Matt Pottinger, who served as a senior White House Asia advisor during Trump’s first term, told a congressional hearing that the administration is on the “wrong track” on AI and that its decision to allow the chip sales will damage its goal of winning the AI race.

Selling H200s to China “will supercharge Beijing’s military modernization, enhancing capabilities in everything from nuclear weapons to cyber warfare, autonomous drones, biological warfare and intelligence and influence operations,” he said. “Congress needs to put guardrails in place so that this mistake can’t be repeated,” he added.

Some Republican lawmakers echoed his concerns, without explicitly condemning the policy change. “They steal so much intellectual property from this country but we don’t have to sell it to them,” Congressman Michael McCaul said, without referencing H200s specifically.

National security fears around Beijing’s access to American AI chips had prompted the Biden administration to bar sales of the prized semiconductors to China.