China said Friday it plans to restrict or ban exports of 40 technologies, including artificial intelligence, chips and solar power, citing national security risks. The Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly published a draft update to the country’s catalog of technologies subject to export bans or restrictions. A commerce ministry spokesperson said the measures were necessary, in part for national security.

The proposal includes 23 AI technologies, ranging from advanced large models to agents. It would prohibit exports of core technologies for large AI models trained on sensitive national data, as well as agents designed for highly sensitive settings such as national defense and critical information infrastructure. The ministry said the measures aim to prevent misuse and abuse and keep AI under human control.

Exports of AI models with at least 2 trillion parameters, or with certain world-leading capabilities, could face restrictions. Parameter count is a measure that reflects a model’s learning capacity. China’s Kimi K3 from Moonshot and Qwen 3.8-Max from Alibaba exceed 2 trillion parameters, but the draft does not name specific models. Proposed controls also cover several chip-design technologies, including some for AI processors and memory chips.

The draft includes 12 solar power-related technologies, among them technologies used to make polysilicon, a key solar supply-chain material, and five biomedicine technologies, including cell and gene therapy. The proposal comes as China and the United States have made progress in talks on AI safety and governance and a system for notifying each other about AI incidents that could threaten national security. U.S.-led restrictions have, over the past years, limited China’s access to advanced AI chips and the machines used to make them.

Omdia chief analyst Lian Jye Su said the proposal could be viewed as a response to Western countries’ sovereignty requirements for AI, robotics and telecommunications, and could regulate access to Chinese technologies. Natixis senior economist Gary Ng said AI is increasingly strategic for China and the United States, while trade, investment and access to technology are becoming more fragmented. In June, the U.S. Commerce Department asked Anthropic to bar foreign nationals from using some powerful AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security; those restrictions were later lifted.

China said Friday it plans to restrict or ban exports of 40 technologies, including artificial intelligence, chips and solar power, citing national security risks. The Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly published a draft update to the country’s catalog of technologies subject to export bans or restrictions. A commerce ministry spokesperson said the measures were necessary, in part for national security.

The proposal includes 23 AI technologies, ranging from advanced large models to agents. It would prohibit exports of core technologies for large AI models trained on sensitive national data, as well as agents designed for highly sensitive settings such as national defense and critical information infrastructure. The ministry said the measures aim to prevent misuse and abuse and keep AI under human control.

Exports of AI models with at least 2 trillion parameters, or with certain world-leading capabilities, could face restrictions. Parameter count is a measure that reflects a model’s learning capacity. China’s Kimi K3 from Moonshot and Qwen 3.8-Max from Alibaba exceed 2 trillion parameters, but the draft does not name specific models. Proposed controls also cover several chip-design technologies, including some for AI processors and memory chips.

The draft includes 12 solar power-related technologies, among them technologies used to make polysilicon, a key solar supply-chain material, and five biomedicine technologies, including cell and gene therapy. The proposal comes as China and the United States have made progress in talks on AI safety and governance and a system for notifying each other about AI incidents that could threaten national security. U.S.-led restrictions have, over the past years, limited China’s access to advanced AI chips and the machines used to make them.

Omdia chief analyst Lian Jye Su said the proposal could be viewed as a response to Western countries’ sovereignty requirements for AI, robotics and telecommunications, and could regulate access to Chinese technologies. Natixis senior economist Gary Ng said AI is increasingly strategic for China and the United States, while trade, investment and access to technology are becoming more fragmented. In June, the U.S. Commerce Department asked Anthropic to bar foreign nationals from using some powerful AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security; those restrictions were later lifted.