Executive Summary
China issued a new action plan on June 22, 2026 to stabilize and improve the use of foreign investment. The plan was jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance. It contains 15 measures across five areas: market access, investment facilitation, investment promotion, services and guarantees, and foreign-investment administration.
This is not a new foreign-investment negative list. The current national negative list remains the 2024 edition unless and until a later list is formally issued. Foreign companies should therefore separate two questions: what activities are currently open under the negative list, and what additional facilitation or pilot measures are introduced by the 2026 action plan.
Why the Distinction Matters
A negative list changes the legal access boundary for foreign investment. An action plan directs government departments to implement policy measures, pilots and administrative improvements. Some 2026 measures can create practical opportunities, but a company must confirm the implementing authority, eligible location, sector conditions and effective procedure before relying on them in a transaction timetable.
Five Areas of the 2026 Plan
1. Wider market access
The plan calls for additional opening pilots in vocational training and higher education and supports further opening in finance and pharmaceuticals. It also refers to research on expanding pilots for biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals. These measures are most relevant to companies whose activities were previously limited by institution type, location or sector-specific licensing.
2. Easier investment procedures
The plan addresses cross-border M&A administration, data flows and domestic reinvestment. It calls for improved M&A rules and procedures, exploration of more detailed data-export negative lists in free trade zones and service-opening pilot cities, and implementation of tax support for qualified reinvestment of distributed profits.
3. Stronger investment promotion
The policy continues the “Invest in China” initiative and calls for better coordination of investment services. For investors, the useful question is not whether a city offers promotion, but whether the project can obtain written guidance from the competent commerce, development and reform, market regulation and industry authorities.
4. Services and guarantees
The plan emphasizes national treatment, support for major foreign-invested projects and mechanisms to address operational difficulties. Official briefings also highlighted fair participation in government procurement and business-support programs. Companies should document any eligibility issue and use formal complaint or coordination channels where needed.
5. Better foreign-investment administration
The plan calls for improved foreign-investment information reporting and regional coordination. This increases the importance of consistent information across registration, licensing, foreign-exchange, fixed-asset investment and tax records.
What Foreign Companies Should Do Now
- Keep using the 2024 negative list for the access check. Do not describe the 2026 action plan as a replacement negative list.
- Identify which 2026 measure affects the project. Link the measure to a specific sector, transaction or location.
- Ask the competent authority for implementation details. Record the department, date, written response and remaining conditions.
- Update the entity and transaction model. Reassess whether a wholly foreign-owned entity, joint venture, acquisition or pilot-zone structure is now practical.
- Rebuild the timeline around approvals. Policy direction is not the same as an approval date.
- Check national-treatment rights. Review procurement, consumer-promotion programs, financing and local support on the same basis applied to domestic companies where the law requires equal treatment.
Sector Implications
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals: review hospital, biotechnology, drug-production and procurement pilots, but confirm product and institutional approvals separately. Financial services: assess access to risk-management and advisory activities under the applicable financial licences. Digital businesses: monitor field-level data-export lists and important-data standards; do not assume that a local pilot removes national cybersecurity obligations. M&A investors: track the revision of foreign-investor acquisition rules and continue to assess competition and national-security review independently.
Risk Flags
- A local promotional announcement is treated as final legal approval.
- The 2026 action plan is incorrectly called a new negative list.
- A project assumes that “manufacturing is open” means every product and process is unlicensed.
- Data-transfer requirements are reviewed only after systems have been selected.
- Reinvestment tax support is booked before eligibility and filing requirements are confirmed.
Conclusion
The 2026 action plan is a meaningful policy signal and an implementation agenda. Its value to a foreign company depends on translating the relevant measure into a documented access, licensing, location and transaction decision. Use the official text and government briefings as the starting point, then confirm sector and local implementation before committing capital.
Official Sources
- Official 2026 action plan – MOFCOM
- English policy summary – China Government
- State Council Information Office briefing
- 2024 National Foreign Investment Negative List – NDRC
The measures summarized above come from the cited government releases. Their practical effect will vary by sector, location and investment structure, so implementation assumptions should be checked with the competent authority.
Management Control
Assign each relevant measure to an executive owner and record whether it changes market access, an application, operating cost or only future policy direction. The action plan should use the implementing authority and effective document rather than assume that every announced measure is immediately available to every foreign-invested company.
