DeepSeek employees are not allowed to travel, and their passports have been confiscated
Chinese authorities have seized DeepSeek employees' passports, details revealed
For Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek, the immediate impact of the explosion in popularity has been the increasing meddling of Chinese Communist Party authorities in the company's normal operations.
On Friday (March 14), U.S. tech information website The Information, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported that in recent weeks, DeepSeek's management has banned some of its employees involved in the development of artificial intelligence models from traveling abroad.
According to three people familiar with the company's operations, DeepSeek's leadership has been concerned about the possibility of information leaks, and has repeatedly told employees not to discuss their work with outsiders.DeepSeek's research and development team is mainly based in Beijing.
Meanwhile, the government of Zhejiang province, where DeepSeek's parent company High-Flyer is headquartered, has begun screening all potential investors before allowing them to meet with DeepSeek's management, according to two other people familiar with the matter.
Restrictions on Officials Traveling Abroad for Private Startups Extremely Rare
In order to enforce the travel restrictions, DeepSeek and its parent company, High-Flyer, have asked some of its employees to turn in their personal passports, three people familiar with the matter said. The company said the employees' jobs gave them access to confidential information that could constitute trade secrets or even state secrets, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Authorities typically restrict overseas travel by government officials or executives of state-owned companies. But in recent years, such restrictions have been extended to public sector workers, such as schoolteachers and ordinary employees of state-owned enterprises.