Growing Chinese Communist Party involvement in DeepSeek: Banning employees from going abroad

In a recent development for the Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek, its rising popularity has led to increased interference from the Chinese authorities regarding the company’s normal operations.

According to a report from the American technology information website The Information on Friday, in recent weeks, DeepSeek’s management has prohibited some employees involved in artificial intelligence model development from traveling abroad.

Sources familiar with the company’s operations revealed that the leadership at DeepSeek has been concerned about the possibility of information leaks and has repeatedly instructed employees not to discuss their work with outsiders. The research and development team of DeepSeek is primarily based in Beijing.

Simultaneously, two other sources disclosed that the parent company of DeepSeek, Huanfang Capital, based in Zhejiang Province, has begun screening all potential investors before allowing them to meet with the company’s management.

To enforce the travel restrictions, three sources mentioned that DeepSeek and its parent company, Huanfang Capital, have requested some employees to submit their passports. According to one insider, the company stated that these employees’ work involves accessing information that could constitute commercial or even national secrets.

Authorities typically restrict overseas travel for government officials or executives of state-owned enterprises, regardless of whether they are Communist Party members. However, in recent years, these restrictions have expanded to include public sector employees such as school teachers and ordinary staff of state-owned enterprises.

Despite this, restrictions are now affecting employees of private startups like DeepSeek, a situation that is considered rare. DeepSeek, established just two years ago, has never raised any external funding as its research is entirely funded by its parent company, Huanfang Capital.

Sources familiar with the company mentioned that DeepSeek has approximately 130 employees, while Huanfang Capital has about 200 employees.

Financial advisors attempting to connect potential investors with DeepSeek stated that in recent weeks, some investors seeking investment opportunities were informed by DeepSeek that they first needed to contact the Zhejiang Provincial Party Office and register their investment inquiries with officials there.

According to The Information, venture capitalists and tech giants like Alibaba are eagerly seeking to invest in the company, although founder Liang Wenfeng remains cautious about raising external capital.

Additionally, some Chinese headhunters offering potential job opportunities to DeepSeek employees reported receiving calls from Zhejiang government officials instructing them not to poach talent from DeepSeek.

A wave of DeepSeek frenzy has swept across various regions in China. Both local governments and state-owned enterprises are competing to integrate the open-source DeepSeek model into their IT infrastructure and workflows.

The unexpected changes have raised a question about DeepSeek’s future prospects under the interference of the Chinese government.

DeepSeek, Huanfang Capital, and the Zhejiang Provincial Government did not immediately respond to The Information’s requests for comment sent via email and fax.

In late January, DeepSeek released a large language model that garnered global attention due to its low training costs. Subsequently, it was touted by the Chinese government as a symbol of technological innovation. However, there are industry reservations about whether the training of DeepSeek’s AI models includes high-end chips from the United States.

DeepSeek’s CEO, Liang Wenfeng, has been invited to attend two gatherings of the highest circles of power – one with Chinese President Xi Jinping and another with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Normally, only the leaders of China’s largest companies are permitted to attend meetings with top officials and appear in official state media.