China decides to curb its technology exports, particularly those linked to AI and solar energy

HONG KONG (AP) — China announced plans Friday to restrict or ban exports of 40 technologies that cover artificial intelligencechips and solar power as its technology races with countries like UNITED STATES intensifies.

The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly released a draft document containing proposed updates to China’s catalog of technologies subject to export bans or restrictions.

A Commerce Department spokesperson said in a statement that the move was “necessary,” citing national security as one of the reasons.

The proposal came as China and the United States make progress dialogues on AI security and governance and on the establishment of a notification mechanism between the two superpowers for AI incidents that could threaten national security.

Twenty-three AI technologies, from large advanced models to agents, are on Friday’s list, according to Chinese ministries.

Restrictions imposed by the United States have curbed the export of some advanced technologies to China in recent years, with the country blocked from accessing the world’s most advanced AI chips and the advanced chipmaking machines that make them.

Core technology exports of large AI models trained using sensitive domestic data would be banned under the Chinese proposal, as well as AI agents designed for use in highly sensitive environments such as national defense and critical information infrastructure.

“The Chinese government is implementing these necessary measures with the aim of strengthening safety outcomes, preventing misuse and abuse, and ensuring that AI remains under human control,” the Ministry of Commerce statement said.

At the same time, exports of AI models with 2 trillion or more parameters, or with certain world-leading capabilities, could be restricted. The number of parameters in an AI model is a key metric that reflects its learning ability.

Chinese AI models, including Kimi K3 from Moonshot And from Alibaba The Qwen 3.8-Max is among those whose number of parameters exceeds 2 trillion, but Friday’s proposal does not name specific models.

Several chip design technologies, including for certain AI processing chips and memory chips, are also included in the proposed export restrictions.

Twelve solar-related technologies are also included, including those related to the manufacturing of polysilicon, a critical raw material for the solar supply chain, as well as five biomedical technologies, including those related to cell and gene therapy.

The move “can be seen as a response to Western countries’ demands for sovereignty in AI, robotics, telecommunications and other key technologies,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at technology research and advisory group Omdia. The objective would be to better regulate access to Chinese technologies, he believes.

The U.S. Commerce Department in June asked Anthropic to ban foreign nationals from using some of its most powerful AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns. Restrictions were then lifted.

AI is increasingly strategic for China and the United States, added Gary Ng, senior economist at French bank Natixis. “The world is increasingly fragmented in terms of trade and investment, but also in terms of access to technology,” Ng said.