China’s Announcement No. 48

Syllabus: GS3/Economy

Context

• China announced a draft plan, titled Announcement No. 48, to regulate the export of more than 40 advanced technologies related to artificial intelligence (AI), biomedicine and solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing.
  • 14 technologies: Proposed for outright export prohibition.
  • 26 technologies: Proposed for export restrictions requiring government licensing.

Why Is China Tightening Controls?

• Strategic advantage: Protects its position in solar manufacturing and advanced technologies.
• National security: Limits the transfer of technologies with potential military or cybersecurity applications.
• Geopolitical leverage: Provides a potential bargaining tool amid Western restrictions on advanced semiconductors and related technologies.

Key Provisions

• Solar technology: Restricts the transfer of advanced perovskite and tandem solar manufacturing technologies, along with selected polysilicon processing and wafer-manufacturing technologies.
• Artificial Intelligence: Targets technologies related to malicious cyber-code generation, foundation-model parameters, intelligent agents and specialised computing systems.
• Biomedicine: Covers designated gene-editing platforms, cell-therapy processes and nucleic-acid therapeutics.

Implications for India

• Chinese Control Over Supply Chain: China controls 75–95% of the global solar PV supply chain, including 91% of polysilicon and over 97% of wafers, making it the primary supplier worldwide.
• India’s Reliance on China: Despite some decline, India still relies on China for over 50% of its solar cells and modules, with imports worth nearly $4 billion in FY2024.
  • India lacks manufacturing strength in upstream components like polysilicon and ingots, and efforts to build local capacity face cost and technology barriers.
  • It highlights India’s dependence on imported capital equipment and critical technological know-how.
• India is trying to develop domestic solar manufacturing, restrictions on access to Chinese manufacturing technology could make this process more difficult.
• India must diversify its supply chain, invest in R&D, forge global partnerships (e.g., with the US, EU, Japan), and strengthen domestic manufacturing to build energy resilience.

Source: TH