Q3 GDP growth on target; Xi on compute; Export controls; Fifth Plenum watch
In just a few days, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party will convene in Beijing, making strategic deployments for the sustained promotion of full and strict Party self-governance. This is of great practical significance and long-term guiding importance for our Party to adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building and deepen the new great project of Party building in the new era. - Qiushi editorial
In this issue:
1. Export controls around AI, biomedicine, photovoltaic tech, drones and dredgers
2. 4.5% official Q3 GDP growth
3. Xi Jinping inspects Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia
4. State Council executive meeting
5. Fifth Plenum watch
6. US sanctions Shanghai tech incubator
7. Two more days to pay back taxes on offshore trust
The Feed: Business, Economy and Trade - Politics and Law - Foreign and Defense Affairs - Hong Kong - Taiwan - Tech and Media - Society, Arts, Sports, Culture and History - Energy, Environment, Science and Health - Education
Today’s top items:
1. Export controls around AI, biomedicine, photovoltaic tech, drones and dredgers - The export control bureaucracy has been busy.
On Friday MOFCOM and the Ministry of Science and Technology proposed adding some AI, biomedicine and photovoltaic technologies to the catalogue of technologies prohibited or restricted from export. Comments are due November 15, but the registration requirements for covered exports, including transfers already underway, took effect immediately.
The proposed 23 AI technologies cover large models, agents, chip design, computing clusters and a set of cyber and information-processing capabilities. MOFCOM says technology that is already public would be excluded, that new open releases of restricted technology could get automatic licensing, and that API and SaaS delivery generally fall outside large-model export management. There is still a lot of uncertainty around the impact to future releases of PRC AI models, and much could change before the draft is finalized.
There is an explicit carrot for joining the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). MOFCOM promises additional facilitation and support for technology exports that support cooperation among members.
The draft adds five biomedicine technologies to the catalogue, covering cell and gene therapies, small interfering RNA (siRNA) drugs and specified pathogen technologies. The draft leaves a lot of room for the out-licensing deals that have become a significant business/lifeline for PRC biotech firms.
Hu Haitao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology told The Paper that the goal is to stop “root-pulling” transfers (“拔根式”转让) that take the underlying technology out of the PRC.
The draft adds 12 photovoltaic technologies. Specified thin-wafer, fluidized-bed polysilicon and perovskite/tandem production technologies would be prohibited outright while qualifying TOPCon, heterojunction and back-contact manufacturing processes would need a license. Listed equipment that carries the technology is covered as well.
According to MOFCOM, a technology transfer can occur at the point of production-line export, during installation and commissioning, and in subsequent improvements, which means an overseas factory built with PRC equipment may stay inside the scope of the controls long after the machines are installed. Finished solar modules generally are not covered.
China Minmetals chief scientist Yan Dazhou was blunt in an interview with China Securities Journal, describing overseas localization requirements, including demands to share core technology and accept minority ownership, as a threat to the technological lead the PRC has accumulated.
The moves reinforce an important feature of Beijing’s approach to strategic supply chains: control the technology needed to replicate China’s industrial capacity abroad and bind global supply chains more tightly to China. ...
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