Deepseek Engineers

China has announced that Deepseek has now been classified as a National Treasure and the Chinese Government has confiscated the passports of Deepseek’s engineers and their key executives to prevent them travelling.

This apparently is to prevent any leak of information of Deepseek’s engineering processes to the outside world.

I wonder if it’s a bane or boon to be classified as working for a national treasure. Does this ban also apply to the close family members? What if they quit working at Deepseek? Would the ban continue? For how long? Perhaps indefinitely?

Yesterday at lunch I was told that many people in China are under a travel ban. The list includes senior executives at key companies, civil servants and professors at prestigious institutes.

According to him, unlike in the past, top students in China are now prohibited from coming to Singapore to study because the Government is afraid that they would not go back to China after finishing their studies.

I wonder how it feels to become so clever or important or high up in a key organisation that you end up being put under a travel ban.

It’s true that China is huge and there are many things to see and do there but surely there will always be a yearning to want to see the outside world?

I would have thought that for professors, attending conferences and meeting people from other countries and sharing research and experience is critical.

Even for a key engineer surely  sharing ideas and listening to other views can expand one’s horizons I would have thought.

I do wonder how those placed under this ban feel about the  prohibition against any travel outside your country?

Would a Chinese engineer, or a top professor student, who is presently overseas, want to go back to China if you thought there was a remote chance you can never leave China thereafter?

I wonder how other countries would view such a protectionist attitude. It is apparently alright for your people to study, work, learn and take information from elsewhere but if your information is deemed sufficiently important, it is protected by drastic travel bans to prevent any leaks.