There are many other less-superficial reasons why Beijing may be interested in AI, plus China may not trust that we actually banned our own AI development.
I wouldn't take that bet in a million years.
The discussion started when someone argued that even if this AI juggernaut were in fact very dangerous, there is no way to stop it. When I pushed back on the second part of that, you reject my push-back. On what basis? I hope it is not, "I just want things to keep on going the way they are," as if ignoring the AI danger somehow makes the AI danger go away.
I don't have a lot of confidence that this will be the case, but I think the US continuing to develop AI is the decision with the best distribution of possible outcomes.
This is completely separate from my personal preferences or hopes about the future of AI.