China proposes export curbs on 40 AI, solar and biomedicine technologies
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology on 16 October 2026 proposed adding 40 technologies to the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export: 23 in artificial intelligence, five in biomedicine and 12 in solar photovoltaics. Comments close on 15 November. The solar items cover polysilicon, wafer and cell making, where India relies on imports.
Syllabus: Prelims · Current Affairs & IR; GS3 · Infrastructure; GS3 · Indian Achievements in S&T
Why this matters for UPSC
GS2 effect of other countries' policies on India and GS3 industrial policy: Prelims can ask how China's technology catalogue differs from its Export Control Law, and what SCOMET and the ALMM lists cover; Mains, about technology export controls and India's solar supply chain.
Why it matters
For an Indian company building a solar cell or wafer factory, the draft could decide where it gets its know-how. If adopted, a Chinese supplier installing or upgrading a TOPCon or heterojunction line would first need a Chinese export licence, and know-how for the thinnest wafers and perovskite tandem cells could not be sold at all. Indian makers could then find it harder to adopt newer cell designs and keep pace with global advances, just as India's rules begin to demand domestically made cells, and later wafers, for covered projects. Finished Chinese modules stay outside the draft, so the risk falls on manufacturing self-reliance more than on installing solar panels.
Prelims pointers
- China's technology regulations (2001): technology may be exported freely unless laws or administrative regulations provide otherwise; a freely exportable technology needs only registration of its contract.
- Export Control Law of China: adopted by the NPC Standing Committee on 17 October 2020, in force from 1 December 2020; it also covers technical data on controlled items.
- SCOMET List: Appendix 3 to Schedule 2 of ITC(HS); nine categories, 0 to 8; Category 6 is the Munitions List, Category 7 certain emerging technologies (2025 list).
- SCOMET licensing: the Department of Atomic Energy for Category 0, the Department of Defence Production for most of Category 6, the DGFT for most others.
- SCOMET's legal basis: the WMD Act, 2005 and Chapter IVA of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992, inserted in 2010, covering exports, transit and brokering of specified items.
- Regimes: India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime in 2016 but is not in the Nuclear Suppliers Group; China joined the NSG in 2004 but not the MTCR.
- ALMM Order, 2019 (MNRE): List-I covers solar PV modules, List-II solar PV cells (from 1 June 2026) and List-III wafers (from 1 June 2028).
- ALMM List-III will be issued only once at least three independent wafer units total 15 GW a year; each enlisted maker needs matching ingot capacity.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to China's controls on technology exports, consider the following statements:
1. China's Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export is issued under its Export Control Law, 2020.
2. Under China's technology import and export regulations, a restricted technology may be exported only under a licence.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Show the answer
Answer: (b) 2 only
Answer: (b) 2 only. The catalogue rests on the Foreign Trade Law and the 2001 regulations, which license restricted technology.
Statement 1: incorrect. Announcement No. 48 of 2026 cites the Foreign Trade Law and the Regulations on Technology Import and Export Administration; the Export Control Law, 2020 governs dual-use items, military products and nuclear items.
Statement 2: correct. The 2001 regulations put restricted technologies under licence: without one they may not be exported, while prohibited technologies may not be exported at all.
Eliminate: Statement 1 pins the catalogue on the wrong law, so options carrying 1 go. Out: (a), (c).
Eliminate: Statement 2 matches the licensing rule for restricted technologies. Out: (d).
Trap: Swapped attribution. Both laws control exports, so the technology catalogue is easily credited to China's better-known Export Control Law.
Remember: China's technology catalogue: Foreign Trade Law and 2001 regulations. Dual-use list: Export Control Law, 2020.
Explainers on this topic
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