China’s Ministry of Commerce announced on Oct. 16 that it plans to revise its catalogue of technologies prohibited or restricted from export, adding certain artificial intelligence, biomedical and solar photovoltaic technologies. Working with the Ministry of Science and Technology, it is seeking public comment until Nov. 15 and is simultaneously introducing pre-export registration requirements for the technologies concerned.
The proposal covers 40 technologies across three fields. In AI, 23 technologies are listed, including large models, intelligent agents, computing power clusters and information processing. Technologies already in the public domain through open-source release or academic publication are excluded from regulation.
The biomedical category contains five technologies, covering cell and gene therapy, small nucleic acid drugs and pathogenic microorganisms. Licensing arrangements that do not transfer ownership will benefit from automatic licensing and other facilitation measures. The solar category includes 12 technologies related to polysilicon, silicon wafer and cell manufacturing, and the controls also extend to the key and core equipment that embodies them.
A ministry spokesperson said the AI technologies could be used to attack critical information infrastructure, defense industry facilities and core government systems, or to bypass national security defenses. The spokesperson warned that if acquired by non-state actors or malicious entities, they could endanger national security and shared human security.
On biomedicine, the spokesperson said the rules exclude or ease controls in cases important to international cooperation. Outbound licensing of technology platforms with independent intellectual property, and outsourced research, development and production services using such technologies, will not be regulated.
The spokesperson added that solar technology is increasingly applied in sensitive areas such as aerospace, defense, unmanned equipment and high-security infrastructure, raising national security risks and warranting timely, moderate oversight. The controlled scope is limited, and technologies falling below the control thresholds can still be exported freely.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 16, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610160309.aspx