How To Protect Trade Secrets In China When Employees Leave

As China continues to develop truly world-class e-commerce and other Internet and technology companies like Alibaba, Huawei, and others, a new problem is rearing its head for these and other companies. In what has long been a nearly time-honored tradition in California's Silicon Valley, many employees of such Chinese businesses are leaving to either work for a competitor or start their own company.

In the process of leaving, these employees often (whether intentionally or unintentionally) take with them valuable skills learned at their now ex-employer and, more importantly for that company, potentially company trade secrets as well.  Whether these are proprietary ways of doing business, ideas that are being developed by the employee's soon to be ex-employer, or other inside information that is not publicly available, the departure of employees and preventing those employees from disclosing that information is a critical business challenge for Chinese employers.