Explanations

I. The Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List for Foreign Investment Access) lists the equity control, executive requirements and other restrictive measures for foreign investment access in a unified way. Restrictive measures with consistent proportion of domestic and foreign funds and those that are not part of the scope of access are not included in the Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List for Foreign Investment Access).

II. Foreign investors shall not engage in business activities as individual industrial and commercial households, investors of individual proprietorship enterprises and members of farmers' professional cooperatives.

III. Foreign investors shall not be engaged in prohibited items specified in the Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List for Foreign Investment Access); engaged in restricted items with requirements for proportion of foreign investment, and shall not establish foreign-invested partnership enterprises.

IV. If a domestic company, enterprise or natural person acquiring a domestic company associated with it with its company lawfully established or controlled outside China involves foreign investment items and the establishment and change of enterprises, the current provisions shall prevail.

V. For the overlapping clauses between the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment and the Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List for Foreign Investment Access), the policy of encouragement shall be enjoyed and meanwhile the relevant access regulations shall be followed.

VI. If the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement and its supplements and service trade agreements, the Mainland and Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement Special Administrative Zone and its supplements and service trade agreements, the Cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement and its subsequent agreements, the free trade zone agreements and investment agreements signed by and between China and other relevant countries, international treaties to which China is a party and Chinese laws and regulations provide otherwise, the relevant provisions shall prevail. 

VII. If foreign service providers providing news and cultural services (including Internet related news and cultural services) in the territory of Chinese must fulfill the relevant approval and safety assessment as well as executive requirements, then current relevant provisions shall prevail. 　

Part I Catalogue of Restricted Industries for Foreign Investment

1. Selection and cultivation of new varieties of crops and production of seeds(with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

2. Exploration and exploitation of oil and natural gas (including coal-bed gas and excluding oil shale, oil sand, shale gas and so on) (limited to Sino-foreign equity or contractual joint ventures)

3. Exploration and exploitation of special and rare kinds of coal (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

4. Exploration and exploitation of graphite

5. Printing of publications (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

6. Smelting and separation of rare earth (limited to Sino-foreign equity or contractual joint ventures); smelting of tungsten

7. Manufacturing of complete automobiles and special purpose motor vehicles: the proportion of Chinese shares shall not be less than 50%. A foreign investor may set up at most two joint ventures to manufacture complete products of the same kind (including passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles), but such limitation can be ignored if the foreign investor, jointly with its Chinese joint venture partner, acquires other Chinese automobile manufactures and establishes a joint venture to produce complete pure electric vehicle products

8. Repair, design and manufacturing of ships (including subsections) (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

9. Design, manufacturing and maintenance of aircrafts for trunk lines and regional aircrafts; design and manufacturing of helicopters 3 tons or more; manufacturing of ground-effect and water-effect aircrafts; design and manufacturing of unmanned aircrafts and aerostats (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder); 

10. Design, manufacturing and maintenance of utility aircrafts (limited to Sino-foreign equity or contractual joint ventures)

11. Production of satellite television broadcasting ground receiving facilities and key parts

12. Construction and operation of nuclear power stations (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

13. Construction and operation of power grid (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

14. Construction and operation of pipeline networks for gas, heat, and water supply and sewage in cities with a population of more than 500,000 (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

15. Construction and operation of network of trunk railway lines (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

16. Railway passenger transport companies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

17. Domestic water transport companies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder); international marine transportation companies (limited to Sino-foreign equity or contractual joint ventures)

18. Construction and operation of civil airports (with Chinese party as the relative controlling shareholder)

19. Public air transportation companies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder and the proportion of investment by a foreign-owner enterprise and its affiliated enterprises not exceeding 25%; the legal representative must have Chinese nationality)

20. General aviation companies (the legal representative must have Chinese nationality; limited to Sino-foreign equity joint ventures in case of general aviation companies for agriculture, forestry, and fishery; with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder in case of other general aviation companies)

21. Telecommunication companies: limited to services that WTO promises to open; value-added telecommunication services (with the proportion of foreign investment not exceeding 50%, except for e-commerce); basic telecommunication services (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

22. Purchase and wholesale of rice, wheat and corn

23. Vessel agencies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

24. Construction and operation of gas stations (in the case of the same foreign investors selling product oil of different varieties and brands from multiple suppliers through more than 30 chain gas stations, the Chinese parties shall be the controlling shareholders)

