New to this? Read it in simple words
- China wants to limit the export of 23 AI technologies, such as large models and AI agents.
- Some would be banned from leaving China; others would need a licence.
- Using a Chinese model abroad through an app or an API would not count as an export.
- People can comment on the draft until November 15.
- Export controls
- Rules that ban or limit selling or sending certain goods or know-how to other countries.
- Licence
- Official permission from the government that a company needs before it can do something.
- API
- A way for software to use a service over the internet, for example to send questions to an AI model.
China keeps a catalogue of technologies that may not leave the country, or may leave only with a government licence. On October 16, two ministries proposed adding 40 new technologies to it, most of them in AI.
What is on the draft list
The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology published the draft as Announcement No. 48 of 2026. It adds 40 technologies: 23 in AI, 12 in solar power and 5 in biomedicine.
Fourteen of the 40 would be banned from export, and 26 would need a licence, the ministry says. It did not give a separate split for the AI items.
The AI items cover large models, AI agents, computing clusters and information processing. Reuters calls models, agents and computing clusters the three building blocks of China’s AI industry. The solar items include polysilicon production, and the biomedicine items include cell and gene therapy.
From the commerce ministry’s announcement and its spokesperson’s answers of October 16. A draft, open for comment until November 15.
Which AI would be banned or limited
The ban would cover the core technology of large models trained on sensitive national data, AP reports. It would also cover AI agents built for highly sensitive uses, such as national defence and critical information infrastructure.
Models with 2 trillion parameters or more, or with certain world-leading abilities, would need a licence, according to AP. The draft names no models, but AP notes that Moonshot’s Kimi K3 and Alibaba’s Qwen 3.8-Max are above that size.
Several chip design technologies, for some AI chips and memory chips, are also on the list, AP reports.
Sources3
What would not count as an export
A ministry spokesperson explained what the rules would leave alone. Offering a restricted model to foreign users through an API, an app, a website or online software would not be an export of the technology.
Setting up the model on servers abroad would count as an export. When a Chinese company runs it in its own cloud abroad, a simpler licence may be available.
Technology already public through open source or published papers would stay outside the controls. Products made with the listed technologies are not covered either. The ministry says the change is routine and does not target any country, region or entity.
What happens next
The public can send comments until November 15. The ministries gave no date for the final list.
Until the new list takes effect, companies must register before they export any of these technologies. That covers selling or licensing them abroad, and handing control of a company to a foreign owner.
Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the research firm Omdia, told AP the move can be seen as a response to Western rules on control of AI and other key technologies.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1Primary source · October 16, 2026商务部 科技部公告2026年第48号 就修订《中国禁止出口限制出口技术目录》公开征求意见并对相关技术出口实施临时登记管理 China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology
- 2
- 3Research · October 16, 2026China moves to curb tech exports, including AI, citing national security risks AP, via Anchorage Daily News
- 4Research · October 16, 2026China proposes adding 40 AI, biotech, solar technologies to export control list Reuters, via Yahoo News
- 5Research · October 16, 2026China to add AI, biopharma and solar tech to export control list Nikkei Asia
- 6
The list, the exceptions and the dates come from the ministries’ own texts. The 2-trillion-parameter limit and the named models are from AP’s report alone, and the list is still a draft that can change.
China’s draft would ban or license exports of 23 AI technologies; API use and open-source models stay free, and it can still change. How we rate the mood