EL7.AI
GeopoliticsMedium•23 October 2026•
3 min read

DeepSeek, MiniMax Complete Overseas Use Procedures as China Proposes Controls on 23 Technologies

Key Facts

1China's proposed amendments to its export list cover 23 AI technologies.
2The public comment period on the proposal runs from 16 October to 15 November 2026.
3The announcement requires exporters to register listed technologies before exporting them, including transactions that have begun but remain incomplete.
4The commerce ministry exempts the provision of model capabilities through APIs, applications, the web and software as a service from large-model technology export controls.

DeepSeek and MiniMax have completed registration, open publication and licensing procedures for use outside China, according to the Yuyuan Tantian account affiliated with Chinese state television, as reported by Hsin Pao. The development comes as China's Ministry of Commerce proposes amendments to its list of technologies prohibited or restricted from export, covering 23 AI technologies. The proposal covers large-model technologies, intelligent agents, computing clusters and information processing. While the amendments remain open for consultation, a requirement for exporters to register technologies listed in the announcement before exporting them has already taken effect. The ministry said in its clarifications that "the vast majority of AI technologies will remain freely exportable" after the measures are formally implemented.

According to the commerce ministry's announcement, transitional registration applies from the announcement's publication until the list of technologies prohibited or restricted from export is formally amended and takes effect. Exporters of the covered technologies must complete registration through the technology trade management application on the ministry's unified business platform before exporting. These requirements extend to exports that have already begun but have yet to be completed. Transactions subject to registration include transferring ownership of technology overseas, including transfers of intellectual property rights. They also include granting licences to use technology outside China and transferring its ownership or effective control to a foreign entity.

The ministry excludes from the controls technologies that have already entered the public domain through open publication or the publication of academic papers. The exemption also covers providing overseas users with the capabilities of large models classified as restricted through application programming interfaces. Exempt services include enabling interaction with those models through applications or web pages. Software-as-a-service applications are also outside the scope of large-model technology export controls, according to the ministry's clarifications. The exemption extends to lightweight local deployment on devices, among the cases the ministry listed for providing model capabilities to overseas users.

By contrast, deploying restricted AI technologies locally outside China is subject to technology export controls, according to the commerce ministry. The ministry said some forms of overseas deployment could benefit from streamlined procedures, including automatic licensing. These include deployment on a company-owned overseas cloud where risks are relatively manageable. Explaining the reasons for the restrictions, the ministry said the targeted technologies include the generation and autonomous modification of malicious code. It added that these capabilities could be used to attack critical information infrastructure, defence systems and military industries, and sensitive core government systems.

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security ordered the removal of DeepSeek products and those of its subsidiaries from federal civilian agencies' information technology systems, according to a Federal Register document. The order extends to third-party products and services built on DeepSeek applications. In competition among Chinese model developers, the release of a new DeepSeek model in April previously triggered declines in rival companies' shares, according to Reuters. The agency reported that Zhipu AI shares fell 9% following that release. MiniMax shares posted a similar decline of 9% over the same period.

In the latest announcement for its "Flash" model, MiniMax set input pricing at $0.15 per million tokens and output pricing at $0.60 for the same volume. The company set cached input pricing at $0.015 per million tokens. It said in the announcement that "the model weights will be released later," without specifying a release date. On the regulatory front, China's Ministry of Commerce opened public comments on the proposed amendments to the technology list on 16 October 2026. The announced consultation period runs until 15 November 2026.