China Broadens Travel Curbs To Encompass Family of Top AI Talent
- Reference: 0185891796
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/09/28/2052208/china-broadens-travel-curbs-to-encompass-family-of-top-ai-talent
- Source link:
> China has [2]expanded overseas travel restrictions for top AI professionals in private firms to include the families of key personnel, further tightening measures designed to prevent the outflow of critical know-how and information to the US. Government agencies have recently begun to share the wider restrictions with affected people, which include prominent startup founders as well as the heads of strategically important companies in AI-related fields, people familiar with the matter said. Direct relatives such as spouses and children of certain AI and chip executives, whose work is considered paramount to state security, are now required to obtain approval from Beijing before going abroad even for short trips, the people said.
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> That marks a broadening of existing curbs on the freedom of movement of China's most influential tech talent -- a category that encompasses entrepreneurs, researchers and executives. While not an outright ban on travel, the new requirement is likely to exert a further chilling effect on a tech sector already facing unprecedented curbs. China has restricted foreign travel for top AI professionals in private firms such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and DeepSeek since earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported in May, reflecting Beijing's determination to safeguard its technology as it makes big strides in AI and chipmaking.
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> It's unclear whether all those people's families need to follow the new strictures, the people said. China is also separately implementing rules, which became effective Sept 15, for enforcing exit bans in cases ranging from criminal investigations to potential violations of the country's industrial and technological security. Beijing's plan is to add relevant individuals to the list as time goes by, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a sensitive issue. Government departments have already notified several people of the need to clear family travel, two of the people said.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~schwit1
[2] https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/china-broadens-travel-curbs-to-encompass-family-of-top-ai-talent-126092801465_1.html
How about a nice game of chess? (Score:3)
So last week's "summit" went that well, eh?
That's like the Soviet Union (Score:2)
If you're intelligent and do good things you're punished and not allowed to leave the country.
Re: That's like the Soviet Union (Score:3)
Being rich and well-connected is the real way to have freedom in the Soviet Union, Communist China, or in many ways the capitalist West.
Source (Score:2)
The same source has produced this article: [1]https://www.business-standard.... [business-standard.com]
Right -- it's an Indian publisher.
[1] https://www.business-standard.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/why-india-needs-to-keep-its-ai-push-going-amid-global-calls-for-slowdown-126092800772_1.html
It Must Be a Wonderful Place (Score:3)
If you are talented in some way that benefits the government, you can't leave. If your beliefs don't agree with theirs, they sell your kidneys and heart. Isn't communism great?
Same as the US and every other G7 gov? (Score:3)
Isnâ€(TM)t this the same as what the US is doing for top US nuclear scientists?
I am guessing China got tipped off on extraordinary rendition plans.
That'll get the ol motivation going (Score:2)
Nothing like you and your family being held hostage to get that motivation and productivity going, I'm sure people going into AI research will shoot through the roof after this!
The U.S. should open all immigration from China (Score:2)
The U.S. should just open up all immigration from China. Better having them here than hitting the beaches of Taiwan.
Exit Bans (Score:2)
If, as the article suggests, this is an "Exit Ban" on certain individuals and extending to their family members, that's significantly more restrictive than anything the US has imposed on defense workers and top scientists other than during wartime.
Yes, people with sensitive jobs and a security clearance are strongly discouraged from visiting hostile nations, with a subset even being required to submit their travel plans before any foreign travel, but this is explained clearly when you accept employment dire
China is a totalitarian hell (Score:5, Insightful)
Communism has never been for the people. Just like with the fascists, communism is all about supporting the state, which is all about supporting the people in power. Politics is not a horseshoe. Politics is a ring. There is no real difference when you get to the extremes.
Re: China is a totalitarian hell (Score:2)
Which type of government has consistently been for the people?
Re: (Score:3)
Hint: Find out what kind of government Henry Kissinger considered to be a greater threat than communism.
Re: (Score:2)
Theocracy? That's pretty obvious. Communism had that figured out, too. ;)
Re: China is a totalitarian hell (Score:3)
Individual liberty is at best inconvient and at worst a threat to the state. Authoritarians oppose any idealogy that suggests that you can speak as you please to the government, work where you please, marry who you please, travel as you please, and generally puts individual rights above the needs of the state.
The people that run the world operate contrary to the optimistic propaganda that I was raised on as an American child.
Re: (Score:2)
I was happy when he finally died.
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Anarchy.
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You're right. Some of my friends were banned from travel to communist or communist-adjacent countries during the Cold War, by a supposedly 'freedom-loving' country.
And I don't think Western countries typically allow people under investigation for serious crimes to leave unless they're pedos with connections.
Re: (Score:3)
Try going from East to West Germany. See, same thing asshole.
Re: China is a totalitarian hell (Score:3)
From 1952 to 1972, you needed special authorization to travel within the DDR itself beyond 100 km from your home. Later you could travel to neighboring countries (all Warsaw Pact members) with a passport and permission from your local police department.
