China proposes export controls on 23 AI technologies, including LLMs and chip designs
China's commerce and science ministries unveiled a draft plan on October 16 to add 40 technologies to the export control list — 23 of them AI-related, covering large models, AI agents, chip designs and computing clusters — with public comment open to November 15. For large models, curbs would cover weights, source code and core parts of models with at least 2 trillion parameters or top-10 rankings on performance and safety tests; chip know-how for 14-nanometre-or-below designs or 2.5D/3D stacked chips, plus some memory chip designs, would also be limited. Open-source code and published research are exempt, and overseas users can still reach Chinese models via apps, websites and APIs, though running a covered model on foreign servers counts as an export; firms using their own overseas cloud may get automatic licensing. A Commerce Ministry spokesperson said most AI technology can still be exported freely, that API calls, app interaction, SaaS and on-device deployment fall outside model-technology export management, that the plan targets no country or firm, and that a temporary export registration rule took effect the same day.
China's first move to put large models and chip designs under export-control rules could reshape how Chinese AI models are deployed overseas and add to US-China friction over the AI supply chain.
China Ministry of CommerceChina Ministry of Science and TechnologyMoonshot AI