China is increasingly keeping its best AI talent to itself

China is increasingly implementing strict measures to retain its top AI talent. Researchers, startup founders, and executives are now reportedly facing travel restrictions, with some prominent figures requiring government approval before traveling abroad. This reflects Beijing's broader effort to manage brain drain in the AI sector, which is experiencing high demand for talent to develop and refine AI models.

These restrictions escalated following China's focus on the Manus-Meta deal. Chinese regulators are investigating Meta's $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus, preventing Manus' co-founders from leaving the country. The co-founders are exploring options to unwind the deal, including raising $1 billion to buy back the company.

China views AI as both an economic asset and a national security priority. This is evident in earlier reports from March 2025, when Chinese authorities advised top AI founders and researchers to avoid traveling to the U.S. In addition to travel restrictions, China plans to control U.S. capital flow into its leading AI firms, requiring government approval for companies like Moonshot AI, StepFun, and ByteDance to accept American investments.

The AI race between the East and the West is tightening. Stanford's latest index shows the performance gap between top U.S. and Chinese AI models has significantly shrunk to 2.7% as of March 2026, down from approximately 31% in 2023. While the U.S. still leads in model quality and high-impact patents, China is rapidly catching up, and in some areas outpacing American AI labs, in publications, citations, and patent volume. This intensifying competition underlies China's strategic moves to safeguard its AI expertise.