tl;dr: Chinese open-weight models like Kimi K3 and Qwen3 aren't actually cheaper to serve than US frontier models—Anthropic and OpenAI's high prices reflect compute scarcity, not weak cost structures—so the panic over them is largely overblown as intelligence commoditizes. However, Chinese labs gain a structural advantage by distilling Western frontier models, which US open-weight makers can't legally do. The author argues the US should legalize distillation, treat training as fair use, and loosen cybersecurity restrictions on frontier models, since defenders are currently forced to rely on Chinese models to fight AI-driven attacks.