China’s growing open-source community is no secret; the success of labs such as DeepSeek and Moonshot AI brought a major spotlight to the country's abilities in 2025, and the Chinese government has "embraced openness" as a soft power instrument, according to the Tony Blair Institute.
Additionally, the past few years have seen a surge of open-source projects expanding beyond Chinese borders, joining global foundations and being picked up by international developers.
Apache Software Foundation (ASF) Vice Chair Justin Mclean tells The Stack his organisation has definitely seen a rise in projects contributed from China.
Of the foundation’s 28 current incubating projects, 10 began life at a Chinese tech company, with Alibaba, Ant Group and Xiaomi being some of the biggest contributors from the country.
Their involvement undoubtedly shows open-source technology's power to unite developers across borders. But the Chinese government's involvement and AI strategy, murky licensing practices, and its prolific state-backed hacking campaigns have also raised questions about why China's community is growing, and how other countries should react.
