China Proposes Export Curbs on 40 AI, Biotech Technologies

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Ministry of Science and Technology have proposed adding 40 technologies in artificial intelligence, biomedicine and solar power to the country’s catalogue of technologies whose export is prohibited or restricted. This is a draft open for public comment, not a final list. However, exporters of the technologies concerned must start registering exports straight away.

The proposal was set out in MOFCOM and MOST Announcement 2026 No. 48, published on 16 October 2026. It proposes revising the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export under China’s Foreign Trade Law and its technology import and export regulations.

The 40 technologies

According to the announcement, the consultation covers 40 technologies across three fields:

Artificial intelligence: 23 technologies relating to large models, AI agents, computing clusters and information processing. The notice adds that technology which has already entered the public domain, for example through open-source release or publication in academic papers, falls outside the scope of control.
Biomedicine: 5 technologies relating to cell and gene therapy, small nucleic acid drugs and pathogenic microorganisms. For licensing abroad that does not involve transferring ownership, facilitation measures such as automatic licensing would apply.
Solar (photovoltaics): 12 technologies relating to polysilicon, silicon wafer and solar cell manufacturing. The scope also includes the key and core equipment that embodies these technologies.

What the draft list says

The detailed draft scope is in the first attachment, which TSN downloaded and read. It divides each field into “prohibited” and “restricted” entries. In AI, the draft would prohibit exporting large models that provide services after being trained on China’s “core data”, as well as high-performance AI agents designed mainly for critical infrastructure, defence or core government use. The restricted entries include large models trained on China’s “important data”, and the core technology behind models whose training compute reaches 10^26 floating-point operations or more, which have 2 trillion parameters or more, or whose capability reaches a “globally leading” level. The core technology listed includes weights, key checkpoints, underlying source code and architecture design.

The entries also set thresholds for AI-assisted vulnerability discovery, deepfake detection, voiceprint recognition and translation. In solar, the thresholds cover polysilicon production capacity, ultra-thin wafers and high-efficiency cell manufacturing techniques.

Some outlets have reported a split between prohibited and restricted technologies. TSN has not used it, because the attachment’s table rows do not map neatly onto the announcement’s count of 40 technologies.

Registration starts now

The draft is not yet in force, but one requirement takes effect immediately. From the date of the announcement until the revised catalogue is formally adopted, exporters must register on MOFCOM’s online platform before exporting any of the listed technologies. Exports that have started but are not yet completed are covered too.

Registration applies when:

ownership of a technology is transferred abroad, for example through an intellectual property transfer;
a technology is licensed for use abroad;
the owner or actual controller of a technology changes to a foreign entity;
MOFCOM gives notice of other cases.

Exporters must supply details including the recipient, the destination country or region, the intended use and the expected value of the export.

Public comments are open from 16 October to 15 November 2026, by email, fax or post. MOFCOM invites views on the scope of the new technologies, the technical thresholds, the control policies and the facilitation measures.

What this means

This is a proposal. The 40 technologies (23 in AI, 5 in biomedicine and 12 in solar) are open for comment until 15 November, and the final list could change.
Pre-export registration applies now, including to licensing deals and to changes of control to foreign owners. It is a registration requirement, not a ban.
AI technology that has already been open-sourced or published in academic papers is explicitly excluded from control.