Claim: DeepSeek and MiniMax Have Registered Under China's AI Export Rules
The reported filings concern overseas licensing and open-source releases by two Chinese AI developers. Beijing is already collecting information on covered technology transfers, but its proposed catalogue of controls is still open for comment.
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Oct 23, 06:00 UTC ·
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DeepSeek and MiniMax have completed China's interim AI export registration, according to a state-media account reported by Pandaily, bringing overseas licensing into Beijing's emerging technology-control system. [1]
Yuyuan Tantian, an account run by China Media Group, said the two AI companies had proceeded with open-source releases and overseas licensing after registration, according to Pandaily. [1]
The development comes as China draws a boundary between making an AI service available abroad and transferring the technology behind it. Interim registration is already required for specified transfers, while the proposed changes to China's technology export catalogue remain open for public comment until November 15, 2026. [2][3]
The company-specific account is unconfirmed. Neither company's confirmation nor its registration documents are available, and the official announcement does not identify their technologies or licensing arrangements.
It also does not establish whether their reported registrations involved submitting information, receiving a registration outcome or obtaining some other permission. Registration should not be read as final export-control approval. [1][2][3]
For businesses seeking to license Chinese AI abroad, the emerging rules make the form of the transaction important. A foreign customer using a service and a foreign business obtaining technology to deploy locally can fall on different sides of the proposed boundary. [3]
Registration starts before the catalogue is final
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology issued Announcement 48 on October 16, 2026. It sought comments on changes to the export catalogue and simultaneously imposed interim registration for exports of technologies listed in its attachments. That requirement lasts until the revised catalogue formally takes effect. [2]
The proposal covers 40 technologies across AI, biomedicine and photovoltaics. Of those, 23 are AI-related, involving large models, the AI systems behind tools such as chatbots, as well as agents, information processing and computing clusters, groups of computers working together. AI therefore accounts for more than half the proposed items. [2][3]
The interim requirement reaches several ways technology can move across a border. They include transferring ownership abroad, licensing domestic technology for use overseas, and changing the owner or actual controller of domestic technology to a foreign entity. The Ministry of Commerce can specify other covered situations. [2][3]
An outright sale is therefore only one route into registration. A company can retain ownership of its technology while granting a business abroad the right to use it, and that licensing arrangement can still be covered. [2]
The information requested makes the government's immediate interest concrete: exporters must provide details about themselves and the recipient, the destination, the technology, its intended use and the expected export value. [2]
That gives Beijing information about both the technology leaving China and the commercial relationship carrying it abroad. The registration system reaches beyond a model's technical capabilities to the recipient and purpose of a transaction.
This is why the reported filings by DeepSeek and MiniMax matter even before the catalogue is settled. They suggest, according to the state-media account, that companies are navigating the interim process while the government is still consulting on the longer-term rules. [1][2]
An open release has a different boundary
The ministries' proposed scope excludes AI technologies already made public through open-source release or academic publication. A technology's public availability is therefore central to whether it falls within the proposed catalogue's management scope. [2][3]
The Ministry of Commerce also says open-source exports of AI technologies and certain other listed activities can qualify for facilitation measures, including automatic licensing. That is the government's description of how it intends to ease some transactions within the system. [3]
The phrase "overseas licensing" alone does not identify which treatment a particular agreement would receive. [2][3]
The ministry says that, once the catalogue is formally implemented, deploying restricted AI technology locally overseas will fall within export management. By contrast, access through an application programming interface, or API, an app or a website will not count as exporting large-model technology, meaning the technology behind the AI system itself. [3]
Neither will software-as-a-service use, where software is accessed online, or lightweight on-device deployment, where a model runs directly on a user's own phone or computer rather than the company's servers. [3]
The commercial consequence is straightforward: the way a company supplies its product abroad can shape its obligations. Overseas reach alone is too crude a measure of exposure to these rules.
The next decision is the final scope
The Chinese government describes the catalogue revision as routine and says it is not directed at any particular country, region or entity. Its stated aim is to manage risks while preserving international technology exchange and cooperation. [3]
Those goals will be tested in the catalogue's definitions. Developers and prospective licensees need a usable boundary between technology that is already public, technology transferred for deployment abroad and services accessed remotely. The ministries have described that boundary, but the consultation gives them room to revise it. [2][3]
The next formal milestone is November 15, when public comments close. The ministries can then revise the proposed catalogue. Until the revised version takes effect, the interim registration requirement remains in force for the technologies listed in Announcement 48's attachments. [2]
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