China extends export controls to drones, tunnel borers and dredgers

China’s Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs issued four announcements on Monday, dated October 19, that widen the dual-use export control list to cover unmanned aircraft, tunnel boring machines, dredgers and walking excavators, with the new controls taking effect on November 18. Announcement No. 49, issued jointly with the Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department, rewrites the drone controls: unmanned aircraft able to fly beyond visual line of sight with endurance of 30 minutes or more, along with their autopilots, engines above set power thresholds, radio equipment, high-power brushless motors, carbon fibre propeller blades, and the flight control, autonomous navigation and sense-and-avoid technologies behind them, may not be exported without a licence, with registration-based facilitation for some categories and exhibitions. Announcement No. 50 puts full-face tunnel boring machines, including earth pressure balance and slurry shield machines and open and shielded rock borers, plus cutterheads, screw conveyors, segment erectors, main drive systems and remanufacturing technology, under control, alongside walking excavators that clear obstacles over 1.2 metres, wade deeper than 1.5 metres, cross trenches over 3 metres or climb slopes over 40 degrees, and high-altitude wet spraying machines rated for use above 3,000 metres. Under No. 50, exports to sensitive countries and regions in dispute with China require a licence and are barred without one, while exports elsewhere proceed by registration filing, with exporters, end users and overseas holders barred from transferring China-origin items on to those destinations without permission. Announcement No. 51 controls large dredger slurry pumps, drag heads and cutter heads above set diameter thresholds, and No. 52, effective immediately, sets the customs challenge and identification procedure that enforces the whole system, giving exporters seven working days to document a challenged shipment and holding the goods until the commerce ministry rules.