Chinese authorities are instructing the country’s top artificial intelligence (AI) entrepreneurs and researchers to avoid travel to the US, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The authorities are concerned that Chinese AI experts traveling abroad could divulge confidential information about the nation’s progress, the newspaper said.
Authorities also fear that executives could be detained and used as a bargaining chip in US-China negotiations, the Journal said, drawing parallels to the detention of a Huawei executive in Canada at Washington’s request during the first administration of US President Donald Trump.
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The White House and the Chinese State Council Information Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Executives at leading Chinese companies in AI and other strategically sensitive industries, such as robotics, are being discouraged from traveling to the US and its allies unless absolutely necessary, the Journal report said.
Executives who choose to travel are instructed to report their plans before leaving and, upon returning, to brief authorities on what they did and whom they met, the report said.
Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng (梁文鋒) declined an invitation to attend an AI summit in Paris last month, the report said.
Another founder of a major Chinese AI start-up canceled a planned US trip last year following instructions from Beijing, the Journal added.
US and China are locked in a global AI race, with DeepSeek in January launching AI models that it claims rival or surpass US industry leaders like OpenAI and Google, at significantly lower cost.
Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) held a rare meeting with some of the biggest names in China’s technology sector, urging them to “show their talent” and be confident in the power of China’s model and market.
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