On June 16, 2026, China’s Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance — together with 27 departments — issued the ‘Action Plan for Stabilizing and Optimizing Foreign Investment’ (商资发〔2026〕97号, approved by the State Council). Released at a State Council briefing on June 22, it sets out 15 concrete measures across five areas designed to make China a more predictable, open, and fair destination for foreign businesses.
The plan expands market access: it deepens services-sector opening (building on 2024 pilots in biotech, value-added telecom, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals), widens opening of vocational training, vocational schools, and top science/agriculture/medicine universities, and supports foreign participation in the pharmaceutical and financial industries. China’s manufacturing sector now has zero foreign-access restrictions.
It also raises investment convenience: revising rules on foreign investors’ mergers and acquisitions of domestic firms, optimizing cross-border data-flow management, implementing tax incentives for reinvesting distributed profits, and strengthening support for foreign R&D centers in China. These measures move the focus from ‘allowing entry’ to ‘making operation easy.’
On protection and promotion, the plan guarantees national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises, strengthens fair-competition review in government procurement and bidding, supports foreign firms joining China’s consumption-stimulus actions, and builds an ‘Invest in China’ brand with a digital comprehensive service platform. The data is encouraging: by end-2025, 533,000 foreign-invested enterprises operated in China with nearly $4 trillion in stock; in the first five months of 2026 alone, nearly 4,000 foreign firms added investment, and foreign investment in wholesale and retail grew 22.6% year-on-year.
For international brands planning to set up or expand in China, the message is clear: the policy environment is stabilizing, market access is widening, and equal treatment is being enforced. Hongshengze Business Management supports foreign investors through every step — entity formation, compliance, tax and incentive planning, and local market entry. Reach out to build your China presence on the back of this more open, more predictable framework.