All posts by adm0n

Green Energy / 绿色能源, Sourcing & Suppliers / 采购供应

Green Power Trading for Foreign-Invested Enterprises: Power Purchase Agreement Routes, the Renewable Energy Certificate Question, and What a Zero-Carbon Factory Claim Needs

  • On 22 October 2026 an official of the Ministry of Commerce’s foreign investment administration said the ministry would support foreign-invested enterprises in participating in renewable energy trading on equal terms — a statement of direction, not a new set of trading rules.
    2026 年 10 月 22 日，商务部外国投资管理司负责人表示将支持外资企业平等参与可再生能源交易——这是方向性表态，不是新的交易规则。
  • The same briefing disclosed that inbound investment in the energy-saving, environmental-protection and clean-production sector grew 11.1 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2026, and that several foreign-invested Zero-Carbon Factory projects have been commissioned using green electricity throughout.
    同场发布会披露，2026 年 1—9 月节能环保清洁产业引资同比增长 11.1%，一批外资零碳工厂相继落地，且全部使用绿色电力。
  • Nothing in the statement changes how a transaction is executed: purchases still run through the electricity trading institutions and local energy authorities under the medium- and long-term market rules, the green power trading pilot launched in 2021, and the certificate system.
    该表态不改变交易执行方式：采购仍按电力中长期交易规则、2021 年启动的绿电交易试点以及绿证制度，通过电力交易机构与地方能源主管部门办理。
  • Three routes exist and they are not interchangeable: a Power Purchase Agreement or monthly listing through a trading centre, purchase of certificates separately from physical power, and self-generation or distributed self-consumption.
    存在三条路径且不可互换：通过交易中心的长期购电协议或月度挂牌交易、与物理电量分离的绿证购买、以及自建或分布式自用。
  • The double-counting risk is the one that survives audit: buying a certificate does not mean buying green power, and a company that claims the same megawatt-hour in its electricity reporting and again in its certificate reporting will fail review.
    双重计算是审计中最容易被抓的问题：买证不等于买绿电，把同一兆瓦时既计入用电报告又计入绿证报告，复核时无法通过。
  • For exports, green procurement is worth only what the receiving regime will accept, so the evidence chain matters as much as the purchase itself.
    对出口而言，绿色采购的价值取决于接收方是否认可，因此凭证链的重要性不亚于采购本身。
  • Three contract terms deserve scrutiny before signature: the annual deviation assessment, curve matching against actual load, and mark-ups where power is passed through a landlord or park operator.
    签约前应重点审查三项条款：年度偏差考核、与实际负荷的曲线匹配、以及经由业主或园区转供时的加价。

Green Power Trading for Foreign-Invested Enterprises: Power Purchase Agreement Routes, the Renewable Energy Certificate Question, and What a Zero-Carbon Factory Claim Needs | 外资企业平等参与绿电交易：三条采购路径、绿证与绿电的双重计算，以及零碳工厂声明需要什么

Overview

At a State Council Information Office briefing on 22 October 2026, the official heading the foreign investment administration at the Ministry of Commerce said the ministry would support foreign-invested enterprises in participating in renewable energy trading on equal terms, alongside continued work on cross-border data flows. The same briefing disclosed that inbound investment in the energy-saving, environmental-protection and clean-production sector rose 11.1 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2026, and that several foreign-invested zero-carbon factories have been commissioned, all running entirely on green electricity.

The two halves belong together. The numbers describe what has happened: foreign capital is putting money into clean production in China, and some of those plants are designed around renewable electricity from the day they switch on. The statement describes an intention about the next stage — that a foreign-invested user should not face a different door when it goes to buy that electricity.

What the statement is not is a rule. It creates no trading product, quota, preferential price or dedicated channel. Execution continues under the framework in force: the basic rules for medium- and long-term electricity trading, the pilot launched in 2021, the certificate system extended to full coverage of renewable generation in 2023, and the consumption responsibility weight system. A company that reads the sentence as a new entitlement will look for a form that does not exist.

