China Proposes Export Controls on 23 AI Technologies, From Large Models to Compute Clusters

China wants a say over where its most advanced AI goes. On October 16, 2026, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology published Announcement No. 48 of 2026, a draft revision of the country’s Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export.

What’s on the list

The draft adds 40 technologies across three fields: artificial intelligence, biomedicine and photovoltaics. 23 of them are AI technologies, covering large models, agents, computing clusters and information processing. Biomedicine accounts for 5 (cell and gene therapy, small nucleic acid drugs and pathogenic microorganisms), and photovoltaics for 12 (polysilicon, silicon wafer and solar cell manufacturing).

In a Q&A carried by CCTV, a Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said 14 of the 40 would be banned from export, including AI-driven malicious code generation and mutation technology, and 26 would be restricted, including AI-assisted vulnerability discovery. The detailed technical thresholds sit in an attachment to the announcement.

What’s left out

The announcement says AI technologies that have already entered the public domain through open source or published academic papers are not covered. The spokesperson added that companies using restricted large models to offer API calls, app or web interactions, SaaS products or lightweight on-device deployments abroad fall outside large-model export controls, while deploying a restricted model locally on overseas servers would count as an export. Open-source AI exports, self-run overseas computing centers and overseas chip tape-outs are set to get automatic licensing and other easier procedures.

Register first, starting now

The rules aren’t final, but one part already applies. From the day of the announcement until the revised catalogue takes effect, anyone exporting a listed technology must register first on the ministry’s technology trade platform. That covers transferring ownership of a technology abroad, licensing it for overseas use, or a change of owner or controller to a foreign entity, and it includes exports that have started but are not yet finished.

Have your say

The public can comment from October 16 to November 15, 2026, by email, fax or letter to the ministry’s Bureau of Security and Control. The ministry says the revision does not target any specific country, region or entity.