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I visited people in Regensburg circa 1987, who had a relative visiting from the DDR. She was age 60+ and eligible for visits under certain limitations. I was in a DDR rail car on a DB ticket for that trip from Munich. Most in that car were age 60+ women and (fewer, "don't mention the war") 65+ men, with cardboard boxes tied with string alongside cardboard luggage tied with string.
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Yeah yeah yeah. China good, America evil. We know the drill by now, CCP troll
Re: China is a totalitarian hell (Score:1)
Evil across the board. Authoritarian one-party systems are evil. And ignorant colonizers are evil. The human race can do much better than China or the US. Aim higher
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Regardless of its faults, China is a serious country like the US and Europe used to be.
Serious countries don't let people with important skills and knowledge travel to hostile countries where they might be kidnapped or defect. It's so obviously a bad idea that it's bizarre that I even have to point it out.
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> You're right. Some of my friends were banned from travel to communist or communist-adjacent countries during the Cold War, by a supposedly 'freedom-loving' country.
You mean like Cuba? Are Americans free to travel there now?
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These were people who worked in defence so anywhere behind the Iron Curtain was right out and I imagine Cuba would have been too. Even Austria was considered a risk, probably because so many spies would hang out there from both sides.
Or so they told me. I can't be entirely sure they weren't exagerrating.
Re: (Score:2)
> These were people who worked in defence so anywhere behind the Iron Curtain was right out and I imagine Cuba would have been too. Even Austria was considered a risk, probably because so many spies would hang out there from both sides.
> Or so they told me. I can't be entirely sure they weren't exagerrating.
Yes, certain destinations were off-limits to people who chose to work in defense, however that falls far shy of this " [1]Exit Ban [bbc.com]".
The US saying " If you travel to Cuba, you may face charges when you return " or even " You have been charged with a specific crime, so you cannot leave until the charges are resolved is significantly different from China saying " You are important to our plans, so you cannot leave the country at all, and neither can your immediate family ", or [2]forbidden a US citizen from leaving beca [theguardian.com]
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqe8x6gkk250o
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/22/china-blocks-us-federal-employee-from-leaving
Re: (Score:1)
Communists and Fascists have very few disagreements and from my perspective look very much alike . Your "ring" is apropos, but the folks here want a partisan shitfight, not a discussion. They want either a reason to bash communists or a way to bash Trump. You've given them neither.
However, it does require some ground rules about how you define political groups. If you visualize a linear scale with "all freedom" on one side (anarchy) and "no freedom" on the other side (tyranny/authoritarianism), then we se
Re:China is a totalitarian hell (Score:4, Interesting)
Communism has never been for the people.
This statement is hard to validate. Human greed, self-interest, and corruption will always prevent the existence of Communism as envisioned by Marx. Maybe it wasn't realistic, but it's hard to see how that vision was not "for the people." Communism is basically a label often more associated (especially in the USA) with authoritarian governments than with communist or even socialist policies. All economies will always be capitalist with some level of direction by the government and some amount of socialist policies.
Re: (Score:1)
So Marx didn't really have a vision. He identified the problem as the ruling class but he couldn't come up with a solution to that. It was basically just fuck it I don't know what to do kill the fuckers was his solution.
But I don't think he ever thought that was a viable solution per se I just don't think he could come up with anything else.
Re: China is a totalitarian hell (Score:2)
Hmm, I never saw anything from Marx that suggested killing, though he may have implied that the masses might uprise, which could lead to extermination of previous leaders. I think he saw collective ownership of the means of production as part of the solution. Maybe his vision wasn't practical or even complete, but I don't think he stated that an alternative to capitalism was impossible. But it is impossible due to factors such as human nature and the inequity of any possible starting place. Hence the need f
Re: China is a totalitarian hell (Score:1)
To be fair, given the state of things in the west today, it's hard to argue that end state capitalism is any better for the citizenry than end state communism. It just has better PR.
China doesn't even have universal Health Care (Score:1)
There's absolutely nothing communist about it. It's a capitalist Nation through and through. They literally have the same healthcare system that America does. You get your health care insurance through your employer and if your employer doesn't offer it you don't have it.
China is what's called anarcho capitalism. Or sometimes what's called a kleptocracy. I wouldn't call them a kekistocracy, that's more like what America is becoming under Donald Trump and his cronies. A kekistocracy is government by the
Re: (Score:2)
> Communism has never been for the people. Just like with the fascists, communism is all about supporting the state, which is all about supporting the people in power. Politics is not a horseshoe. Politics is a ring. There is no real difference when you get to the extremes.
Communism is an economic system. It's orthogonal to government. You can have authoritarian communism or you can have anarcho-communism or anything in between. Just as the existence of banana republics or fascist Germany doesn't negate the existence of democratic capitalist countries, the USSR or PRC does not discount the possibility of a more egalitarian communist state in the future.
I think the lesson of the 20th century is really to be suspicious of vanguard revolutionary movements with a charismatic le