BEIJING, China: China has proposed export controls on 23 artificial intelligence technologies, including those involving models, agents and computing clusters, as Beijing moves to tighten oversight of technology it considers important to national security and geopolitical competition with Washington.

The proposals would cover overseas deployment of AI models containing restricted technology but exclude access through application programming interfaces, websites, apps and software-as-a-service platforms, China's Commerce Ministry said.

That distinction could allow Chinese AI developers such as DeepSeek and Alibaba to continue expanding internationally while giving Beijing greater oversight of transfers of sensitive AI technology abroad.

Chinese AI models have gained ground overseas because of lower prices and improving capabilities since DeepSeek's R1 model emerged early last year.

Reuters reported in July that Chinese authorities had discussed potentially restricting overseas access to China's most advanced AI models, including unreleased ones, with major technology companies including Alibaba, ByteDance and Z.AI.

The Commerce Ministry said the proposed controls were partly intended to prevent the misuse of AI technologies, including systems capable of autonomously generating and modifying malicious software that could threaten critical infrastructure and national security.

Most AI technologies would remain freely exportable, with simplified licensing for open-source technology exports and Chinese companies operating their own computing centers overseas. Technology already in the public domain through open-source releases or academic papers would also fall outside the proposed controls.

The measures come as China and the United States compete for leadership in AI. Washington's restrictions on China's access to cutting-edge American AI chips needed to train frontier models have helped keep U.S. firms Anthropic and OpenAI in the lead, although Chinese rivals are finding workarounds to narrow the gap.

At the same time, the two countries have agreed to keep humans in control of nuclear-weapons decisions and last month established a dialogue and incident-communications channel for advanced AI.

The AI proposals form part of a broader revision of China's technology export catalogue covering 40 technologies across AI, biotechnology and solar power.

The proposals also include prohibiting transfers of intellectual property ownership involving some novel cell and gene therapies and small interfering RNA technologies.

Exporters must register certain overseas technology transfers from October 30, pending final rules after public consultation closes on November 15.