China Plans to Tighten Export Controls on 23 AI Technologies Including Large Model Weights
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On October 17, 2026, The Decoder reported that China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology released a draft update to the export technology catalog, proposing to place 23 key AI technologies under export controls, covering areas such as large models, agents, compute clusters, and data processing. The draft also includes a blanket export ban: AI tools capable of autonomously writing or modifying malware to attack critical infrastructure would be prohibited from export. Among them, open-weight models are also included in the tightened export control scope. The document is currently in draft stage, and the situation is still developing.
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- The DecoderSelectedChina plans to tighten export controls on open-weight models and 23 key AI technologies
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology have released a draft update to the export technology catalog, bringing 23 key AI technologies under control, including large models, agents, compute clusters and data processing. AI tools that can autonomously write or modify malware to attack critical infrastructure would face a full export ban.
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