--- title: China is rewriting the rules of open-source software description: China is positioning open-source software, hardware, and AI as strategic assets, with government-backed platforms like Gitee, OpenAtom Foundation, openKylin,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-open-source-software-ml4eps1rk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: China is rewriting the rules of open-source software | daily.dev og:description: China is positioning open-source software, hardware, and AI as strategic assets, with government-backed platforms like Gitee, OpenAtom Foundation, openKylin,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-open-source-software-ml4eps1rk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ML4epS1rk.png og:image:alt: China is rewriting the rules of open-source software og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # China is rewriting the rules of open-source software **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary China is positioning open-source software, hardware, and AI as strategic assets, with government-backed platforms like Gitee, OpenAtom Foundation, openKylin, and openEuler serving as domestic alternatives to Western tools. Chinese AI labs such as Moonshot (Kimi), MiniMax, DeepSeek, Qwen, and GLM release mostly open-weight (not fully open-source) models, some under bilingual licences—like the Mulan Permissive Software Licence and OpenAtom Model Licence—where the Chinese-language version legally prevails, and where some licences impose extra compliance obligations like revenue thresholds or naming requirements. The piece frames this as part of a broader geopolitical contest over who sets technical and legal standards for open source, touching on distillation accusations against Chinese model makers, US restrictions on Chinese open-weight models, and China's Risc-V and Open-RAN standards efforts. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What licensing conditions does the Kimi K3 model impose on users with high revenue or user counts? The Kimi K3 model licence from Moonshot requires licensees that exceed specific revenue or user thresholds to prominently display the Kimi model name. This is an example of Chinese open-weight AI licences carrying additional compliance obligations beyond standard permissive terms like MIT or Apache 2.0, which many other Chinese models otherwise use. _Developers weighing AI model licences track these compliance nuances on daily.dev before adopting open-weight models._ ### Why do bilingual open source licences like the Mulan Permissive Software Licence matter for foreign users? The Mulan Permissive Software Licence version 2.0 and the OpenAtom Model Licence version 1.0 are both written in English and Chinese, but the Chinese-language version legally prevails whenever the two texts conflict, particularly in Chinese jurisdictions. This gives Chinese courts more interpretive control over disputes even for foreign licensees relying on the English text. _Teams adopting Chinese-origin open source licences follow legal nuances like this through daily.dev._ ### Are DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, and GLM considered open source or open weight AI models? These major Chinese AI models are generally open weight rather than open source, meaning the model software and final parameters are released publicly, but the training data and methodology are not disclosed. This distinction matters for reproducibility and transparency claims often made about these models. _Developers comparing open-weight and open-source AI models follow these distinctions on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What’s next for Chinese open-source AI](https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-next-for-chinese-open-source-ai-qxynqisyo) · MIT Technology Review · 29 upvotes · 0 comments - [The state of open source AI models in 2025](https://daily.dev/posts/the-state-of-open-source-ai-models-in-2025-nbwk4nxtr) · Red Hat Developer · 52 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#licensing](https://daily.dev/tags/licensing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-open-source-software-ml4eps1rk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"China is rewriting the rules of open-source software","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-open-source-software-ml4eps1rk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-open-source-software-ml4eps1rk"},"datePublished":"2026-09-01T11:53:57.649Z","dateModified":"2026-09-01T11:54:25.644Z","description":"China is positioning open-source software, hardware, and AI as strategic assets, with government-backed platforms like Gitee, OpenAtom Foundation, openKylin,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/948f65dc0c0e789191d88c79bfd5b11d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/948f65dc0c0e789191d88c79bfd5b11d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCentral","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCentral","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RsqLDZrL--/f_auto/v1717745297/logos/techcentral","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-open-source-software-ml4eps1rk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,licensing","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCentral","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"China is rewriting the rules of open-source software"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-open-source-software-ml4eps1rk#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What licensing conditions does the Kimi K3 model impose on users with high revenue or user counts?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Kimi K3 model licence from Moonshot requires licensees that exceed specific revenue or user thresholds to prominently display the Kimi model name. 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