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.
Photo: Reuters
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.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS