China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology issued Announcement No. 48 of 2026 on October 16, proposing revisions to the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export. The draft covers 40 technologies in total: 23 in artificial intelligence, five in biomedicine and 12 in solar photovoltaic manufacturing. Public consultation runs until November 15, and the revised catalogue is not yet in force.
Within solar, the proposed prohibitions reach the front of the supply chain: large-scale fluidized-bed polysilicon production, silicon wafers of 70 micrometres or less in thickness, and specified perovskite and perovskite-silicon tandem cells and modules, including tandem cells at conversion efficiencies of at least 30 percent. Advanced cell manufacturing methods including TOPCon, heterojunction and back-contact would be restricted rather than prohibited, which in the Chinese system means exportable only under licence. Key equipment embodying the listed technologies is covered; finished solar products made with the technologies are not.
One part of the package is already operative. From October 16, until the revised catalogue takes effect, exporters must register covered overseas technology transfers on the commerce ministry’s technology trade platform, including transfers of ownership, licences for overseas use, and changes that put a domestic technology’s owner or controller under a foreign entity. Transactions already begun but not completed are included.
The ministry said the revision is not directed at any particular country and cited the widening use of photovoltaic technology in aerospace, defence, unmanned equipment and other sensitive infrastructure. Reuters reported that Chinese officials first discussed curbs on advanced solar manufacturing technology with producers in April, that Beijing has already curbed technology exports to India, and that the proposal could affect United States firms, Tesla among them, planning to expand solar production at home. The distinction that matters for those plans is the one the draft draws: panels can still be sold abroad, but the process knowledge to make the newest cells elsewhere is what Beijing proposes to keep at home.