25. Banks (the proportion of investment in capital in a Chinese-funded commercial bank by a foreign financial institution and the affiliated party under common control as promoter or strategic investor shall not exceed 20%, while the proportion of investment in capital in a Chinese-funded commercial bank by more than one foreign financial institution and the affiliated party under common control as promoter or strategic investor shall not exceed 25%; the foreign financial institutions investing in China’s small or middle-sized financial institutions in rural areas must be banking financial institutions; the foreign investors establishing foreign bank branches, wholly foreign-funded banks and joint Chinese-foreign banks, the sole or controlling shareholder must be foreign commercial banks, while non-controlling shareholders may be foreign financial institutions)

26. Insurance companies (in the case of life insurance companies, the proportion of foreign investment shall not exceed 50%)

27. Securities companies (limited in establishment to underwriting and sponsoring of A-shares, B-shares, government and corporate bonds, brokerage of B-shares, brokerage and proprietary trading of government and corporate bonds, qualified companies which have been established for two years or more may apply for expansion of business scope; with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder), and securities investment fund management companies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

28. Futures companies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

29. Market survey (limited to Sino-foreign equity or contractual joint ventures, and radio and television ratings surveys shall be conducted by enterprises with the Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

30. Surveying and mapping companies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

31. Pre-school, ordinary high school and higher educational institutions (limited to Sino-foreign contractual educational institutions, with Chinese party as the leader )

32. Medical institutions (limited to Sino-foreign equity or contractual joint ventures)

33. Production of radio and television programs and movies (limited to contractual joint ventures)

34. Construction and operation of movie theaters (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

35. Performance brokerage agencies (with Chinese party as the controlling shareholder)

*“With the Chinese party as the leader” refers to the principal or person primarily in charge of administration shall have Chinese nationality, and the number of Chinese members of the board of governors, the board of directors or joint administrative committee of a Sino-foreign contractual educational institution shall be not less than 50%.　

Part II Catalogue of Prohibited Industries for Foreign Investment

1. Research and development, breeding, and planting of China’s rare and special varieties and production of relevant breeding material (including quality genes in planting industry, animal husbandry, and aquaculture)

2. Breeding of genetically modified crops, livestock and poultry and aquatic fingerlings and production of genetically modified seeds (seeding)

3. Fishing in the sea area and inland waters under China’s jurisdiction

4. Exploration and exploitation of tungsten, molybdenum, tin, stibium and fluorite

5. Exploration, exploitation and ore dressing of rare earth

6. Exploration, exploitation and ore dressing of radioactive minerals

7. Application of processing techniques such as steaming, stir-frying, roasting, moxibustion, and calcination for making small pieces of ready-for-use traditional Chinese medicines, and production of traditional Chinese patent medicine of secret prescriptions

8. Smelting and processing of radioactive minerals, and production of nuclear fuels

9. Manufacturing of weapons and ammunitions

10. Production of Xuan paper and Chinese ink ingot

11. Air traffic control

12. Postal companies; domestic express delivery of letters

13. Wholesale and retail of tobacco, cigarette, redrying tobacco and other tobacco products

14. Social survey

15. Chinese legal affairs consulting (except to the providing of information relating to the influence of Chinese legal environment)

16. Development and application of human stem cell and genetic diagnosis and treatment technologies

17. Geodetic surveying; marine charting; aerial photograph for surveying and mapping purposes; ground mobile surveying; administrative boundary surveying and mapping; compilation of topographic map, world administrative map, national administrative map, administrative map at provincial level or below, national school map, local school map, true three-dimensional map and navigating digital map; local geological mapping; and survey for mineral geology, physical geography, geochemistry, hydrogeology, environmental geology, geological disasters, remote sensing geology and so on.

18. Development of wild animal and plant resources originated in and protected by China

19. Compulsory education institutions

20. News agencies (including but not limited to the news agency)

21. Editing and publishing of books, newspapers and periodicals

22. Editing, publishing and production of audio and video products and electronic publications

23. All radio stations, television stations, radio and television channels (frequencies), radio and television transmission and coverage networks (transmitting stations, relay stations, radio and television satellites, satellite uplink stations, satellite receiving and transmitting stations, microwave stations, monitoring stations, and cable radio and television transmission and coverage networks), radio and television video on demand services and installation of satellite television broadcasting ground receiving facilities

24. Radio and television program (including introduced business) production and operation companies

25. Movie production companies, distribution companies, and theaters

26. Internet news information services, online publishing services, online audio and video programs, business premises for internet-access services, internet cultural business (excluding music), and online public information publishing services

27. Auction enterprises and cultural relic stores to engage in auction of cultural relics

28. Humanities and social sciences research institutes

Note: The “above” and “below” mentioned in the Catalogue of Industries for Guiding Foreign Investment (Revision 2017) does not include the number; the “and above” or “and below” includes the number.