Features & Analyses

As PRC manufacturers move further up the value-chain they are importing more and more technology from abroad. Technology import contracts figure highly among the formalities that many foreign investors must endure. Understanding and long-term alignment with China's development goals is thus crucial.

Its competitive advantage threatened by the 2004 release of legislation allowing foreign-invested enterprises to trade in most goods throughout China, the county's largest free trade zone Waigaoqiao has fought back with its lobbying for a more level playing field.

Fulfilling an important WTO commitment, China has ended a seven-year ban on direct selling with the release of new regulations allowing the sale of consumer products away from fixed retail locations. New anti-pyramid regulations also indicate that the government is getting tough on pyramid selling schemes in the country.

Regulatory advances in the country are making it possible for foreign investors to structure their investments in increasingly sophisticated ways, thereby helping minimize risks.

After twenty years in the making, numerous drafts and countless deliberations, China is on the verge of releasing its first unified Anti-Monopoly Law. Will it live up to expectations?

Healthier balance sheets and more sophisticated ambitions of growth have projected mainland Chinese companies onto the global M&A stage. Although they are becoming more competitive in international bidding processes, mainland companies remain constrained by a complex domestic regulatory regime governing outbound investments.

The China Securities and Regulatory Commission has issued further measures to help smooth the integration of tradable and non-tradable shares, but will they be enough to revive investor confidence?

For the first time, the State Council has offered substantive legal parameters for the growth of China's burgeoning domestic private sector. The Opinion issued by the State Council brings the legal status of local private enterprises closer to that enjoyed by state and foreign-owned companies. Despite this, there is still more to be done to make China's private sector globally competitive.

Pending the State Council's release of regulations concerning the handling of copyright infringements over the internet, the National Copyright Administration and Ministry of Information Industry has released its own Procedures in this regard. Though these are helpful in handling the burgeoning number of copyright internet infringement cases, they are not without problems.