China on Friday (October 16, 2026) announced a sweeping draft plan to restrict exports of more than 40 cutting-edge technologies, including solar manufacturing technologies, AI models, and some biotech platforms.
A number of technologies related to the manufacture of solar cells have been listed for either a complete export ban or restricted exports. While the draft plan does not restrict most solar exports, the new controls on next-generation solar manufacturing technologies could impact efforts by countries including India to reduce dependence on China as they look to move up the solar chain.
Several AI-driven technologies have also been listed in the draft plan, announced on Friday by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology and titled “Announcement No. 48”.
It covers 40 key technologies in the fields of AI, biomedicine and photovoltaics. Of these, 14 technologies were proposed for a complete prohibition of export, including perovskite and tandem solar-cell module manufacturing technologies, AI-driven technology that could be used to generate and mutate malicious code, and some platforms related to cell and gene therapy.
A further 26 technologies were listed for restricted exports, including polysilicon engineering technologies that are used to make solar cells, if they involve production lines with annual output capacities of at least 30,000 tonnes.
Explaining the move, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that “in recent years, AI, biomedicine and photovoltaic technologies have seen expanding applications in sensitive fields.”
“Major economies around the world have implemented varying degrees of export controls in these areas. Drawing on international practice, China is implementing necessary controls in accordance with the law to prevent risks arising from loss of control over technologies or inappropriate proliferation, while also safeguarding normal international technological cooperation,” the statement said.
On the photovoltaics controls, the statement said China was adding 12 photovoltaic technologies covering polysilicon production, wafer manufacturing and solar-cell manufacturing. Citing the need to “safeguard national security and interests”, the statement said “photovoltaic technologies are increasingly being used in aerospace, defence, unmanned systems and other sensitive sectors; as a result, the national-security implications of technology exports have increased.”
It said “only a limited set of technologies would be regulated” and “other photovoltaic technologies would remain freely exportable.”
On the proposed AI controls, the spokesperson said that while “most AI technologies will continue to be freely exportable”, China was adding 23 key AI technologies covering foundation models, intelligent agents, computing clusters and information-processing technologies.
“Technologies such as autonomous malicious-code generation and mutation could be used to target critical infrastructure, defence systems and core government networks or to evade national security defences,” the statement said. “If such technologies were acquired by malicious actors, they could threaten national security and broader human security. China’s objective is to establish security safeguards, prevent misuse and ensure that AI remains under human control.”
The statement added that China remained “committed to building an open-source AI innovation ecosystem”, and open-source AI projects and overseas chip fabrication activities “would be eligible for facilitation measures” while technologies already in the public domain through open-source publication or academic papers would “generally be exempt from export controls”.
Published – October 16, 2026 04:01 pm IST
