"China Expands Overseas Travel Restrictions to Families of Key AI Talent to Prevent Technology Leaks"

[Financial News] Chinese authorities are reportedly expanding overseas travel restrictions imposed on key personnel in the artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor sectors to include their families, such as spouses and children.
According to foreign media reports on the 28th, local time, Chinese authorities have recently begun notifying some key personnel in the AI and semiconductor sectors of the expanded restrictions on overseas travel.
Those affected include prominent startup founders and executives at strategic AI-related companies. Sources said that the spouses, children and other family members of some executives in the AI and semiconductor sectors whose work is deemed important to national security by the Chinese government must also obtain prior approval from the Chinese authorities to travel abroad.
The measure further tightens restrictions on the overseas movement of key technology personnel, which China has imposed to prevent technology leaks as it builds its capabilities in AI.
In May, Chinese authorities began restricting overseas travel by top AI experts at private-sector companies such as Alibaba Group and DeepSeek. China has long restricted overseas travel by key personnel, including leading university researchers, nuclear scientists, and employees of state-owned enterprises. In some cases, similar measures have also been applied to their families.
More recently, as China has begun treating talent in AI and advanced technology as strategic assets, it has expanded the scope of those subject to oversight to include technical personnel in the private sector.
As Chinese authorities step up efforts to prevent technology leaks and make this a major policy goal, AI engineers and other workers in strategic fields who want to pursue careers abroad are now being forced to choose early in their careers whether to remain in China or go overseas.
The expanded restrictions began to tighten further after Meta Platforms, a United States-based company, moved to acquire Manus, a Chinese AI startup, amid concerns among Chinese authorities about the overseas leakage of key AI and semiconductor technologies and talent.
The Chinese government moved to block the deal, saying it would examine whether the transaction was subject to technology export controls, and officially ordered the deal's withdrawal in April. After Manus announced last month that it would operate as an "independent company," Meta Platforms' acquisition attempt was scrapped four months after the Chinese government's order to withdraw from the deal.
Separately, China began enforcing new entry-and-exit regulations on the 15th that allow authorities to restrict Chinese nationals from leaving the country if they may harm national industrial or technological security by violating export controls or technology import and export management rules.
[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, international affairs specialist Reporter