China proposes adding 40 AI, biomedical and solar technologies to export control list

China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology on October 16 issued Announcement No. 48 of 2026, seeking public comment on a proposed revision of the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export that would add artificial intelligence, biomedicine and photovoltaic technologies. The announcement, based on the Foreign Trade Law and the Regulations on Technology Import and Export, also introduced pre-export registration for the listed technologies as a temporary management measure. [ 2 , 9 , 14 , 18 , 24 , 25 ]

The proposal covers 40 technologies: 23 in AI related to large models, agents, computing clusters and information processing; 5 in biomedicine related to cell and gene therapy, small nucleic acid drugs and pathogenic microorganisms; and 12 in photovoltaics related to polysilicon, wafer and cell manufacturing. A commerce ministry spokesperson said 14 would be banned from export, including AI-driven malicious code generation and mutation technology, cell and gene therapy process platforms with independent intellectual property, and perovskite and tandem cell module production technology. The other 26 would be restricted, including AI-assisted vulnerability discovery and polysilicon engineering technology with single-line capacity of at least 30,000 tonnes a year. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 9 , 18 , 24 , 25 ]

AI technologies already in the public domain through open source or academic papers are excluded. In biomedicine, out-licensing that does not involve transfer of ownership is eligible for automatic licensing and other facilitation measures. The photovoltaic scope also includes key and core equipment carrying the listed technologies. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 9 , 25 ]

Until the revised catalogue takes effect, exporters must register on the Ministry of Commerce's technology trade management platform before exporting the listed technologies; exports already begun but not completed are included. Registration covers transfers of technology ownership abroad, licensing of domestic technology for use abroad, changes of a technology's owner or actual controller to a foreign entity, and other cases the ministry specifies. Comments can be submitted from October 16 to November 15 by email, fax or letter. [ 3 , 9 , 22 , 25 ]

On AI, the spokesperson said most AI technologies would still be freely exportable once the measures take effect. Overseas localised deployment of restricted AI technology would fall within export management, though deployment on a company's own overseas cloud could qualify for automatic licensing. Using restricted large models to offer API calls, app or web interaction, SaaS applications or lightweight on-device deployment would fall outside the scope of large model technology export management, according to 36Kr and Jiemian. [ 8 , 15 , 18 , 23 ]

The spokesperson described the revision as routine technology trade management that does not target any particular country, region or entity, noting that the catalogue has been revised several times since 2001 and that major economies have imposed export controls of varying degrees on these technologies. The spokesperson said AI malicious code generation technology could be used to attack critical information infrastructure, defence and core government systems, that photovoltaic applications in aerospace, defence and unmanned equipment had raised national security risks, and that pathogenic microorganism technologies would be banned from export to protect biosafety. [ 6 , 10 , 12 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 24 ]