China's AI Gap Splits Three Ways: Code, Video, Copying
The article analyzes the AI capability gap between China and the US across three dimensions: coding, video generation, and model distillation. On Terminal-Bench 4.0, the best Chinese model (GLM-5.3) scores 41.8% versus OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra at 58.2%, but on DeepSWE, Kimi K3 matches Codex at 68%. In video generation, Chinese models dominate top rankings, while in image editing they lag. The article also highlights Nvidia's use of DeepSeek's R1 for training and Anthropic's allegations against Chinese labs for extracting Claude capabilities. It questions the role of compute, platform ownership, and licensing in shaping these gaps.
- •As of September 19, 2026, the best Chinese model on Terminal-Bench 4.0 (GLM-5.3) scores 41.8%, while OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra scores 58.2%.
- •On the DeepSWE benchmark, Kimi K3 and OpenAI's Codex both score 68%.
- •Chinese models hold five of the top ten spots on LMArena's image-to-video leaderboard.
