Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday that China will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies following reports that the Trump administration is considering a ban on DeepSeek for use on US government devices.

"China has always opposed moves to overstretch the concept of national security or politicize trade and tech issues. We will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," Mao said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

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Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the White House is weighing measures to restrict Chinese artificial-intelligence upstart DeepSeek, including potentially banning its chatbot from government devices due to national-security concerns.