China requires AI-agent checks in network-access approval for phones, tablets and wearables

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) posted on its official site on 6 November the “MIIT General Office Notice on Strengthening Network-Access Management for AI-Agent Terminal Devices” (工业和信息化部办公厅关于加强智能体终端设备进网管理的通知), document number 工信厅信管〔2026〕42号. The text was drafted on 24 October 2026 and released by MIIT’s Information and Communications Administration. China News Service and National Business Daily carried the notice on the morning of the 6th.

Under the notice, an “AI-agent terminal” is a telecom terminal device — phone, tablet or wearable — with a preinstalled agent. The notice itself defines an agent as an intelligent system with autonomous perception, memory, decision-making, interaction and execution. The stated aim is to balance development and security, protect users’ rights and support orderly growth of these devices, citing laws including cybersecurity, data security, personal information protection, anti-telecom fraud and the telecoms regulation, plus the rules on network-access management for telecom equipment.

The notice sets out four task blocks. First, agent developers must strengthen adaptation verification with the terminal (permissions, communications, network and data security, user rights and task execution), publish in the product settings page the list of already-adapted models and operating systems, and, before listing an agent on an app store, submit that verification to the distribution platform.

Second, MIIT requires upgrades to the network-access (进网) testing mechanism and more detailed special requirements. Phones, tablets and wearables with a preinstalled agent must, in 进网 testing, undergo agent adaptation verification against applicable standards; they must also undergo fraud-risk assessment and prior anti-fraud capability evaluation. Agents used on the terminal should carry a unique identity code, with reference to the national standards series on agent interconnection. Manufacturers must keep the licensed product consistent with what was tested; major changes require a report to MIIT and further 进网 testing as required.

Third, in-network agent upgrades via OTA (online push) require the manufacturer to file with MIIT a plan covering timing, scale, user group, scenario, service content, business model, network and data security measures and anti-fraud measures. After the upgrade, the manufacturer files a report; only after MIIT organises expert assessment and solicits opinions may the service be formally offered to users.

Fourth, app distribution platforms must have developers declare by electronic signature whether they consent to an agent calling the app; without that consent, the agent may not force the call. Stores must display the adaptation list and must not offer agent downloads for incompatible models; agents that have not completed adaptation verification should be corrected or taken down.

In the official interpretation published the same day, MIIT says the notice builds a full chain — adaptation, 进网 testing, in-network upgrades and distribution — to give an “inclusive and prudent” setting for the new business model, protect users’ rights to know and to choose, and order collaboration among hardware, preinstalled agents and third-party apps. The interpretation cites, as background, China’s five-year plan language on AI phones and other next-generation terminals; the notice itself does not state a separate effective date apart from publication.

CSP take: for electronics buyers and importers, the practical point is scope. A 进网许可证 authorises a device to connect to China’s public network; the notice therefore lands squarely on makers and ODMs selling agent-equipped phones, tablets and wearables into the Chinese market. Export-only SKUs that never seek that licence are not automatically covered by the text — but dual-SKU lines and China-bound products are. In practice, the order checklist should now ask: has this agent-equipped model passed the new adaptation test? Does the agent have an identity code? Does the supplier know the OTA filing path with MIIT? This reading is ours, not the sources’.