New trade secret rules: China says its AI data is none of your business

EuroNews · 🇫🇷 public France · Jun 02, 2026 · 319 words · By Anna Desmarais

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What to know about New trade secret rules: China says its AI data is none of your business

Under new Chinese regulations, any algorithm, dataset or program not publicly disclosed now counts as a trade secret.

Claims checked 13

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center100%

Right0%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Under new Chinese regulations, any algorithm, dataset or program not publicly disclosed now counts as a trade secret.

Why it matters

Algorithms and computer programmes are now considered trade secrets by the Chinese government.

Common ground

The new regulations, called “Trade Secret Protection,” went into effect on Monday.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: New trade secret rules: China says its AI data is none of your business?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Under new Chinese regulations, any algorithm, dataset or program not publicly disclosed now counts as a trade secret?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/06/02/new-trade-secret-rules-china-says-its-a…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 13 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 6

schedule Pending 3

help Insufficient Evidence 2

verified Verified By Reference 1

info Single Source 1

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Claim 1: “Under new Chinese regulations, any algorithm, dataset or program not publicly disclosed now counts as a trade secret.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results (Yahoo News Canada and Euronews) confirm that under new Chinese regulations, non-publicly disclosed algorithms, datasets, and programs are considered trade secrets.

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web search NEUTRAL — Under new Chinese regulations, any algorithm, dataset or program not publicly disclosed now counts as a trade secret.View on euronews.Algorithms and computer programmes are now considered trade secret…
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trade-secret-rules-china-says-1043…

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web search NEUTRAL — Know what others in the room don’t, with features including: Daily newsletters for Antitrust, M&A, Trade, Data Privacy & Security, Technology, AI and more. Custom alerts on specific filters including …
https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2379487/chinese-internet-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Released by the Cyberspace Administration of China and three other government bodies on 4 January 2022, the Provisions come into effect from 1 March 2022 and regulate the use of algorithm technology t…
https://www.thesquare.blog/2022/01/19/china-issues-algorithm…

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Claim 2: “People or companies can report whether their trade secrets have been divulged, and if an investigation by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) confirms that, a fine of up to 5 million yuan (€630,000) could be issued.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm that the SAMR promulgated the Regulations on the Protection of Trade Secrets in February 2026 and that fines for serious cases can reach between 1 million and 5 million yuan.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The National Medical Products Administration (NMPA; 国家药品监督管理局) is a national bureau responsible for drug supervision under the State Council of China and is managed by the State Administration for Mar…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Medical_Products_Admi…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR; 国家市场监督管理总局; Guójiā Shìchǎng Jiāndū Guǎnlǐ Zǒngjú) is a ministerial-level non-cabinet agency directly under the State Council of the People's Repub…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Administration_for_Marke…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) of the People's Republic of China is an administrative agency under the State Council tasked with drafting rules and regulations governing foreign e…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Administration_of_Foreig…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 3: “This week, China also issued sweeping new rules to tighten overseas deals that involve Chinese investors, technology, data and national security.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the search results regarding new rules issued 'this week' to tighten overseas deals involving Chinese investors and national security.

schedule

Claim 4: “The Chinese state is conducting what they call a “Enterprise Trade Secret Protection Capacity Enhancement Service,” month in June, as they have every year since 2023.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

help

Claim 5: “in May, Beijing blocked Meta’s acquisition of China-founded Manus, one of the country’s top AI companies.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the search results regarding Meta's attempted acquisition of a company called Manus or a block by the Chinese government in May.

verified

Claim 6: “The regulation sets out strict measures for remote work and cross-border collaboration, including access controls, data anonymisation to mask personally identifiable information, and detailed logs of who has accessed, copied or modified data.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of general definitions of trade and unrelated Wikipedia entries for EU/German laws. No evidence was found specifically linking the Chinese Trade Secret Protection regulations to mandates for data anonymization or logs for remote work/cross-border collaboration.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Directive (EU) 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure is a directive of the European Par…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_the_Protection_of…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The German Law on the Protection of Trade Secrets (German: Gesetz zum Schutz von Geschäftsgeheimnissen), or Trade Secrets Law in short (German: GeschGehG), serves to protect business secrets against u…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_on_the_Protection_of_Trade…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A trade secret is a type of intellectual property that protects a formula, process, or other business information that is valuable because it is not generally known or readily ascertainable and that t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secret

