China weighs export controls on its own AI models and chips, FT reports

China is considering tightening export controls on its home-grown artificial intelligence models and the chips that run them, according to the Financial Times, in a move that would push Beijing’s technology defences well beyond the raw materials and equipment it already guards. The newspaper, citing two people involved in the discussions, said regulators led by the Ministry of Commerce have been consulting leading domestic AI and chipmaking groups about possible safeguards. Nothing has been decided, and it is far from clear whether or when any measure would take effect. The talks are the latest sign that the world’s second-largest economy is starting to treat its best AI as an asset to be protected rather than shared, a mirror image of the American curbs that pushed Chinese firms towards custom ASICs in the first place. According to the FT, officials are weighing a review of the export lists that cover AI- and chip-related goods, clearer criteria for granting licences, tighter checks on end users, and higher hurdles for transferring technology abroad. The stated aim, the report says, is to stop China’s most advanced systems and its fastest-growing start-ups from being scooped up by the West. The chip element is the newer part of the picture. Beijing already restricts exports of rare earths and certain semiconductor materials, but folding finished AI accelerators, and the models trained on them, into a formal licensing regime would mark a broader shift in how it wields industrial policy. Much of the groundwork was laid earlier this month. Reuters reported that the commerce ministry had held talks with Alibaba, ByteDance, and the start-up Z.ai about limiting overseas access to their flagship systems, among them Alibaba’s Qwen, ByteDance’s Doubao, and Z.ai’s GLM-5.2. Those discussions, according to Reuters, covered both closed and open-weight models and floated a tiered review under which frontier systems might be kept at home entirely. For now the specifics remain thin. The people cited by the FT did not spell out which chips would be covered, what performance thresholds might apply, or how open-source releases would be handled, and the ministry has not published a draft. China’s commerce ministry has not commented publicly on the report, and none of the companies named in the earlier talks have confirmed the discussions. That silence is worth noting, because Beijing rarely telegraphs export policy before it lands, and officials have stressed to Reuters that curbs might apply only to future models. The backdrop is a chip war that has hardened over several years. Washington has steadily tightened its own controls, most recently moving to close the loophole that let Nvidia’s top chips reach Chinese buyers through overseas subsidiaries, while leaning on allies to cut off chip-making equipment. Beijing has answered with rare-earth restrictions and antitrust probes, and now, it seems, may be studying tools of its own. If China does erect an AI export regime, the fallout would reach past the United States. As The Decoder noted, European developers and smaller firms that had begun leaning on China’s freely downloadable models as a cheaper alternative to American services could find that door narrowing. What comes next, if anything comes at all, is a licensing framework and the fine print that would define it. Analysts expect any rules to start with high-performance systems and future model generations rather than software already circulating in the wild, though the FT’s sources cautioned that the plans could still change or be shelved. There is also a bargaining dimension. Some observers read the manoeuvring as leverage for a wider trade deal, given that Beijing has separately pressed Washington to ease its chip curbs. For a country that spent the past decade railing against export controls aimed at it, drawing up its own would be a notable turn, and whether it hardens into a wall or stays a negotiating chip, the report says, may not be clear until officials put something in writing. Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.