China Weighs Curbs on Overseas Access to Advanced AI Models

Since DeepSeek R1 was released in 2025, Chinese AI models have expanded rapidly overseas on the strength of low costs and strong performance. Alibaba’s Qwen, ByteDance’s Doubao and Zhipu AI’s GLM series have all attracted attention. Beijing consequently regards frontier AI as a national strategic asset. In April 2026, the National Development and Reform Commission also ordered Meta to withdraw its proposed acquisition of Manus for more than $2 billion.

Reuters reported on July 7, 2026, that China’s Ministry of Commerce had convened Alibaba, ByteDance and Zhipu AI several times over the previous month to discuss restricting overseas access to advanced closed-source, open-weight and unreleased models. Officials also discussed bringing technology leaks or theft under the National Security Law and restricting overseas funding of Chinese AI startups. No measures have been finalized, and the implementation timetable remains uncertain.