DeepSeek and MiniMax get Beijing's go-ahead to deploy models abroad

DeepSeek and MiniMax completed the registration required by China's new AI export rule

APIs, apps and web services stay outside the rule; limits cover licenses, ownership transfers and unpublished models

The regulation is still under consultation and some operational details remain unclear

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Synthesis of 6 sources · 3 background articles ◎ Single origin Background from our archive

Shared origin: All sources relay the announcement by Yuyuan Tantian, the social account affiliated with CCTV.

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Chinese AI startups DeepSeek and MiniMax have completed the registration required under China's new interim rules on AI technology exports, clearing the way to publish open-weight models and grant licenses for use abroad.

The news came on October 22 from Yuyuan Tantian, a social account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV. According to the post, both labs have completed registration, open-sourcing and overseas authorization. Bloomberg reports that Beijing will let part of the country's homegrown AI technologies operate globally.

DeepSeek and MiniMax official product photo

Image: myclaw.ai — https://myclaw.ai/blog/minimax-m3-vs-deepseek-v4-pro

The framework dates to October 16, when the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology opened a public consultation on revising the catalogue of technologies prohibited or restricted from export. It includes 23 AI technologies, among them large models, agents, computing clusters and information processing. An interim pre-export registration now covers transfers of technology ownership, licenses for overseas use and transfers of control to foreign entities.

The rule does not reach the whole sector. According to guidance from the Ministry of Commerce reported in the Chinese press, APIs, apps, web services and lightweight local deployments fall outside it, as do technologies already made public through open source or academic papers. The restrictions target transfers of ownership, overseas use of intellectual property and overseas deployment of unpublished models.

DeepSeek and MiniMax official product photo

Image: MiniMax-AI — https://github.com/MiniMax-AI/cli/tree/main/

The New York Times notes the rule could give Beijing the power to track and, in some cases, limit where the most advanced systems go, and that many details remain unclear, especially for labs that release new versions every few weeks.

For DeepSeek and MiniMax the outcome is regulatory certainty: they can keep distributing model weights and pursue international partnerships. The case also shows that China does not intend to halt AI exports, but to govern them case by case.

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