Chinese authorities are reportedly urging the country’s top artificial intelligence entrepreneurs and researchers to avoid travel to the United States, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal. The directive stems from concerns that Chinese AI experts could inadvertently reveal confidential information about the nation’s progress in the field while abroad, potentially compromising their work.
Furthermore, authorities fear that executives could be detained and used as leverage in U.S.-China negotiations, drawing parallels to the case of a Huawei executive detained in Canada at Washington’s request during the first Trump administration.
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Executives at leading Chinese companies involved in AI and other strategically sensitive industries, such as robotics, are being discouraged from traveling to the U.S. and its allies unless absolutely necessary, the Journal reported. Individuals who do choose to travel are instructed to report their plans to authorities prior to departure and to provide a debriefing upon their return, detailing their activities and any meetings that occurred during their trip.
In a telling example, Liang Wenfeng, the founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, declined an invitation to attend an AI summit in Paris in February, according to the report. Another founder of a major Chinese AI startup purportedly canceled a scheduled U.S. trip last year following instructions from Beijing officials.
The move comes as the U.S. and China are locked in a fierce global race for dominance in artificial intelligence. DeepSeek, for instance, recently unveiled AI models that it claims rival or surpass those of U.S. industry leaders like OpenAI and Google, but at a significantly reduced cost. In February, President Xi Jinping met with key figures from China’s technology sector, urging them to leverage their talents and express confidence in China’s technological and market models.
