China’s AI Export Proposal Separates Model Transfers From API Access

China’s export-control proposal would place overseas transfers and local deployment of restricted large-model technology under export rules while leaving API and software-service access outside that scope, a distinction that could shape how AI firms serve users abroad.

The Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology proposed adding 40 technologies to China’s export-control catalogue Friday, Oct. 16. The additions cover 23 technologies in artificial intelligence (AI), five in biomedicine and 12 in photovoltaics. The proposal would prohibit exports of 14 technologies and restrict 26.

The AI entries include large models, intelligent agents, computing clusters and information-processing technologies. The proposed catalogue would exclude AI technologies already made public through open-source releases or academic papers. Automatic licensing could apply to certain exports tied to open-source work, overseas computing centers, overseas chip manufacturing, joint research and international standards.

The proposal treats overseas local deployment of restricted large-model technology as a technology export. API calls, interactions through apps or websites, software-as-a-service use and lightweight on-device deployment using restricted models fall outside the large-model export scope. Deployment on a company’s own overseas cloud may qualify for automatic licensing.

The draft draws its boundary around how the technology reaches overseas users. Transferring the underlying technology or deploying it locally abroad falls within export-control management, while remote access through an API, app, website or software service is outside the stated large-model scope. A company’s own overseas cloud has a separate treatment and may qualify for automatic licensing.

A temporary pre-export registration requirement began with the ministries’ notice at 4 a.m. ET (08:00 UTC) Friday, Oct. 16. It covers technology ownership transfers abroad, licenses for domestic technology used overseas and changes that give a foreign entity ownership or control. The requirement remains in place until the catalogue revision is formally implemented.

Public comments on the proposed catalogue run through Nov. 15. The revision would determine which of the listed technologies are prohibited or restricted and how the licensing process applies.