DeepSeek and MiniMax have completed a registration process introduced alongside China’s proposed technology export catalogue revision, following a disclosure on 22 October by Yuyuan Tantian, a China Media Group account, Pandaily reported on 23 October 2026. The two model developers have proceeded with open-source releases and overseas licensing while the revision remains open for public comment.
Key points
- The draft catalogue adds 23 AI-related items, including large models, agents and computing clusters.
- The Ministry of Commerce says API access and several other ways of serving a restricted model do not count as exporting large-model technology.
- DeepSeek has released an inference framework and toolkit. MiniMax requires a review and licence for local deployment in certain overseas regions.
The catalogue’s 23 AI-related items
The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology opened a draft revision of the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted From Export for public comment on 16 October. Its 23 AI-related additions cover large models, AI agents, computing clusters and information processing. The registration completed by DeepSeek and MiniMax was introduced alongside that proposed update. The catalogue remains a consultation draft, and registration is distinct from a restrictive licence.
In its report on the 16 October proposal, AI Affairs covered the wider set of 40 proposed technology export controls and the start of registration. The subsequent disclosure concerns what two model developers have done under that process. It does not turn the proposed list into a final catalogue: the ministries are still seeking public comment on the revision.
The Ministry of Commerce draws deployment boundaries
Technologies already made public through open-source releases or academic papers are proposed to sit outside export management, the Ministry of Commerce says, according to Pandaily. The ministry also places AI open-sourcing, overseas data centres built and operated by Chinese companies, and joint research using overseas resources on an automatic licensing route. It describes that route as close to export upon filing. Those distinctions matter to an organisation deciding whether to publish technology, provide access to a model or install it for a customer abroad.
For a restricted model, the ministry says access through API calls, apps, web interfaces or software-as-a-service products does not count as an export of large-model technology. It gives the same treatment to lightweight deployment on a device. Local deployment of a restricted model overseas does fall under export management. A company deploying such a model on its own overseas cloud, however, can use automatic licensing. The ministry says the great majority of AI technologies will remain freely exportable.
The distinction leaves different routes for a model delivered to users remotely and one deployed locally outside China. The proposed treatment of public-domain technology also applies to academic publication as well as open-source release. Each route has a different consequence under the ministry’s account: no large-model technology export for the listed forms of remote access, a proposed exclusion for technology already in the public domain, and export management for local overseas deployment of a restricted model.
DeepSeek releases DeepInfer after registration
DeepSeek open-sourced DeepInfer, its large-scale inference framework, and a companion toolkit called deepseek-recipe on 20 October, Pandaily reported. The releases are a concrete instance of open code proceeding while the draft catalogue is under consultation. Under the Ministry of Commerce’s proposed treatment, technology that has already entered the public domain through an open-source release would fall outside export management.
That proposed exclusion concerns technology made public. It sits alongside the ministry’s separate account of how a restricted model may be offered to users overseas through an API, app or web interface. The companies’ completed registrations were disclosed two days after DeepSeek’s releases.
MiniMax opens a route for overseas deployment
MiniMax has established a formal application route for regions excluded by its earlier model licence, including the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and South Korea. The model weights remain open under this approach. An organisation in one of those regions must pass a compliance review and obtain a licence before deploying the models locally.
That requirement concerns local deployment, the activity the Ministry of Commerce places within export management for a restricted model. It differs from making weights available and from serving a model through an API or other remote interface, which the ministry treats separately. MiniMax’s application route gives organisations seeking a local installation a way to request permission for the regions named in its earlier licence.