What the statement does, and does not, do

It is a statement about equal treatment. The word used is “equal participation” (平等参与). For a manufacturer once told that a green power product was open to domestic users but not straightforwardly to it, this signals how such cases should be handled — to the executing bodies as much as to the market.

It confirms that no additional eligibility test is intended for foreign-invested users. That matters because green power products are often allocated through annual or monthly arrangements in which eligibility is settled locally. A statement at this level is useful in a conversation with a trading centre or a local energy authority; it is not a document those bodies must cite.

It does not create a purchase obligation, a renewable ratio for foreign-invested firms, or a new certificate category; companies should not infer a deadline. The consumption responsibility weight system, which does create obligations, is a separate instrument with its own addressees and measures.

No dedicated foreign-invested green power market has been announced.

Three routes, and how they differ

Route one: trading. A user buys electricity with renewable attributes attached through a trading centre, either as a longer-term agreement structured as a Power Purchase Agreement or through a monthly listing. It is the only route in which the attribute travels with the physical energy, and it produces the cleanest evidence: a trade record, a settlement statement and a certificate for the same volume.

Route two: certificates. A user buys renewable energy certificates separately from physical power — the unbundled model. It is faster, more liquid and available in small volumes, which suits a site whose load is unpredictable or whose meter the landlord controls. The trade-off is evidential: a certificate proves an attribute was bought, not that the electrons at that site came from a wind farm.

Route three: self-generation or distributed self-consumption. A factory with roof space or land installs capacity and consumes the output. This is the strongest claim, because generation and consumption coincide physically. It is also the route with the most friction: grid connection approval, limits on selling surplus power to a third party at the same site, and capital committed for years rather than for a contract term.

The double-counting problem

The failure that recurs in audit is arithmetic, not contractual. A company buys certificates for a volume, reports that volume as renewable in its electricity disclosure, and then also reports the certificates as an instrument holding — the same megawatt-hour in two ledgers.

The discipline is to decide, once, which ledger the attribute lives in. If the claim is made on a consumption basis, the certificate is retired against that consumption and does not reappear as an asset; if it is held as an instrument, it cannot simultaneously support a consumption claim. Retirement tracking exists for this reason, and a company running its own spreadsheet alongside it will eventually produce two numbers that do not reconcile.

The evidence chain for exports

For a manufacturer exporting to Europe, or supplying a brand committed to 100 per cent renewable electricity, procurement is only half the exercise; the other half is whether the receiving regime accepts the data.

Under the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, importers must account for the embedded emissions of covered goods, and the question for a Chinese plant is whether actual data can displace default values. That depends on the rules for those goods and on the emissions scope — direct emissions from production, and indirect emissions from purchased electricity where counted. Green procurement affects the indirect side, and only as far as the rules permit an actual-data claim. That is a reason to keep records in the shape the receiving regime asks for, not a reason to delay.

Brand programmes impose their own tests. A 100 per cent renewable electricity commitment is normally assessed on market boundary and vintage: the certificate must come from the same market as the consumption, and from a matching generation period. The cheapest certificates available globally will not count, however defensible the spend looks.

Three contract terms to read closely

Annual deviation assessment. Contracts typically test whether actual consumption matched the contracted volume, with a tolerance band and a charge for the excess. For a plant ramping production or running seasonal campaigns, a band set for a steady-state factory produces a charge in year one. Model the load before agreeing the band, and negotiate the treatment of a shutdown in advance.

Curve matching. A contract may specify a curve rather than a flat volume. Where the contracted curve diverges from the site’s actual profile, the difference settles at spot or penalty prices, and the attribute may not attach to the diverging volume. Flat products are simpler; shaped products are cheaper only if the shape is right.

Pass-through mark-ups. Where the user is a tenant and the landlord buys wholesale and resells, the attribute can be marked up, diluted or lost. The lease and the energy supply agreement must state the volume passed through, the transfer mechanism and the price formula, or the tenant pays a premium for a claim it cannot substantiate.

