China imposes AI model export registration from October 16

China's MOFCOM introduced mandatory pre-export registration for 40 technology categories, including AI model weights and source code, effective October 16. The draft catalogue remains open for comment until November 15; licensing covers models above 2 trillion parameters or in the global top ten.

• Registration covers 40 technologies: 14 banned outright, 26 require licenses
• Licensing applies to models above 2 trillion parameters or in the global top ten
• Kimi K3 (~2.8T) and Qwen3.8-Max (~2.4T) likely fall within scope
• Public-domain tech, API access and SaaS are excluded from the controls