"Chinese Authorities Instruct AI Entrepreneurs to Avoid Visiting the US Over Confidentiality Leak Concerns"

WSJ: Concerns Over Detention and Use as Bargaining Chips
"Detailed Reports Required on Contacts After Returning"

Chinese authorities have instructed their AI-related entrepreneurs and researchers to avoid traveling to Western countries, including the United States, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 1st.

According to WSJ, citing informed sources, Chinese authorities took this measure out of concern that AI experts might leak confidential information or be detained abroad and used as bargaining chips in US-China negotiations, similar to Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's vice chairwoman, who was arrested in Canada in 2018 at the request of the US.

Industry insiders said that while Chinese authorities have not outright banned AI experts from traveling to Western countries, such directives have been issued in tech hubs including Shanghai, Beijing, and Zhejiang Province, where Alibaba and DeepSeek headquarters are located.

According to these insiders, Chinese authorities recommend that executives of major companies in strategically sensitive industries such as AI and robotics avoid visiting the US and its allied countries unless absolutely necessary.

When visiting Western countries, businesspeople are instructed to report their travel plans to the authorities beforehand and to report what they did and whom they met in the visited country upon return, the sources said.

Because of this, there have been cases where invitations from Western countries were declined or travel plans canceled, WSJ reported. Citing sources familiar with the situation, the newspaper said that DeepSeek founder Liang Yuanfeng was invited to the 3rd AI Action Summit held in Paris, France, on the 10th?11th of last month but declined. Some sources also said that a major Chinese AI startup founder canceled a US visit plan last year under instructions from the authorities.

The AI sector has recently emerged as a battleground in the technological hegemony competition between the US and China. DeepSeek, which caused a global sensation with low training costs and high-performance models, and Alibaba, which announced large-scale AI investment plans, have challenged leading US companies such as OpenAI and Google.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.