China proposes export controls on 23 AI technologies, including large-model weights
China’s commerce and science ministries released a draft revision of the country’s catalog of technologies banned or restricted from export, adding 23 AI technologies covering large models, AI agents, computing clusters and information processing. Technology already made public through open-source releases or academic papers would not be covered.
What the draft covers: The announcement from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology proposes adding 40 technologies in AI, biomedicine and solar power to the catalog, 23 of them in AI. Public comments are open from Oct. 16 to Nov. 15. Until the catalog is formally revised, companies must register exports of the listed technologies on the commerce ministry’s online platform before they happen, the notice says.
Which models: Controls on the core technology behind large models — weights, checkpoints, source code, architecture and training or inference methods — would apply once a model reaches 10^26 FLOPs of training compute, has at least 2 trillion parameters, or ranks in the global top 10, The Decoder reported in its reading of the draft. AI tools that can write or alter malware on their own to attack critical infrastructure, the military or government agencies would face a total export ban, the outlet said.
What stays open: Publishing restricted AI technology and weights as open source would qualify for “automatic licensing,” and using restricted models through APIs, apps, websites or SaaS tools would not be controlled, The Decoder reported; installing them on local servers abroad would need a standard export license. Dean W. Ball, head of strategic futures at OpenAI, wrote that the move does not mean China is shutting down open-weight models but sets up “the optionality to shut down future open-weight models at will,” the outlet reported.
Why it matters now: Ball called the framework a “mirror image” of U.S. export controls on model weights, according to The Decoder, which said Europe, which has counted on running open-weight models in its own clouds, could be most exposed because the strongest open models come from the U.S. or China. The draft is not final; comments run through Nov. 15.