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 7: “The new regulations are the first update to China’s trade secrets rules since 1998 and now explicitly mention AI and data as falling under the law.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 8: “Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the government is restricting the movement of its AI talent”

CORROBORATED

Web search results specifically cite Bloomberg reporting that China is restricting overseas travel/movement for top AI professionals and researchers.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The India AI Impact Summit 2026 (also abbreviated as the AI Impact Summit) was an international summit on artificial intelligence held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, India, from 16 to 21 February 2026…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_AI_Impact_Summit_2026

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Moonshot AI (Moonshot; Chinese: 月之暗面; pinyin: Yuè Zhī Ànmiàn; lit. 'Dark Side of the Moon') is an artificial intelligence (AI) company based in Beijing, China. It has been dubbed one of China's "AI Ti…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonshot_AI

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co., Ltd., branded internationally as Z.ai, is a Chinese technology company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI). The company was formerly known as Zhipu…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z.ai

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 9: “During the month, they will hold business trainings to “cultivate awareness” and conduct risk assessments with the new regulations.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 10: “Anything that has already been described in the media or in open reports is not considered a trade secret.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While general legal principles of trade secrets (found in WIPO and other guides) state that public information is not a trade secret, there is no specific corroboration in the provided evidence that this specific Chinese regulation explicitly lists 'media or open reports' as the exclusion criteria.

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web search NEUTRAL — Trade secrecy law generally protects information that is secret, commercially valuable because it is secret, and subject to reasonable efforts to protect its secrecy. Trade secret protections are dist…
https://www.hhrjournal.org/2021/06/16/addressing-the-risks-t…

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web search NEUTRAL — While all trade secrets are confidential, not all confidential information meets the threshold of a trade secret. For example, employee records or internal policies are confidential but usually lack t…
https://aaronhall.com/when-confidential-info-is-not-legally-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Trade Secrets and Federal Law. Any kind of financial, business, technical, economic, engineering, or scientific information is considered a trade secret under law. This also includes things like: Comp…
https://www.upcounsel.com/government-non-disclosure-agreemen…

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Claim 11: “The rules say that any “information related to technology, such as structure, raw materials, formula, materials, samples, patterns, processes, methods, data, algorithms, computer programmes and codes,” is considered a trade secret.”

CORROBORATED

Web search results confirm that the new provisions define trade secrets to include technical information such as structures, formulas, data, algorithms, and computer programs.

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 12: “The new regulations, called “Trade Secret Protection,” went into effect on Monday.”

CORROBORATED

Web search results from multiple sources confirm the existence of the 'Trade Secret Protection' regulations and their effective date in early 2026 (specifically mentioning February 6, 2026, as the date of a report stating they went into effect on Monday).

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The King's Woman (Chinese: 秦时丽人明月心) is a 2017 Chinese television series starring Dilraba Dilmurat and Vin Zhang. It is adapted from the novel The Legend of Qin: Li Ji Story (秦时明月之丽姬传). The series aire…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King's_Woman

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump, then a former president of the United States and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election, survived an assassination attempt wh…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Don…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Story of Yanxi Palace (Chinese: 延禧攻略; pinyin: Yánxǐgōnglüè) is a 2018 Chinese television series created by Yu Zheng for iQIYI. Starring Wu Jinyan, Charmaine Sheh, Qin Lan and Nie Yuan, the series aire…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Yanxi_Palace

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 13: “Technical or business information that “is not publicly known, has commercial value,” and is confidential also falls under the regulation.”

CORROBORATED

Web search results confirm that trade secrets in China are defined as confidential technical or business information that is not generally known and possesses commercial value.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The new Regulation will replace the 1995 Provisions on Prohibiting Infringement of Trade Secrets. This marks the most significant update to China’s administrative trade secret protection framework in …
https://intellectual-property-helpdesk.ec.europa.eu/news-eve…

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web search NEUTRAL — [Michael's Chinese Law Series-Compliance & Dispute Resolution] In China, trade secrets are protected as a form of intellectual property, defined as confidential technical or business information that …
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenge-proving-trade-secre…

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web search NEUTRAL — In essence, trade secret protection applies to confidential “information,” which can include technical and scientific information, business and commercial information as well as financial information.
https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/wipo-guide-to-trade-se…

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.