In order to prevent the disclosure of confidential and advanced Chinese technology information, Beijing authorities have asked the country’s leading entrepreneurs and researchers in the field of artificial intelligence to refrain from traveling to the United States and its allied countries.
Beijing is urging entrepreneurs and senior executives of Chinese companies in sensitive fields such as robotics and artificial intelligence to avoid non-essential travel to the United States and its allies, and has ordered executives who decide to travel to report their plans to authorities before they travel and to report on their activities and meetings upon their return.
According to the report, Chinese officials are concerned that if researchers and executives from AI companies travel to the United States, they will leak information about their country’s achievements to foreign parties.
Furthermore, Chinese officials are concerned that these individuals could be detained and used as leverage in negotiations between the United States and China, a concern that has been highlighted by incidents such as the arrest of a Huawei executive in Canada during President Donald Trump’s first term.
According to the report, Liang Wenfeng, the founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSec, declined an invitation to attend an AI summit in Paris last month.
Also, one of the founders of another major Chinese AI startup canceled a trip to the United States last year after receiving instructions from Beijing.
These events come at a time when China and the United States are engaged in a fierce competition in the field of artificial intelligence.
Recently, Chinese startup DeepSec has released AI models that it claims rival or even surpass advanced US models from OpenAI and Google, while the costs of Chinese products are significantly lower.
Chinese President Xi Jinping also called on some of China’s tech industry leaders to “showcase their talent” and to have confidence in the strength of the Chinese model and market, in a rare meeting.
