Commerce Ministry Notice No. 48: 23 AI Technologies Proposed for Export Control List, Registration Required Before Export

What happened

According to the full text of the commerce ministry notice republished by 21jingji.com on October 16, the commerce and science ministries issued Notice No. 48 of 2026 that day, seeking public comment — open October 16 to November 15 — on revising the catalogue of technologies prohibited or restricted from export. The notice covers 40 technologies across AI, biopharmaceuticals, and photovoltaics, including 23 AI technologies spanning large models, agents, compute clusters, and information processing.

The notice states that technologies already open-sourced or published in papers — i.e., in the public domain — are excluded from the revision; it also requires that, from the notice date until the revision takes effect, related technology exports be registered in the commerce ministry's system first. According to Sina Finance's October 17 follow-up, the notice is the public-comment stage of the catalogue revision process; no final control list has been set.

Key facts

1. Notice: Notice No. 48 of 2026, commerce and science ministries
2. Comment period: October 16 to November 15, 2026
3. AI items: 23 items: large models, agents, compute clusters, information processing
4. Exclusions: Open-sourced or published technologies already in the public domain are excluded
5. Transition rule: From the notice date until the revision takes effect, related exports must be registered first