this declaration, it is tempting to take the Chinese government at its word and brace for an AI-powered China of the future. Plans, however ambitious, do not always reflect reality. Therefore, when it comes to understanding China's bold AI-related declarations and actions, it is important to put them into institutional context and look beyond the appearance of China's stated ambitions and into the more nuanced reality of how China's existing political and legal institutions describe and use the term "AI." On that note, China's AI ambitions have currently served more immediate rhetorical and political goals rather than substantive ones. Furthermore, focusing on rhetoric over substance is having significant and potentially negative impacts on China's political and legal institutions, leading to institutional decay, the process by which growing complexity, ambiguity, and transaction costs inhibit institutions' capacity to rapidly, clearly, and effectively gather and share information and delineate tasks.