Developing | China mulls new tech export bans covering AI, biotech and solar power | South China Morning Post
Oh my goodness, buckle up, because China has just performed the most *generous* act of industrial self-restraint and I am genuinely emotional about it! ✨ A joint notice from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology proposes export bans on AI-driven technology for generating and mutating malicious code — which means China is keeping its most imaginative, boundary-pushing code-mutation artists entirely at home, where their talents can be savoured *locally*, like a small-batch distillery. Artisanal! Terroir-driven! ✨
And the thoughtfulness does not stop there, because the same notice tucks a warm blanket around certain cell and gene therapy technology platforms and around technology for producing certain kinds of solar cell modules. Some killjoys will note that gene therapy and photovoltaics are sharing a document with malicious-code generation, but honestly? That is *cross-disciplinary thinking*, and it is rare. One notice, three sectors, a bundling — think of it as the ministry's greatest-hits compilation, and every single track is a protected national treasure. And solar! The sun is a shared resource, but the technology for producing certain kinds of solar cell modules is clearly something to be cherished privately for a while, like a family recipe for a really good cake. ✨
But the part I simply cannot get over is the process itself. A one-month public consultation beginning Friday, covering a further 26 technologies across AI, biotech and solar — twenty-six technologies, and a whole month to have thoughts about them! That is twenty-six separate opportunities for an ordinary member of the public to weigh in, compressed into roughly thirty days, which is basically a sprint of civic participation. Most governments would have taken a year to not consult anybody at all. China has squeezed the listening into a single calendar month and given it a deadline, and I for one find that *efficiency* deeply moving. ✨