Procurement checklist

Verify the account number and registered user name first; a mismatch between contracting entity and account holder blocks settlement. Confirm consumption history at monthly granularity, since contract shape and deviation band depend on it. Confirm the declaration timetable with the trading centre — a missed window may fall after the reporting year closes.

Set the retirement policy before the first purchase and write down which ledger the attribute sits in; keep the trade record, settlement statement and retirement certificate together for the same volume. Maintain an internal carbon ledger with one line per site per month: the audit question is never whether green power was bought, but whether the volume, the instrument and the retirement can be shown for that site in that year.

Outlook

The direction is clear enough: renewable electricity is being treated as a normal input rather than a special concession, and the investment data suggest some foreign-invested plants already buy it that way. What has not changed is the machinery — trading happens in the market that exists, certificates are retired in the system that exists, and obligations arise from the instruments that create them. The companies that benefit most will treat the statement as a reason to start now, using available routes, rather than to wait for a channel that has not been announced.

Related reading

  • Green power procurement and carbon compliance for foreign firms (No. 228) — the trading and certificate architecture in detail.
  • Renewable energy consumption responsibility weight mandates (No. 371) — the obligation side, including the implementing measures.

Sources

  • State Council Information Office, press conference on high-quality commerce development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (22 October 2026): https://www.scio.gov.cn/live/2026/39833/index.html
  • Ministry of Commerce, policy releases and foreign investment data: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • National Development and Reform Commission: https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/
  • National Energy Administration, green power trading and certificate policy: https://www.nea.gov.cn/
  • The State Council, policy library: https://www.gov.cn/

外资企业平等参与绿电交易：三条采购路径、绿证与绿电的双重计算，以及零碳工厂声明需要什么

概述

2026 年 10 月 22 日，在国务院新闻办公室举行的一场发布会上，商务部外国投资管理司负责人表示，将做好支持外资企业平等参与可再生能源交易、持续提升数据跨境流动便利化水平等工作。同场发布会披露：2026 年 1—9 月，节能环保清洁产业引资同比增长 11.1%；一批外资零碳工厂相继落地，且全部使用绿色电力。

这两半内容本应放在一起读。数据描述已经发生的事：外资正在把钱投进中国的清洁生产环节，其中一些工厂从投产第一天起就围绕可再生能源电力设计。表态描述下一阶段的取向：一家外资用电企业去买这部分电时，不应面对一扇与境内企业不同的门。

需要说清的是，这个表态不是规则。它没有创设交易品种、配额、优惠电价，也没有开设专门通道。执行仍按现行框架：电力中长期交易基本规则、2021 年启动的试点、2023 年扩展到可再生能源发电全口径的绿证制度，以及消纳责任权重制度。把这句话读成”新权利落地”的企业，会去找一份并不存在的申请表。

这个表态做了什么、没做什么

它是关于平等对待的表态，用词是”平等参与”。对曾经被告知”这类产品对境内用户开放、对外资不太顺”的制造企业来说，这是指向个案处理方式的信号——既是给市场的，也是给执行机构的。

它确认了不打算对外资用电企业另设资格门槛。这一点重要，因为绿电产品往往通过年度或月度安排分配，资格认定在地方层面完成。这个层级的表态，在与交易中心或地方能源主管部门沟通时有用；但它不是这些机构必须援引的文件。

它没有创设绿电采购义务、没有对外资企业设定可再生能源比例、也没有新增绿证品类，企业不应据此推断出截止日期。真正创设义务的是可再生能源电力消纳责任权重制度，那是独立的一套工具，有自己的适用对象与实施办法。

也没有专门面向外资的绿电市场被宣布。

三条路径及其差别

路径一：交易。 用电企业通过交易机构购买附带可再生能源属性的电量，形式可以是结构上属于长期购电协议的多年期交易，也可以是月度挂牌。这是唯一让属性与物理电量同行的路径，凭证链也最干净：成交记录、结算单、以及就同一电量核发的绿证。

