China tightens military-civilian export controls ‘just in time’, experts say

State Council approves regulation to unify ‘fragmented and imperfect’ rules covering sensitive dual-use technologies and minerals

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China is updating export control laws for dual-use items such as drones. Photo: China Daily via Reuters

Published: 2:13pm, 23 Sep 2024Updated: 4:37pm, 23 Sep 2024

China is stepping up export controls on items that can be used for both military and civilian purposes, in what observers called “a timely move” that safeguards the country’s national security against a set of external hostilities.

No details were released of the regulation that was approved last week by the State Council to control exports of dual-use goods, but the Ministry of Commerce issued a draft of the rules for public feedback in April 2022.

According to the draft regulation, the 2020 export control law needed to be refined and a unified rule set up to address “fragmented and imperfect” regulations on exports of nuclear technology, missiles, biotech and chemicals.

Lu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the State Council had passed the regulation “just in time” as sectors that previously were not considered dual-use had been shown to have military applications.

These included new communication and remote control technologies, as well as key raw materials, Lu said. He also pointed to last week’s pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon as examples of the weaponisation of civilian-use products.

“This necessitates balancing normal trade with restrictions on dual-use exports, bringing forward the urgent need for more detailed and systematic management based on the national export control law.”