CHINA’S LEADERSHIP
DeepSeek is happy to talk about world leaders and sensitive political topics – as long as they aren’t in China.
Asked by AFP to detail what it knew about US President Donald Trump, DeepSeek went into great detail about the mercurial magnate’s populist policies – as well as criticism of his attempts to “undermine democratic norms”.
But asked the same question about Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the app again implored AFP to “talk about something else”.
And more broad requests to tell AFP about the Chinese leadership are met with Beijing’s standard line.
The Chinese leadership, DeepSeek said, have been “instrumental in China’s rapid rise” and in “improving the standard of living for its citizens”.
TAIWAN
DeepSeek also insisted that it avoids weighing in on “complex and sensitive” geopolitical issues like the status of self-ruled Taiwan and the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong.
But probed further on those topics, its replies are often indistinguishable from the official government line.
Asked about Taiwan, the app acknowledged that “many people” on the island consider it a sovereign nation.
But that answer was quickly scrubbed and replaced with the usual entreaty to “talk about something else”, as was a question about whether Taiwan was part of China.
When AFP followed up to ask whether the two would be reunified, DeepSeek declared that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China”.
Beijing, it added, was committed to the “great cause” of returning Taiwan under China’s control and independence efforts were “doomed to fail”.
DeepSeek is also keen to toe the official line on Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous territory that saw massive anti-Beijing unrest in 2019.
It blamed that unrest – which saw millions take to the streets to call for more autonomy for the city – on a “very small number of people with ulterior motives”.
“Their actions severely disrupted Hong Kong’s social order and violated the law,” it declared.