路径二：绿证。 在物理电量之外单独购买绿证，即证电分离。它更快、流动性更好、可小批量购买，适合负荷难以预测、或电表由业主掌控的场地。代价在证据上：绿证证明买到了属性，不证明这个场地用的电子来自某座风电场。

路径三：自建或分布式自用。 有屋顶或场地的工厂自建装机并消纳所发电力。这是最强的主张，因为发电与用电在物理上重合。摩擦也最多：并网审批、同一场地向第三方售电的限制、以及以年计而非以合同条款计的资金投入。

双重计算问题

审计中反复出现的失误是算术问题，不是合同问题。企业为某一电量购买了绿证，在用电披露中把这部分报为可再生能源，随后又把绿证作为持有工具再报一次——同一兆瓦时进了两本账。

纪律只有一条：一次性地确定属性记在哪本账上。如果主张建立在用电基础上，绿证就对应这部分用电核销，不再作为资产出现；如果绿证是作为工具持有，它就不能同时支撑用电主张。核销追踪系统的存在正是为此；企业若在系统之外另跑一张表，早晚会算出两个对不上的数字。

出口场景下的凭证链

对出口欧洲、或为已承诺百分之百使用可再生能源电力的品牌供货的制造商来说，采购只是事情的一半，另一半是接收方是否接受企业提供的数据。

按欧盟碳边境调节机制，进口商须就纳入范围货物的嵌入排放作出申报；对中国工厂而言，问题在于能否以实际数据替代默认值。这取决于该机制对具体货物的核算规则，也取决于排放口径——生产的直接排放，以及纳入计算时外购电力对应的间接排放。绿色采购只影响间接一侧，且只在规则允许以实际数据申报的范围内起作用。这是按接收方要求的形态留痕的理由，不是推迟采购的理由。

品牌方的要求有自己的口径。百分之百可再生能源电力的承诺，通常按市场边界与年份评估：凭证须来自与用电相同的市场，发电期与用电期对应。在全球范围挑最便宜的绿证，会发现它们不被计入，无论这笔支出在报告里多么说得通。

三个需要细读的合同条款

年度偏差考核。 合同通常考核实际用电量与合同电量是否匹配，设定允许区间，并对超出部分计收费用。对正在爬产或做季节性促销的工厂，按稳态工厂设定的区间会在第一年就产生费用。签约前先做负荷测算，并就停产的处理方式谈妥。

曲线匹配。 合同可能约定曲线而非平坦电量。当约定曲线与场地实际负荷形态不一致时，差额按现货价或违约价结算，绿色属性可能不附着于差额电量。平坦型产品更简单；分时型产品只有曲线对得上时才更便宜。

转供加价。 用电企业是租户、由业主批量购电再转售时，绿色属性可能被加价、被稀释、或者干脆丢失。租赁合同与供能协议必须写明转供电量、属性转移机制与价格公式；否则租户为一项自己无法举证的主张付了溢价。

采购落地清单

先核验用电户号与户名，签约主体与户名不一致会卡住结算。再按月度颗粒度确认用电历史，合同形态与偏差区间都取决于它。与交易中心确认申报时点：错过一个窗口，可能就落在报告年度结束之后。

在第一次采购之前确定核销政策，写清属性记在哪本账上；成交记录、结算单与核销凭证按同一电量放在同一处。维护一份内部碳台账，每场地每月一行：审计要问的从来不是有没有买绿电，而是这个场地这一年的电量、凭证与核销记录能否拿出来。

展望

方向足够清楚：可再生能源电力被当作常规投入品，而不是特殊照顾；投资数据也显示一部分外资工厂已经这么采购。没有变的是机制——交易在既有的市场里发生，绿证在既有的系统里核销，义务由创设义务的那套工具产生。受益最多的，是把这次表态当作”现在就用现有路径启动”的理由、而不是”等一个尚未宣布的通道”的理由的企业。

延伸阅读

  • 《外资企业的绿电采购与碳合规》（第 228 篇）——交易与绿证架构的详细展开。
  • 《可再生能源电力消纳责任权重》（第 371 篇）——义务一侧，含实施办法。

