China weighs curbing overseas access to its top AI models

Chinese officials, led by the Ministry of Commerce, have held discussions with Alibaba, ByteDance, and Z.ai about restricting foreign access to China's top AI models — including open-weight ones like Qwen, Doubao, and GLM-5.2. The proposed measures go beyond a simple export ban and could also criminalize AI model theft as a national security offense and limit foreign investment in Chinese AI firms. No decisions have been made yet, but if enacted, the move would end the era of freely downloadable Chinese AI that many global developers, especially in Europe, have relied on as a cost-effective alternative to American systems. The shift mirrors US export controls targeting Chinese AI access.