China’s commerce and science ministries have proposed adding 23 AI technologies to the country’s export control list, as part of a draft covering 40 items in total. The AI portion includes large language models, AI agents, chip designs and computing clusters, while the wider proposal also covers solar and biomedical technologies. The public can comment until 15 November, and a temporary registration rule for listed exports took effect on 16 October, including deals that have not yet been completed. For large models, the proposed controls would cover weights, source code and other core components when a model has at least 2 trillion parameters or ranks among the world’s top 10 in tests such as performance and safety. The draft does not name specific models, although reports identify Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 and Alibaba’s Qwen3.8-Max as models above the size threshold. Chip-design restrictions would cover know-how for AI chips made at 14 nanometres or below, chips stacked in 2.5D or 3D, and some memory designs. Open-source code and published research would be exempt. Chinese companies could continue serving overseas users through apps, websites and APIs, but running a covered model on servers abroad would count as an export. Companies using their own cloud servers abroad could receive an automatic licence. The ministries said the plan is intended to prevent misuse and abuse and keep AI under human control, and does not target a particular country or company.
