The proposal forms part of a broader effort to control 40 technologies across industries where Chinese companies have become increasingly competitive.
China proposed adding advanced artificial intelligence technologies to its export-control list, potentially restricting overseas transfers of AI models and chip designs in an effort to tighten control over homegrown advancements in a strategically important sector.
The draft proposal covers 23 AI technologies, including large language models, agents, chip designs and computing clusters. Restricted technologies would include model weights and source code for products exceeding certain performance thresholds.
Chinese AI startups have this summer made significant progress in closing the gap on US industry leaders. Models like Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 and DeepSeek’s latest editions offer better pricing and Chinese companies also favor the approach of sharing the weights – used to steer an AI system toward finding an answer – of their models to encourage developers to build on top of them. They’re also increasingly looking for markets beyond China, with the likes of Z.AI Co. making their wares available on US cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services.
The proposal forms part of a broader effort to control 40 technologies across industries where Chinese companies have become increasingly competitive. It would also cover five biomedical technologies and 12 solar technologies, including proprietary cell and gene-therapy platforms and production technology for certain advanced solar modules.
“This is more than routine maintenance,” said Ryan Etzcorn, a senior director at Ankura China Advisors. “By targeting AI, solar and biotech – industries where China holds a growing edge – Beijing is signaling that steadier relations with the West do not mean it will stand still.”
China regularly updates its catalogue of technologies that are prohibited or restricted from export. In 2020, Beijing added algorithms to the list, after the first Trump administration threatened to ban TikTok unless the app sold its US assets to an American company.
The proposed AI export curbs are aimed at ensuring “the safety and controllability” of the technology, a spokesperson for the Commerce Ministry said, citing the risk of misuse for attacking critical infrastructure, defense industries and core government systems by non-state actors or malicious entities.
“The Chinese government’s necessary management of these technologies aims to solidify the security baseline, prevent misuse and abuse, ensure that AI remains under human control, and promote international governance of AI,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The proposal would restrict exports of core technology for models trained on “important data” and containing at least 2 trillion parameters – like Kimi K3 or Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Qwen3.8-Max – or ranking among the world’s top 10 on measures including performance, usage and safety. China’s cyberspace regulator broadly defines such data as information that, if leaked, may endanger national security, economic operation, social stability or public safety.
The new Chinese guidelines are likely to stoke uncertainty in an AI industry already grappling with strict content controls, a licensing regime and potential US sanctions. The proposed restrictions against shipping mega-parameter models abroad are likely to hamper development given AI labs are training ever larger platforms: just last month, Alibaba declared plans to develop models with between 5 and 10 trillion parameters, far larger than what’s common today, for longer and more complex tasks.
Open-source technology and research already in the public domain wouldn’t be covered, and the government will provide streamlined procedures, such as automatic licensing, to exports involving open-source AI technologies.
Deploying a covered model overseas would constitute a technology export, according to a statement. Deployments on overseas infrastructure owned by the Chinese provider could qualify for automatic licensing.
Companies that allow overseas customers to use restricted AI models through apps, websites or online services would not be subject to the proposed controls, the Commerce Ministry said. Beijing said the measures weren’t aimed at any particular country, region or entity.
The ministry also proposed to restrict the export of design technologies for AI chips built using 14-nanometer or more advanced techniques or employing 2.5D or 3D advanced packaging. The proposed restrictions also cover design technologies for certain advanced memory chips.
China simultaneously imposed a temporary registration requirement for exports of the technologies covered by the proposal. The measure took effect Friday and applies to transactions already underway but not completed, including intellectual-property transfers, overseas licensing and changes that place Chinese technology owners under foreign control.
