AI is part of China's 5 year plan and been given special blessing by Xi Jinping directly.
That pretty much translates to blank checks from the party without much oversight or expected ROI. The approach is basically brute forcing something into existence rather than organically letting it grow. China is notorious for this approach, ghost cities, high speed rail to nowhere, solar panel production in the face of a huge glut.
Ultimately though, there is an expectation that AI will serve the goals of the party, after all it is their trillions that will be funding it. I guess the core difference is that in the US AI is expected to generate profit, in China it is expected to generate controlled social cohesion.