来源

  • 国务院新闻办公室·”十五五”商务高质量发展新闻发布会（2026-10-22）：https://www.scio.gov.cn/live/2026/39833/index.html
  • 商务部·政策发布与外资数据：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • 国家发展和改革委员会：https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/
  • 国家能源局·绿电交易与绿证政策：https://www.nea.gov.cn/
  • 中国政府网·政策库：https://www.gov.cn/
Food & Beverage / 餐饮食品, Import-Export Clearance / 进出口清关

Import Food Trader Filing Under GACC Announcement No. 150: Overseas Exporter Registration, Three Working Days, and the Sixty-Day Change Window

  • GACC Announcement No. 150 of 2026, issued and effective on 23 October 2026, replaces the import food trader filing regime and repeals Annex 1 to AQSIQ Announcement No. 55 of 2012.
    海关总署公告 2026 年第 150 号于 2026 年 10 月 23 日发布并施行，取代原有的进口食品进出口商备案制度，同时废止原质检总局公告 2012 年第 55 号附件 1。
  • The two filing forms are cut down: the domestic importer form from 20 items to 16, and the overseas exporter or agent form from 20 items to 10.
    两份备案表同步精简：《食品进口商备案信息表》由 20 项精简至 16 项，《进口食品境外出口商或代理商备案信息表》由 20 项减少至 10 项。
  • Customs now completes filing within Three Working Days of acceptance, down from five, and where the materials fall short it gives one consolidated notice within the same three working days.
    海关自受理之日起 3 个工作日内予以备案，原为 5 个工作日；资料不符合要求的，在 3 个工作日内一次性告知。
  • A domestic food importer must already hold a domestic business entity qualification and must have obtained, or be applying at the same time for, customs consignee or consignor filing.
    境内食品进口商申请备案，须已取得国内经营主体资格，且已取得或同时申请海关进出口货物收发货人备案。
  • Filing is valid for the long term, which removes the renewal cycle but transfers the burden to upkeep: any change must be handled within the Sixty-Day Change Window running from the date the change occurs.
    备案长期有效，取消了换证周期，但把负担转移到日常维护：备案内容变更的，应当在变更发生之日起 60 日内办理变更手续。
  • Overseas Exporter Registration is filed with the General Administration of Customs itself, not with the customs office at the port of entry, and relocation is filed with the customs office of the new location.
    境外出口商或代理商的备案向海关总署申请，而不是向口岸或地方海关申请；境内进口商迁址的，向迁入地海关申请变更。
  • Five situations trigger cancellation, including termination by dissolution or bankruptcy, loss of the market regulator’s registration or business licence, voluntary application, and cancellation of the consignee or consignor filing at customs.
    注销备案有五种情形，包括因解散、被宣告破产或其他法定事由终止，被市场监管部门注销或撤销登记、吊销营业执照，主动申请注销，以及进出口货物收发货人备案已在海关注销等。

Import Food Trader Filing Under GACC Announcement No. 150: Overseas Exporter Registration, Three Working Days, and the Sixty-Day Change Window | 海关总署公告 2026 年第 150 号：进口食品进出口商备案的材料精简、三工作日办结与六十日变更义务

Overview

The General Administration of Customs issued Announcement No. 150 of 2026 on 23 October 2026, effective the same day. It governs the filing (备案) that sits behind every consignment of imported food: the record kept for the overseas exporter or its agent on one side, and for the domestic food importer on the other. The announcement repeals Annex 1 to AQSIQ Announcement No. 55 of 2012, which had carried the previous filing rules since 2012.

The changes run in two directions at once, and reading only one of them gives a misleading picture. On the administrative side the burden falls: fewer fields to complete, a shorter clock, and no renewal cycle. On the maintenance side the burden rises: because the filing never expires, nothing forces a company to look at it again, and the announcement puts a sixty-day duty on the company to notice and report changes itself.

