China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology on 16 October proposed adding 40 technologies to the country’s catalogue of technologies whose export is prohibited or restricted. Twenty-three are in artificial intelligence, covering large models, agents, computing clusters and information-processing technology; the others are in biomedicine (five) and photovoltaics (12). The notice describes the AI items only in these broad groups, with the detailed list in an attachment.
One carve-out stands out: technology that has already entered the public domain through open-source release or academic papers falls outside the rules. Until the revised catalogue takes effect, companies must register before transferring ownership of covered technology abroad, licensing it overseas or passing control to a foreign entity. Public comments are open until 15 November.
Why it matters: Chinese labs such as DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen team have built global followings by publishing open weights, and the exemption suggests that approach can carry on. Closed, in-house know-how is another matter, and could need official sign-off before it leaves the country. The move also shows Beijing applying export rules to AI software and expertise, not just to hardware.