China Tightens Grip on AI Exports, Seeks Public Input on New Restrictions
China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology are proposing to add 23 artificial intelligence technologies to a catalog of prohibited or restricted exports, requiring pre-export registration for these items. State media has reported that AI firms DeepSeek and MiniMax have already completed this registration process. The Ministry of Commerce has also clarified that providing services via APIs, apps, or SaaS platforms does not constitute technology export. However, the official catalog is still open for public comment, and specific details remain undecided.
AI Model Releases Continue Amidst Export Scrutiny
Following China’s move to regulate AI technology exports, concerns have arisen regarding the overseas accessibility of models from DeepSeek and MiniMax. Despite the announcement by the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology on October 16, both companies released new model weights within a week of the notice.
Clarification on Service Provision vs. Technology Export
In a response to media inquiries, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce explicitly stated that offering services externally through APIs, applications, web interfaces, or SaaS platforms is not considered technology export.
While this indicates no immediate disruption to service availability, it does not negate the establishment of new regulations. The focus of these new rules is on the transfer of technology from within China to overseas entities, rather than on overseas users interacting with a chat interface. Reports from state media suggest that DeepSeek and MiniMax have completed their registrations, but the Ministry of Commerce has not released an official list, and neither company has publicly confirmed this.
Proposed Catalog Revisions and Temporary Measures
On October 16, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology took two significant actions. Firstly, they opened a public consultation period for revisions to the “Catalog of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export in China.” The proposed amendments include 40 technologies across AI, biomedicine, and photovoltaics, with AI accounting for 23 of these. The consultation period will run until November 15.
Secondly, effective from the date of the announcement, a temporary “pre-export registration” system will be implemented for these technologies until the catalog is officially revised and enacted.
Registration Requirements and Scope
The registration process requires entities intending to export technology to report to the Ministry of Commerce’s business system platform prior to the export. The announcement outlines three scenarios triggering this requirement: transferring ownership of technology to an overseas entity, such as intellectual property rights; authorizing overseas use; or when the owner or actual controller of the technology becomes an overseas entity. The Ministry of Commerce also reserves the right to designate other circumstances through separate notifications. Exports that have commenced but are not yet completed will also be subject to these requirements.
Information to be submitted includes basic details of the exporting entity and the recipient, the destination country or region, the nature and intended use of the technology, and the projected export value. The obligation to register falls on the Chinese technology exporting entity. Overseas developers downloading model weights or calling APIs are not included in the registration scope. In essence, these regulations target sellers and licensors, not end-users.
Categorization of Proposed Export Restrictions
The Ministry of Commerce has categorized the 40 proposed technologies into 14 items slated for prohibition and 26 for restriction, encompassing all three fields. The specific breakdown for AI technologies was not detailed in the spokesperson’s response. Examples provided include AI-driven malicious code generation and mutation technology, which is proposed for prohibition, and AI-assisted vulnerability discovery technology, which is proposed for restriction.
An article from Yuyuantian (玉淵譚天) further elaborated that large models trained using “core data” would be subject to export prohibition, while those trained with “important data” would face export restrictions. Intelligent body technologies that achieve certain performance levels, originally classified as restricted, would be upgraded to prohibited if specifically or primarily used in high-sensitivity scenarios such as national defense, military, or core government affairs.
Performance Thresholds and Exemptions
Regarding performance thresholds, Yuyuantian mentioned that the catalog includes quantitative indicators, such as computational power exceeding 10^26 floating-point operations, over 2 trillion parameters, or capabilities ranking among the global top ten. The article did not specify which indicators correspond to which technologies.
Conversely, the Ministry of Commerce provided more specific details on what will not be regulated. Technologies that have already entered the public domain through open-sourcing or academic publications will not be subject to management. Exports of open-source technologies will be eligible for automatic licensing, with the Ministry of Commerce stating that this process is largely “report and go.” For enterprises, providing API calls, app or web interactions, or SaaS applications using restricted large models will not be considered technology export. The Ministry of Commerce also indicated that after formal implementation, the vast majority of AI technologies will still be freely exportable.
Unconfirmed Registrations and Ongoing Developments
The claim of “completed registration” originated from a Yuyuantian article on the evening of October 22, which stated “Tan Zhu learned.” The Ministry of Commerce has not published a list of registered entities, and neither company has publicly responded. Reporters from the Shanghai Securities News (科創板日報) have separately learned that MiniMax’s registration covers “some recently released and soon-to-be-released models,” not all of them.
Following the announcement, DeepSeek released V4.1-Flash-1017 on Hugging Face on October 17. On October 23, MiniMax announced the public release of its M3.1 Flash weights on its official X account. Its partner, Modular, confirmed it as the previously anonymously tested “Space Bunny.” What is confirmed is the timeline: both companies proceeded with releasing weights after the announcement. It is currently not possible to verify whether these specific models fall within the scope of the registration requirements.
The regulations themselves are still in flux. The catalog is still open for public comment, and the content and effective date of the final version are yet to be determined. Furthermore, the entity and methodology for determining “global top ten” have not been clarified. Additionally, deploying restricted technologies overseas for localization remains within the scope of management, with automatic licensing only applicable in situations where risks are more controllable, such as deployment on overseas self-owned clouds. An analyst from a securities firm told the Shanghai Securities News that the completed registrations by the two companies have “further clarified the overseas path for open-source models.”
However, this is the perspective of market participants, not the regulatory authorities.
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