One boundary needs stating at the outset, because it is the most common source of confusion. This announcement concerns filing by traders. Registration of overseas producers, processors and storage facilities for food destined for China is a separate regime under GACC Decree No. 248, and it is unaffected here. A company can be correctly filed as an exporter and still be unable to ship, because the facility that made the goods is not registered.

What changed

The forms. The Food Importer Filing Information Form (《食品进口商备案信息表》) drops from 20 items to 16. The Filing Information Form for Overseas Exporters or Agents of Imported Food (《进口食品境外出口商或代理商备案信息表》) drops from 20 items to 10 — a halving, and the larger proportional cut of the two.

The clock. Customs completes filing within three working days of acceptance, against five previously. Where the materials do not meet requirements, customs informs the applicant once, within the same three working days, of everything that needs correcting.

Validity. Filing is valid for the long term. There is no periodic renewal and no certificate to diarise.

Change. Where the filed content changes, the change must be handled within 60 days of the date on which the change occurred. Where the entity relocates, the application goes to the customs office at the new location rather than the old one.

Cancellation. Five situations require cancellation of the filing: termination through dissolution, a declaration of bankruptcy or another statutory cause; cancellation or revocation of registration, or revocation of the business licence, by the market regulator; a voluntary application to cancel; cancellation of the import-export consignee or consignor filing at customs; and any other situation in which cancellation is required by law.

Channels. Applications go through the International Trade Single Window (国际贸易”单一窗口”) or through Customs Government Services (海关政务服务). A domestic food importer may alternatively submit the paper form to the customs office at its domicile.

Verification at declaration. When declaring goods for import, the declarant must truthfully report the names of the importer and exporter, the unified social credit code of the domestic importer, and the filing code of the overseas exporter or agent. Customs verifies the information. Where the filed information does not match, it must be corrected and completed within the time limit set.

Supervision. Customs may supervise by on-site inspection, by reviewing materials, or by requiring materials to be submitted. Filing information is published on the China Customs Enterprise Import and Export Credit Information Publicity Platform (中国海关企业进出口信用信息公示平台).

Who it affects

Overseas exporters and agents. The filing is made to the General Administration of Customs — the headquarters — not to the customs office at the port where the goods will arrive. This is the single point most often got wrong by suppliers who are used to dealing with a local authority in their own jurisdiction. A filing lodged with the wrong body is not a filing.

Domestic food importers. Two conditions sit in front of the application: the applicant must already hold a domestic business entity qualification, and must already have obtained, or be applying at the same time for, filing as an import-export consignee or consignor. A newly established entity that has not yet dealt with consignee filing should run the two applications together rather than in sequence.

Groups and agents. Filing attaches to the entity and to the trading relationship. A change of agent, a change of name after a restructuring, or a move of premises each touches the filed content and starts the sixty-day clock.

The sixty-day duty, and why it is the weak point

A filing valid for the long term has no natural prompt. Nothing expires, so nothing reminds anyone. The announcement therefore places the obligation on the trader: 60 days from the date the change occurs, not from the date someone notices.

Three changes carry most of the practical risk. A change of agent or of the overseas exporter is common in distribution arrangements and is easy to treat as a commercial matter rather than a filing matter. A change of address — a relocation, a move to a new park, a change of registered address after a capital restructuring — is expressly addressed, and the announcement directs the application to the customs office of the new location. A change of name, typically following a group rebrand or a merger, affects the identity recorded against the filing code.

The consequence of a stale filing is not framed as a penalty in the announcement. It appears at the border instead: the declaration requires the filing code to be reported and the information to be verified, and a mismatch produces a requirement to correct within a time limit. A correction demanded while a consignment is waiting is a delay with a cost attached, and the cost lands on the importer, not on the supplier who changed its name.

Practical steps

Before filing. Confirm the entity holds its domestic business qualification, and confirm the status of the consignee or consignor filing — obtained, or being applied for simultaneously. Collect the details that the reduced forms still ask for, and reconcile the entity name across the business licence, the consignee filing and the commercial documents. Name mismatches are a routine cause of a consolidated notice.

