China moves to put frontier AI models, agents and compute clusters on its export-control list

China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, proposed adding 40 technologies, 23 of them in AI, to the country's catalogue of technologies banned or restricted from export, and ordered exporters to register affected deals starting immediately.

For two years Washington has been the one writing AI export rules; now Beijing is drafting its own, and it's aimed at the crown jewels — model weights and the know-how to train them — not the chat window. The carve-outs say a lot: sell Chinese AI to the world as an API all day, but shipping the weights abroad, licensing the know-how, or selling the company that owns it to a foreign buyer now starts with a registration form. Open-source releases already out are exempt; the next one may come with paperwork.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Ministry of Science and Technology issued Announcement No. 48 of 2026 on Oct. 16, 2026, proposing to revise the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export. The ministries cite the Foreign Trade Law and the Technology Import and Export Regulations. Those lines are the announcement's.

The draft adds 40 technologies in three fields: 23 in AI, related to large models, agents, computing clusters, and information processing; 5 in biomedicine (cell and gene therapy, small nucleic acid drugs, pathogenic microorganisms); and 12 in solar and photovoltaics (polysilicon, wafer, and cell manufacturing, including key equipment). Those counts are the ministries'.

A ministry spokesperson said 14 of the 40 would be prohibited and 26 restricted. Named examples: "AI-driven malicious code generation and mutation technology" as prohibited, and "AI-assisted vulnerability discovery technology" as restricted. Those lines are the spokesperson's.

Technologies already in the public domain through open-source release or published academic papers are excluded. Those lines are the ministries'.

Public comment runs from Oct. 16 to Nov. 15, 2026, by email, fax, or mail to MOFCOM's Security and Control Bureau. The catalogue revision is a draft for comment, not a finished law.

An interim measure is in force from the announcement date until the revised catalogue takes effect: exporters must register on MOFCOM's technology trade platform before exporting any listed technology, including exports already under way but not completed. Covered cases, as the ministries list them: transferring ownership of technology abroad, such as an intellectual-property transfer; licensing domestic technology for use abroad; a change of the technology's owner or actual controller to a foreign entity; and other cases MOFCOM specifies.

On AI "going overseas," the spokesperson said localized overseas deployment of a restricted AI technology counts as technology export. Deployment on a company's own overseas cloud may qualify for facilitation such as automatic licensing. Serving a restricted large model to foreign users through API calls, app or web interaction, software-as-a-service, or lightweight on-device deployment is not large-model technology export. An API is the machine door other software uses to call a model. Those lines are the spokesperson's.

The spokesperson said the scope is "precise and limited" and that the vast majority of AI technologies will still be freely exportable after the measures take effect. Bloomberg independently reported the proposal on Oct. 16. Those lines are the spokesperson's and Bloomberg's.

The picture is the Ministry of Commerce web page for Announcement No. 48 of 2026: the ministry header with the national emblem and the title on revising the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export. It is a screenshot of the official announcement page. The frame does not print a calendar date.

In plain terms, China's commerce and science ministries said on Friday that they want 40 technologies — 23 of them in AI, plus biomedicine and solar manufacturing — on the country's export ban-or-restrict list, with 14 prohibited and 26 restricted. Exporters must register listed deals now. Shipping weights, licenses, or the company that owns the know-how abroad is in scope; an API, app, or SaaS window is not. Open-source releases already out are exempt. The list is still a draft through Nov. 15.