May 31, 2026 – 12.11pmTokyo | China’s artificial intelligence industry has warned that restricting travel by top researchers and executives will make it even harder to compete with American tech giants that offer multimillion-dollar pay packages to the world’s best AI talent.Chinese authorities have reportedly started requiring some leading AI researchers, founders and executives at private companies including DeepSeek and Alibaba to obtain government approval before travelling overseas.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles