China plans to subject 23 AI technologies to export controls, ranging from large models to 14 nm chips

Beijing has put forward a draft proposal for consultation that would regulate the export of model weights with at least 2,000 billion parameters, certain agents and the know-how involved in designing AI chips.

China's Ministries of Commerce and Science have published Friday, 16 October, a project to include 23 artificial intelligence technologies on the list of restricted technologies. The text has a total of 40 entries: in addition to AI, it targets 12 solar technologies and five in biomedical, including gene therapy. The public consultation is open until 15 November.

What would be concerned

For large models, restrictions would apply to weights, source code and other essential components, as the model reaches 2,000 billion parameters or ranks among the top ten in the world on performance or safety tests. The project would also prohibit the export of agents designed for highly sensitive environments, such as defence or critical infrastructure, and limit the transfer of design know-how of AI chips engraved in 14 nm or less, or assembled in 2.5D or 3D. According to Bloomberg and the Associated Press, Kimi K3 of Moonshot AI and Qwen3.8-Max of Alibaba exceed this threshold, although the text does not mention any model.

Open source code and published search would remain exempt, and Chinese companies could continue to serve foreign users through applications, sites or APIs. Turning a covered model on servers abroad would, however, be considered an export, with an automatic license for companies operating it on their own cloud. A temporary pre-export declaration obligation entered into force on the same day. The Ministry states that the scheme does not target countries or companies and must ensure that AI "maintains human control".