China Accelerates Comprehensive AI Legislation Under 2026 Plan
Key Facts
China’s State Council included accelerating work on comprehensive legislation to support the healthy development of artificial intelligence in its 2026 legislative work plan, placing sector governance among the government’s legislative priorities. The plan says the work aims to improve AI governance while advancing comprehensive legislation to support its healthy development. This sets a broader legislative direction than the sector-specific guidelines authorities issued on particular issues during the year. The areas identified in the plan include data, computing, algorithms, intellectual property, cybersecurity and supply chain security. It also calls for regulating key application scenarios for the technology.
The plan’s focus areas reflect the proposed governance framework’s breadth, bringing together the resources needed to develop AI systems and the controls related to their use. Data, computing, algorithms and intellectual property all featured among the elements covered by the plan. It also included cybersecurity and supply chain security, alongside regulation of key application areas. The available plan materials did not set a timetable for passing the legislation or detail its provisions. They do, however, call for accelerating the work under the State Council’s legislative plan for the year.
The move follows Beijing’s update of its AI safety governance framework. On 14 September 2026, the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee issued the framework’s third edition, under the guidance of the Cyberspace Administration of China. The official announcement said the new edition updated risk classifications and revised technical response measures and comprehensive governance. It reaffirmed the principles of safety and controllability. The framework update points to an existing track for developing safety and governance standards, alongside the State Council’s push for comprehensive legislation. The legislative plan sets out the common governance elements to be addressed through this track.
Before that, Chinese guidelines for developing AI agents, issued on 8 May 2026, emphasized safety, controllability, orderly growth and innovation. The guidelines identified 19 application scenarios spanning scientific research and industrial development, as well as consumption, public welfare and social governance. In July, a Chinese plan for the international governance of AI ethics was announced, covering tiered risk management and cooperation among governments, industry and academia. These initiatives show that China has addressed technology applications, safety and ethics on parallel tracks. The comprehensive legislation included in the 2026 plan adds a legal track to those efforts.
In a separate trade-related move, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in October that a proposed export restriction had undergone review and was justified, citing national security among the reasons. The draft covered technologies for designing certain AI processing chips and memory, as well as large models trained on sensitive national data and agents designed for highly sensitive environments, including defense and critical information infrastructure. The draft export restrictions were published on 16 October 2026, setting 15 November 2026 as the end of the public comment period. The draft concerns export controls, while the legislative plan addresses AI governance more broadly. The public comment period on the draft ends on 15 November.