(Oct. 20, 2008) On September 16, 2008, China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly released the revised China Catalog of Technology Prohibited from Export and Restricted from Export. According to the two ministries' Decree No.12, 2008, the Catalog will be in force as of November 1, 2008. It supersedes the 2001 Catalog that had been issued under Decree No.16 of 2001 by the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and the Ministry of Science and Technology. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Science and Technology Decree No. 12 of 2008 Issuing the “Catalog of Technology That China Prohibits from Export or Restricts from Export” (After Revision) (in Chinese), Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China website, Sept. 25, 2008, availableathttp://www.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/b/c/200809/20080905801122.html?3569031387=
3270338276.)
Major categories of technology in the Catalog include, for example, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, coal exploitation and washing, raw chemical material and chemical product manufacture, pharmaceutical manufacture, telecommunications facilities, and computer and other electronic equipment manufacture. In total, the new Catalog covers 150 types of technology items, prohibiting 33 from export and restricting the export of 117 (versus 33 prohibited and 168 restricted items in the 2001 Catalog). (Id.; China Released the Revised Export-Prohibited and Export-Restricted Technology Catalogue, Lexis/Nexis online subscription database, http://hk.lexiscn.com/latest_message.php?id=4752 (last visited Oct. 9, 2008.); Zhongguo jinzhi chukou xianzhi chukou jishu mulu [China Catalog of Technology Prohibited from Export and Restricted from Export] (Decree No. 16 of 2001 of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and the Ministry of Science and Technology, in force on Jan. 1, 2002), Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangdong Province website, available at http://www.gddoftec.gov.cn/wjmzc_080107/Detail.asp?ID=1143.)
Technology products are divided into three categories – non-restricted, restricted, and prohibited – for purposes of export, as set forth in the Foreign Trade Law (2004), the Regulations on Administration and Export of Technology (2001), and the Measures for the Administration of Technology Prohibited or Restricted from Export (2001). Any technology is deemed non-restricted and may be exported freely if it does not fall into the restricted or prohibited categories. The Foreign Trade Law sets forth 11 reasons why the State may restrict or prohibit the import or export of goods and technologies including: to protect national security, the interests of society, or public morality; to protect human life or health, animal or plant life or health, or the environment; to implement certain measures on the export of gold or silver; where there is a domestic shortage in supply or to provide for the effective protection of exhaustible natural resources; or to accord with the provisions of law and administrative regulations (art. 16). (Zhong Yi, China Revised the Catalogue of Export Prohibited and Restricted Technologies, CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW, Sept. 28, 2008, available at http://www.lawcase.org/archives/node/244; Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China (2004), Ministry of Commerce website, July 1, 2004, available at http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/policyrelease/internationalpolicy/200705/
20070504715845.html.)