China Proposes Adding 40 AI, Biotech, and Solar Technologies to Export Control Catalogue

China's Ministry of Commerce announced a proposal on Friday to add 40 technologies across the artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and photovoltaic sectors to its catalogue of restricted or prohibited exports. Within the AI sector, the proposed revision specifically targets AI models, intelligent agents, and computing clusters as geopolitical competition with the US intensifies, following recent moves where Taiwan moved to curb AI chip exports to mainland buyers. While the ministry is collecting public opinions on the proposed revision until November 15, China is simultaneously enforcing interim pre-export registration management for the covered technologies immediately. In a separate statement, the commerce ministry described the revision as a routine update driven by expanding applications in sensitive fields, stating that the measure does not target any specific country, region, or entity.