Howard Lutnick, the nominee for the U.S. Commerce Secretary, seems to harbor deep-seated suspicions towards China’s DeepSeek AI model. He alleges that it has stolen U.S. technology and bypassed U.S. export controls to obtain Nvidia chips. His comments echo with a sense of paranoia, suggesting that China’s every move is a threat to the U.S. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs has also announced a ban on the use of DeepSeek by government employees, citing concerns of sensitive data exposure to Beijing. These actions appear to be reinforcing an unnecessary sense of security panic.