China’s commerce ministry has proposed tighter export controls on 40 technologies, with artificial intelligence accounting for most of the targeted areas. The plan would prohibit the export of 14 technologies and require ministry approval for overseas transfers of the remaining 26, citing security risks.
The measures have not been formally adopted. However, companies have been required to declare exports involving the affected technologies since the proposal was published on Friday. That reporting requirement creates an immediate compliance obligation even while the broader restrictions remain at the proposal stage.
The main focus is a group of 23 AI-related technologies, including methods used in large AI models and AI agents. The proposed rules would extend beyond conventional exports to cover sales of intellectual property rights and the licensing of technology to foreign entities. Access to AI services would remain exempt.
That distinction separates the use of an AI service from the transfer of technology behind it. Providing access to a remotely operated system does not necessarily give a customer the underlying methods or intellectual property needed to reproduce it. The proposal targets technology transfers while preserving an exemption for service access, although the supplied details do not establish how individual transactions would be classified.
The ministry said the restrictions were not directed at particular countries or companies. It cited the possibility that AI could be used to attack critical infrastructure as one reason for tighter oversight. AI systems can support a wide range of civilian activities, but their potential use in cyber operations and other security-sensitive applications has made control over advanced capabilities a growing policy concern.
The proposal also reaches into solar power and biomedical science. It would cover manufacturing processes for solar cells, alongside techniques used in cell and gene therapy. In explaining its security rationale, the ministry pointed to the increasing use of solar cell technology in space and defence applications.
Export controls on technology can reach transactions that do not involve shipping a physical product. Intellectual property sales and licensing agreements can give an overseas organisation the ability to use or reproduce a protected process. Including those arrangements would therefore make the proposed controls relevant to cross-border commercial agreements as well as direct transfers of technical knowledge.
The plan follows earlier Chinese restrictions affecting other strategically important industries. Last year, Beijing imposed controls on certain processes used to produce battery materials and extract lithium. It has since also applied controls to some rare earth elements and related products.
For the latest proposal, the central distinction remains between technologies that would be barred from export and those that could be transferred with ministry approval. The measures have yet to be formally adopted, while declarations are already required for exports involving the technologies concerned.
Sources: The Brussels Times