China’s proposed AI export controls carve out exemptions for open-source work and overseas services

China’s commerce and science ministries have proposed adding 23 artificial-intelligence technologies to the country’s export-control catalogue, covering areas including large models, AI agents, computing clusters and information processing. The proposal is part of a wider revision spanning 40 technologies in AI, biomedicine and solar power. The public can comment through Nov. 15.

The proposal is not yet a final set of controls. The ministries’ Oct. 16 announcement says the draft divides the 40 proposed additions into 14 technologies whose export would be prohibited and 26 whose export would be restricted. A temporary requirement to register before exporting listed technologies took effect when the announcement was issued and is intended to last until the revised catalogue formally takes effect. It also covers exports already begun but not yet completed.

For large models, the draft would cover weights, source code and other core components. TNW reports that the criteria include models with at least 2 trillion parameters or models ranking among the world’s top 10 on measures such as performance and safety. The draft itself does not name models; TNW cited Bloomberg and the Associated Press for examples that might meet the size threshold.

The proposed AI list also includes chip-design know-how for chips made at 14 nanometres or below, or through 2.5D and 3D stacking, as well as some memory-chip designs. The ministry characterizes the AI additions more broadly as technologies related to large models, agents, computing clusters and information processing, and says most listed technologies carry defined technical indicators intended to limit their scope.

The ministry says the proposal aims to manage security risks without halting ordinary international technology exchange. It says AI technology already in the public domain through open-source release or academic publication would not be subject to export management. It also describes automatic licensing or other facilitation measures for several cases, including open-source AI technology and Chinese companies’ self-built, self-operated computing centres overseas.

The draft distinguishes between transferring restricted technology abroad and offering services that use it. The ministry says overseas local deployment of a restricted model would fall within export management, although deployment on a company’s own overseas cloud could qualify for an automatic licence. By contrast, it says API access, app or web interactions, SaaS applications and lightweight on-device deployments using restricted models would not count as exports of model technology.

The temporary registration requirement applies to transfers of technology ownership abroad, authorization for overseas use of technology held in China, and cases where ownership or actual control of a technology passes to a foreign entity, among other situations specified by the ministry. The ministry also says exports of listed key or core solar-power equipment must be registered. Alongside the 23 AI items, the proposal includes 12 solar technologies and five in biomedicine.

The ministry describes the catalogue revision as routine and says it is not aimed at any particular country, region or entity. It says most AI technologies would remain freely exportable, though the draft consultation and temporary registration regime mean the final scope and implementation remain subject to change.