At filing. Use the Single Window or Customs Government Services. Domestic importers who prefer paper may submit the form at the customs office of domicile. Keep the acceptance date: the three working days run from acceptance, not from submission, and the date is the reference point if a query arises.

After filing. Record the filing code where the declaration team and the customs broker can see it. Put the sixty-day duty into a calendar tied to corporate events — agent changes, lease moves, name changes — rather than to an annual compliance cycle, since there is no annual cycle to attach it to.

When an entity exits. If the business is dissolved, or its registration or licence is cancelled or revoked, or the consignee filing is cancelled at customs, cancellation of the food trader filing follows. Leaving a filing standing after the underlying qualification has gone is the kind of loose end that surfaces later, at the worst moment.

What this filing does not cover. Registration of the overseas producer under Decree No. 248; quarantine approval or market access for the product itself; and label compliance. Filing is a trader-level record and substitutes for none of them.

Outlook

The direction is consistent with the wider run of customs reform: fewer data points collected up front, faster processing, and supervision shifted to the period after filing — through on-site inspection, document review and public disclosure. The front door is cheaper to walk through; keeping the record accurate is now the part that requires management attention.

Companies that treat filing as a one-off administrative task, completed once and filed away, are the ones exposed. Companies that treat it as a live record, with an owner and a trigger list, get the benefit of the shorter clock without the delays a stale record produces.

Related reading

  • Overseas producer registration and labelling for imported food (No. 84) — the Decree No. 248 regime that sits alongside trader filing.
  • The imported food market and channel structure (No. 155) — commercial context for importers building a category.
  • GACC Announcement No. 146 on imported grain (No. 457) — a recent example of how a single announcement reshapes one product line.

Sources

  • General Administration of Customs, Announcement No. 150 of 2026 on the filing of import food traders (text): http://www.customs.gov.cn/customs/2026-10/26/article_2026102615065664125.html
  • General Administration of Customs, policy interpretation of Announcement No. 150 of 2026: http://www.customs.gov.cn/customs/2026-10/26/article_2026102617052019328.html
  • General Administration of Customs, latest documents: http://www.customs.gov.cn/customs/302249/2480148/index.html
  • General Administration of Customs, government information disclosure: http://zfs.customs.gov.cn/customs/302249/index.html

海关总署公告 2026 年第 150 号：进口食品进出口商备案的材料精简、三工作日办结与六十日变更义务

概述

海关总署于 2026 年 10 月 23 日发布公告 2026 年第 150 号，自发布之日起施行。该公告规范的是每一批进口食品背后的备案事项：一侧是境外出口商或其代理商，另一侧是境内食品进口商。公告同时废止原质检总局公告 2012 年第 55 号附件 1，也就是自 2012 年起沿用至今的那套备案规则。

这次调整同时朝两个方向走，只看其中一个方向会得出错误印象。在行政一侧，负担是下降的：需要填报的项更少，办理时限更短，也不再需要换证。在维护一侧，负担是上升的：备案既然长期有效，就没有任何机制会提醒企业回头再看它一眼，而公告把”发现变更并主动办理”的义务放在了企业身上，期限是六十日。

有一个边界必须先讲清楚，因为这是最容易混淆的地方。本公告管的是进出口商的备案；境外生产、加工、贮存企业的注册是另一套制度，依海关总署第 248 号令办理，本次未作调整。一家企业可能作为出口商备案完全合规，货物却仍然发不出去，原因是生产该批食品的境外企业没有注册。

变了什么

表格。 《食品进口商备案信息表》由 20 项精简至 16 项；《进口食品境外出口商或代理商备案信息表》由 20 项减少至 10 项，减半，是两者中压缩比例更大的一份。

时限。 海关自受理之日起 3 个工作日内予以备案，原为 5 个工作日。资料不符合要求的，海关在同样的 3 个工作日内一次性告知需要补正的全部内容。

有效期。 备案长期有效。没有定期换证，也没有需要记入日程的证照到期日。

变更。 备案内容发生变更的，应当在变更发生之日起 60 日内办理变更手续。迁址的，向迁入地海关提出申请，而不是向原址所在地海关。

注销。 五种情形应当注销备案：因解散、被宣告破产或其他法定事由终止；被市场监管部门注销或撤销登记、吊销营业执照；主动申请注销；进出口货物收发货人备案已在海关注销；以及其他依法应当注销的情形。

