China imposes travel restrictions on top AI researchers and founders, requiring government approval before they leave the country.

Chinese authorities are now subject to travel restrictions on researchers, startup founders and executives at private firms. In March 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese authorities had been advising top AI founders and researchers to avoid traveling to the U.S. Meta's $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus has led regulators to bar Manus' two co-founders from leaving the country while they investigate whether the deal complies with Beijing's foreign investment rules.

China plans to require government sign-off before tech companies like Moonshot AI, StepFun, and ByteDance can accept American capital, according to Bloomberg reporting in April. The restrictions follow earlier measures including two rounds of export controls on 14 rare earth materials in 2025 and a ban on state-funded data centers deploying foreign AI chips.

Stanford's latest index shows the performance gap between the top U.S. and Chinese AI models had shrunk to 2.7% as of March 2026, from about 31% in 2023. While the U.S. still dominates in model quality and high-impact patents, China is catching up or outpacing American AI labs in publications, citations and patent volume.