China’s economic policymakers today released a revised list of restricted sectors for foreign investment, which incorporates liberalizations announced during recent months. The new “national negative list” includes greater openings in sectors such as finance, transportation, commercial logistics, professional services, seeds, coal and non-metal mining, and the manufacturing of autos, ships, and aircraft. China had set a deadline of issuing the new list before the end of June; today’s release...
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June 28th, 2018
March 7th, 2018
China’s National People’s Congress opened its 2018 session Monday and will run through March 20. The US-China Business Council’s initial reporting on Premier Li’s report on the economy can be found here.
This week has seen the release of annual reports from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), with accompanying press conferences. Highlights include:
MOF outlined...
June 28th, 2017
China confirmed a few new foreign investment openings earlier today, but did not add any liberalizations beyond those already signalled over the past few months.
China’s final revised Catalogue Guiding Foreign Investment (CGFI), which details restrictions on foreign direct investment in various sectors, aligns closely with a draft version released in late 2016. While the changes finalized in this version took small steps to shift its foreign investment regime to a negative list-style...
May 31st, 2017
Some new investment openings appear to be on the horizon in China, according to US-China Business Council (USCBC) sources, but the number and significance remain up in the air.
A revision of the Catalogue Guiding Foreign Investment (CGFI), which incorporates restrictions on foreign investment in China, is nearing finalization. At a May 25 news conference, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) spokesman Sun Jiwen said openings were expected in high-end and automobile...
April 5th, 2017
Changes to how the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reviews investments may be under consideration by the Trump administration. Such changes could expand the review process to consider a broader range of issues related to national security, such as food security, but may also include more controversial expansions such as national economic security or reciprocal market access as part...
March 15th, 2017
China’s annual legislative congress concluded Wednesday with a pointed warning from China’s premier: the stakes of a trade war with China are high and US companies will be the first casualty. Premier Li Keqiang’s remarks cap two weeks of National People’s Congress (NPC) meetings that largely reaffirmed existing priorities and emphasized economic and social stability in advance of China’s Communist Party...
May 11th, 2016
New online publishing rules announced February 14 largely reinforce existing law, which prohibits foreign investment in China’s online publishing sector, but the rules also expand government oversight and regulation of online content—developments that are of concern to many companies. The Ministry of Information Technology (MIIT) and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (...
April 13th, 2016
During President Xi Jinping’s recent Washington visit, China missed its self-imposed deadline to provide a revised offer for the US-China bilateral investment treaty (BIT) negotiations and has not set a new target date to do so. The next inflection point on the calendar is the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which will likely take place in June.
USCBC believes the missed deadline is a reflection of the ongoing political debate in China as to how much they...
August 5th, 2015
The United States is a top destination for Chinese overseas investment, as private-sector investors seek opportunities in commercial real estate, hospitality, and information and communications technology (ICT), according to the latest figures from the Rhodium Group and American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Chinese investment in the real estate and hospitality sector rose by 38 percent from FY2014 through the first half of 2015, and accounted for the majority of Chinese investment in the...
June 24th, 2015
A Beijing pilot program launched in May appears to reinforce China’s interest in opening the services sector to foreign investment beyond the free trade zones (FTZs) in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Fujian. However, the pilot program, launched in a circular by the State Council on May 21, provides little in the way of immediate openings, US-China Business Council (USCBC) outreach has found. Although the program’s scope includes financial services and healthcare—sectors currently hindered by...