[Beijing Diary] Will Chinese MS Employees Choose Yun?

Recently, Microsoft (MS) China sent proposals to hundreds of local employees asking if they were willing to relocate to overseas work locations, sparking widespread attention. According to local media such as China’s Pengpai News and social networking services (SNS) like Xiaohongshu, it has been confirmed that hundreds of employees from the company’s Azure cloud platform artificial intelligence (AI) team received the related proposals.

The destinations include the United States, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. The company will handle issues related to visa and relocation, and employees must respond by the 7th of next month. Employees can also choose to remain in China. The company explained that the reason for sending this proposal was to meet the demand for AI engineers arising in various locations.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

This situation has led to various interpretations. In particular, the dominant analysis is that it is part of the U.S.’s talent poaching efforts to suppress China’s AI development capabilities. In the ambiguous environment of being a Chinese subsidiary of a U.S. tech company, MS’s local business is now facing obstacles unlike in the past. In fact, at an AI-related Senate subcommittee hearing last September, MS President Brad Smith was asked to disclose the company’s investment scale in AI development in China and the number of Communist Party members among its employees.

Last year, China accounted for only 1.5% of MS’s revenue. In 2021, MS withdrew its LinkedIn business, a social media platform for professionals, from China and also shut down the recruitment app ‘Incare.’ Unlike Google, MS’s search engine Bing was accessible within China, but the recently launched AI search does not operate in China, which is also significant.

At MS Research Asia, Chinese researchers are prohibited from early access to GPT-4 beta and core technologies. At the same time, research work on quantum computing, facial recognition, and synthesis technologies is also restricted. According to previous reports, since June last year, MS has started visa procedures to relocate dozens of AI experts from Beijing, China, to its research institute in Vancouver, Canada.

Regarding MS’s recent proposal, Hu Xijin, a pro-government commentator and former editor of Global Times, wrote on his SNS, “MS is trying to separate technology (from China),” emphasizing that “China needs to find ways to retain AI talent.” However, he also wrote, “Many people want to go to the U.S. for development. China should create more opportunities to participate in pioneering innovation and build an environment that fosters individual creativity.”

Some view MS’s relocation proposal as a form of “disguised layoffs,” while others see it as a strategy to help employees exit ahead of a withdrawal from the Chinese market. The term “Run,” derived from the English pronunciation, is used in China as “潤 (Run),” meaning an opportunity to “escape.” In China, “Run” often refers to leaving the mainland, where control and censorship are strict, to work and live elsewhere. The choices of MS’s Chinese employees are now eagerly anticipated.