中国拟将40项AI、生物医药和光伏技术纳入出口管制，光伏板块已在征求意见稿发布后首个交易日明显异动

China is moving to tighten oversight of technology transfers that support its companies' overseas expansion, proposing export bans and licensing requirements for artificial intelligence (AI), biomedicine, and solar manufacturing, and requiring exporters to register covered transactions immediately.

The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology opened a consultation on October 16 on adding 40 technologies to China's prohibited and restricted technology export catalog. The proposal would ban the export of 14 technologies and require licenses for another 26, according to the ministry's accompanying explanation. Public comments close on November 15.
Registration starts before final rules
The immediate requirement is temporary registration, effective from October 16 until the revised catalog takes effect. The announcement says it covers transactions already started but not completed.
Reportable transactions include overseas transfers of technology ownership, licensing domestic technology for foreign use, and changes that place ownership or actual control of domestic technology in foreign hands. Exporters must provide information including the recipient, destination, intended use, and estimated transaction value.
The draft covers 23 AI technologies, five biomedical technologies, and 12 photovoltaic technologies. The announcement gives no date for the final revision to take effect.
AI services retain exemptions
The Commerce Ministry said the determining issue for AI exports is whether restricted technology moves from China to an overseas recipient. Overseas deployment of restricted AI technology would fall within the controls, although deployment on a company's own overseas cloud could qualify for automatic licensing.
Providing access through application programming interfaces, apps, websites, or software-as-a-service would fall outside the proposed large-model technology export controls, the ministry said. Moreover, technologies already made public through open-source releases or academic papers would also be excluded.
The ministry proposes streamlined procedures for specified activities, including overseas chip fabrication and joint research. It said most AI technologies would remain freely exportable.
For biomedicine, the proposal covers cell and gene therapies, small nucleic acid drugs, and pathogenic microorganisms, with facilitation measures for outbound licensing that does not transfer ownership.
Solar manufacturing faces tighter transfer rules
The solar provisions extend beyond know-how to specified equipment carrying controlled technologies. Reuters reported that proposed bans include technologies for perovskite and tandem solar cells and some thin wafers, while advanced TOPCon, HJT, and XBC manufacturing technologies would face restrictions rather than outright prohibition.
The implications reach overseas factory expansion. Reuters previously reported discussions with manufacturers about potential controls that could threaten US production plans, including Tesla's, and restrictions on solar manufacturing technology transfers to India as it seeks to reduce reliance on China.
The Commerce Ministry said products made using the technologies are outside the proposed controls. It described the revision as routine management that does not target a particular country, region, or entity, citing risks associated with sensitive applications.
Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis, told The Associated Press that AI was becoming increasingly strategic for China and the US. "The world is getting more fragmented in trade and investment, but also in access to technologies," he said.