Published on 28 Apr 2015 • China |
Industry sector | Restrictions and prohibitions removed in the 2015 Negative List | Already removed from the 2015 Foreign Investment Catalogue? | |
Sub-sector | What has been removed | ||
Agriculture | Planting and cultivation of traditional Chinese medicine herbs. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes |
Processing of the lumber of precious varieties of trees. |
| Yes | |
Mining | Mining and mine selection of iron sulfur mines and mining and processing of ludwigite | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes |
Exploration and mining of barites |
| Yes | |
Mining of marine manganese nodule and sea sand |
| Yes | |
Beverage manufacturing | Production of rice wine and famous-brand spirits. |
| Yes |
Processing of green tea with Chinese traditional techniques. | With the Chinese parties holding majority of the shares. | Yes. Foreign investment into the "processing of green tea" fell into the "prohibited" category in the 2011 Foreign Investment Catalogue. The prohibition was first relaxed (by allowing a joint venture with a Chinese majority shareholder) in the Shanghai FTZ under the 2014 Negative List and the sector was subsequently fully opened up to foreign investors in the 2015 Foreign Investment Catalogue. | |
Processing of special tea with Chinese traditional techniques. | Within the "prohibited" category. | Yes | |
Tobacco products manufacturing | Processing and production of threshed and re-dried tobacco leaves | Within the "prohibited" category. | Yes |
Processing of cellulose diacetate and tow. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Manufacturing of raw chemical materials and chemical products | Major examples including the production of PVCs, butadiene rubber and precursor chemicals. | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes. The 2015 Foreign Investment Catalogue also moved the production of new downstream PVC products from the "restricted" category into the "encouraged" category. |
Medical and pharmaceutical products manufacturing | Production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for anaesthetics and Category I psychotropic drugs. |
| Yes |
Production of varieties of vaccines which have been incorporated into the national immunity planning. | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes | |
Production of blood products. | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes | |
Equipment manufacturing | Manufacture of wheeled, caterpillar hoisting machinery with a lifting capacity of less than 400 tons. |
| Yes |
Design of deepwater (3,000 meters or more) marine engineering equipment. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Manufacture of complete sets of large coal chemical equipment. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Manufacture and research & development of automobile embedded electronic integrated systems. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Design of low- and medium-speed diesel engines of vessels and parts and components of these engines. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Manufacture of yachts. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Manufacture of cabin machinery of vessels. | With the Chinese parties holding a relative majority of the shares. | Yes | |
Design, manufacture and maintenance of aircraft engines and aircraft auxiliary power systems. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Design and manufacture of airborne equipment for civil aviation. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Design and manufacture of civil helicopters of less than three tons. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Certain electric machinery and equipment manufacturing, major examples including the manufacture of power transmission and transformation equipment. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes | |
Manufacture of open (that is, acid mist directly coming out) lead-acid batteries, mercury-contained silver oxide button batteries, mercury-contained alkaline zinc-manganese button batteries, pasted zinc-manganese batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries. | Within the "prohibited" category. | Yes | |
Transportation | Construction and operation of branch railway lines and related bridges, tunnels, ferries and station facilities | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes |
Comprehensive maintenance of infrastructures of high-speed railway lines, passenger railway lines and intercity railways. | With the Chinese parties holding majority of the shares. | Yes | |
Construction and operation of urban subway, light railway and other track transport. | With the Chinese parties holding majority of the shares. | Yes | |
Highway passenger transport. | Limited to EJVs. | Yes. Although the requirement to operate as an EJV has gone, this sector still falls within the "restricted" category under both the 2015 Foreign Investment Catalogue and the 2015 Negative List. | |
Cross-boundary automobile transport. | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes | |
Telecoms | Certain value-added telecoms services including application store, domestic virtual private network services and operating e-commerce. | Covering some (but not all) of the restrictions and beneficial policies implemented in the Shanghai FTZ under other domestic industry regulations. | No. Removing the beneficial policies out of the 2015 Negative List makes the list consistent with nationwide policy as set out in the 2015 Foreign Investment Catalogue. The removal of these policies indicates that the special telecoms treatment implemented in the Shanghai FTZ will not be extended to the other FTZs. For an overview of telecoms regulation in China and the preferential policies applied in the Shanghai FTZ, see Practice note, Telecommunications and internet content regulation in China: overview. |
Wholesale and retail | Distribution of audio-video products (excluding movies). |
| Yes |
Wholesale and distribution of agricultural chemicals, agricultural plastic film and bonded oil. | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes | |
Retail and distribution of agricultural chemicals and agricultural plastic film. |
| Yes | |
Direct sales and online sales. | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes | |
Real estate | Construction and operation of high-class hotels, high-class office buildings and international exhibition centres. | Subject to the project company rule. | Yes |
Real estate secondary market transactions. | Subject to the project company rule. | Yes | |
Technology services | Photography services (including aerial photography). |
| Yes |
Industry | Restrictions and prohibitions removed in the 2015 Negative List | Still in the 2015 Foreign Investment Catalogue? | |
Sub-sector | What has been removed | ||
Mining | Exploration and mining of special and rare kinds of coal |
| Yes. |
Agricultural and food products processing | Processing of edible oils and fats from soybean, rapeseed, peanut, cottonseed, camellia seed, sunflower seed and palm. |
| Yes. |
Processing of rice and flour, and deep processing of corn. | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes. | |
Manufacturing of weapons and ammunition | Within the "prohibited" category. | Yes. | |
Transportation | Scheduled or non-scheduled international marine transportation services. | Limited to EJVs or CJVs. | Yes. |
Wholesale and retail | Wholesale of grains and cotton, and construction and operation of large-scale agricultural products wholesale markets | Within the "restricted" category. | Yes. |
Construction and operation of gas stations |
| Yes. | |
Water Conservancy | Construction and operation of comprehensive water control projects. | With the Chinese parties holding majority of the shares. | Yes. |
Environmental protection | Construction and operation of natural reserves and internationally important wetlands | Within the "prohibited" category. | Yes. |
Real estate | Construction and operation of villas and golf courses. | Within the "prohibited" category. | Yes. |