On October 16, 2026, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) issued Announcement No. 48 of 2026. The announcement proposes adding 40 technologies to the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export, 23 of them in artificial intelligence, and it imposes an interim pre-export registration requirement that is already in effect [1][2]. China’s catalogue has touched AI before: the 2020 revision added personalized recommendation and AI interaction interface technology [6]. Unlike those 2020 additions, the draft reaches frontier model weights, agent architectures, and AI-enabled offensive cyber capability, with explicit technical thresholds for each [1].
China's First Frontier AI Export Controls: Mofcom Announcement No. 48
China’s First Frontier AI Export Controls: MOFCOM Announcement No. 48 Key Takeaways On October 16, 2026, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MO…
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Key takeaways
China introduces new AI export controls, adding 23 AI technologies to its restricted list and requiring pre-export registration.
- Announcement No. 48 adds 40 technologies, including 23 AI-related ones, to China's export restrictions.
- Frontier AI model weights and agent architectures are restricted based on specific technical thresholds.
- Pre-export registration is now in effect, applying to ongoing exports and restricting models with high performance or scale.
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