The article has been published in the March issue of the 2012 edition of the German legal review called “Recht der Internationalen Wirtschaft (RIW)”, i.e. a prominent specialist legal journal on various aspects of international economic law published since 1954. The article focuses on the potential conflicts and tensions that arise between the legitimate goals of protecting trade and business secrets on the one hand and of safeguarding of the freedom of work on the other. While tensions of this sort arise in many different jurisdictions, particularly against the backdrop of a rapidly globalizing world economy, the present article yields several interesting insights from the legislative experience and legal culture of the People’s Republic of China. More concretely, the article offers practical solutions to these problems by taking account of the principles of necessity and proportionality as well as the Chinese principle of Zhong Yong (practice of the mean)