Announcement No. 77 and Announcement No. 78 of 2026, published by China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on 8 and 9 June and in force from 30 June, change how two categories of goods are declared on the way out of China (Brownstein, 11 June 2026). Announcement No. 77 covers lathes, milling machines, grinding machines, and similar material-processing equipment. Announcement No. 78 covers unmanned aircraft, unmanned airships, their parts and related equipment, and civil counter-drone systems. Neither adds products to China's export control list. Both raise the standard for how an exporter has to describe and justify the shipment at the point of declaration, citing the PRC Export Control Law and the PRC Customs Law as the basis.
The change lands in the remarks field of the customs declaration. From 30 June, an exporter shipping anything in scope has to state the control status outright. If the goods are a controlled dual-use item, the declaration must say so and list the matching dual-use control code. If the goods are not controlled but their specifications sit close to a controlled item, the exporter still has to write that the item is not controlled. The shorthand most parcel shippers rely on goes away as well: cross-border e-commerce export lists can no longer be filed on the first four digits of the HS code, so the full code is required. The contract, the commercial invoice, and the technical description have to match the declaration, and the filing has to carry the overseas buyer's full legal name and the actual maker or seller inside China.
This is the second customs tightening importers have met in a month. Announcement No. 57, in force from 1 June, lets China Customs pull and lab-test exported baby products and low-voltage electricals before release (see our note on the random export tests now running at Chinese ports). Both moves point the same way. China is checking more at its own border, on the way out, on ordinary commercial cargo that used to clear on documents alone.
Who this catches
If you import a CNC lathe, a milling or grinding machine, a drone, a flight controller, an inertial unit, an optical payload, or a counter-drone unit from China, your next order is in scope. The exporter files the declaration, not you, so the rule reads like a Chinese supplier's problem. It becomes yours the moment a declaration is incomplete or wrong. A shipment with a mismatched code or a blank control statement can be held at the Chinese port before it ever sails. The penalty falls on the exporter. The delay falls on you. For a buyer with a fixed install date or a customer waiting on a machine, a hold at Shenzhen or Ningbo over one declaration field is the gap between delivering and explaining.
What to do before your next order ships
Ask your supplier now, in writing, whether your exact SKUs fall under Announcement No. 77 or No. 78, and have them put the answer in declaration terms: controlled, with the dual-use code, or not controlled, stated plainly. Confirm the contract, commercial invoice, and technical datasheet carry the same product description, and that your company's full legal name appears on the paperwork the way customs will read it. For drone parts moving as parcels or e-commerce orders, check that the full HS code is declared rather than the old four-digit short form. Then add buffer, and treat any machine-tool or drone order placed near 30 June as one that can be pulled for a declaration review, with roughly a week left before the sailing you need.
The deeper issue is the one that decides whether any China order arrives clean: whether you can see how your supplier handles the parts of the job you never watch. If the declaration is the first time anyone checks the paperwork, you find out it was wrong when the shipment stops.
Sources: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, China Tightens Export Declaration Criteria for Machine Tools and Drone-Related Products (GACC Announcements No. 77 and No. 78 of 2026, effective 30 June 2026), 11 June 2026; China General Administration of Customs, Announcement No. 77 of 2026 (on standardising export declaration of lathes, milling machines, grinding machines and related items) and Announcement No. 78 of 2026 (on standardising export declaration of drones and related items), issued 8 and 9 June 2026, effective 30 June 2026.