For China’s top AI researchers, borders are rapidly closing. Researchers, startup founders and executives from private companies are currently subject to travel restrictions, with some industry figures reportedly required to obtain government approval before traveling abroad.
The restrictions reflect a broader shift in how the Chinese government manages brain drain in the AI field, with demand for talent training and fine-tuning AI models surging as the global technology industry taps into this new avenue in search of growth.
In March 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese authorities were advising top AI founders and researchers to avoid traveling to the United States, an early sign of how closely the Chinese government was increasingly guarding AI as both an economic asset and a national security priority.
The restrictions appear to have tightened as the Chinese government focused on the Manus Meta agreement. According to the Financial Times, China has barred two of Manus’ co-founders from leaving the country while regulators investigate whether Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of the AI startup violates Beijing’s foreign investment rules. Manas’ co-founders are said to be currently exploring options to meet the Chinese government’s demands for an end to the partnership, including raising about $1 billion from outside investors to buy the company back from the social media giant.
The AI race between East and West has never been closer. The performance gap between top models in the U.S. and China has narrowed from about 31% in 2023 to just 2.7% as of March 2026, according to new metrics from Stanford University, raising new questions about how long the U.S. can maintain its lead.
Although the United States remains in the lead in terms of model quality and high-impact patents, China is rapidly catching up, if not surpassing, American AI research institutes in the volume of publications, citations, and patents.
In addition to travel restrictions, China will reportedly continue to monitor the flow of US capital into top AI companies, with tech companies such as Moonshot AI, Stepfan and ByteDance reportedly planning to seek government approval before accepting US capital, Bloomberg reported in April.
News of the travel restrictions follows an escalating series of economic measures, with the Chinese government imposing two-tier export controls on 14 rare earth materials essential to manufacturing high-tech munitions in 2025, as well as banning state-funded data centers from introducing foreign AI chips.
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