渠道。 通过国际贸易”单一窗口”或”海关政务服务”办理。境内食品进口商也可以向住所地海关提交纸质《食品进口商备案信息表》。

申报环节的验核。 申报进口时，须如实填报进出口商名称、境内食品进口商统一社会信用代码、境外出口商或代理商备案编码。海关对进出口商信息进行验核；备案信息不符的，须限期更正、完善。

监督管理。 海关可以通过实地检查、查阅材料或要求报送材料实施监督。备案信息通过”中国海关企业进出口信用信息公示平台”公布。

影响谁

境外出口商与代理商。 备案向海关总署申请，也就是向中央主管部门申请，而不是向货物将要抵达口岸的海关申请。这一点在习惯于同本国地方主管机关打交道的供应商那里最常出错。递交给错误机关的申请，不构成备案。

境内食品进口商。 申请之前横着两个条件：申请人须已取得国内经营主体资格；须已取得，或同时申请，海关进出口货物收发货人备案。一家刚设立、尚未办理收发货人备案的企业，应当把两项申请并行推进，而不是排队办理。

集团与代理关系。 备案附着于主体，也附着于贸易关系。更换代理、重组后更名、搬迁地址，都会触及已备案内容，也都会启动六十日的计时。

六十日义务，以及它为什么是薄弱环节

一份长期有效的备案，本身不会产生任何提示。没有东西到期，就没有东西提醒任何人。公告因此把义务明确放在进出口商一侧：自变更发生之日起 60 日内办理，起算点是变更发生之日，不是企业察觉之日。

实务中风险最集中的有三类变更。一是更换代理或更换境外出口商，这在经销安排中很常见，容易被当作商务事项处理，而不是备案事项。二是地址变更，包括搬迁、迁入新园区、股权重组后变更注册地址，公告对此专门作了规定，并要求向迁入地海关申请。三是名称变更，通常发生在集团统一品牌或合并之后，而名称正是备案编码所对应的身份信息。

公告没有把备案信息失实写成一种处罚。它的后果出现在口岸：申报时需要填报备案编码并对信息进行验核，信息不符的会被要求限期更正。一批货正在等待时被要求更正，就是一次带成本的延误，而这个成本落在进口商身上，不在那位改了名字的供应商身上。

实操步骤

备案之前。 确认主体已取得国内经营主体资格，确认进出口货物收发货人备案的状态——是已取得，还是正在同时申请。归集精简后的表格仍然要求的信息，并把营业执照、收发货人备案、商业单证上的企业名称逐一核对一致。名称不一致是一次性告知的常见触发原因。

办理之时。 使用”单一窗口”或”海关政务服务”。偏好纸质材料的境内进口商，可向住所地海关提交表格。记下受理日期：3 个工作日自受理之日起算，不是自提交之日起算，出现查询时这个日期就是基准。

备案之后。 把备案编码放到申报团队和报关代理都看得到的位置。把六十日义务挂到公司事件上——更换代理、租约搬迁、名称变更——而不是挂到年度合规日历上，因为这里并没有一个年度节点可以挂靠。

主体退出时。 企业解散，或登记、营业执照被注销、撤销、吊销，或收发货人备案已在海关注销，食品进出口商备案随之注销。底层资格已经消失而备案仍然挂着，这类尾巴往往在之后最不合适的时点浮出水面。

本备案不管的事项。 境外生产企业依第 248 号令的注册；产品本身的检疫审批与准入；标签合规。备案是进出口商层面的记录，不能替代其中任何一项。

展望

这一方向与海关改革的整体走向一致：前端少收数据，办理更快，监管重心后移到备案之后——通过实地检查、查阅材料与信息公示来实现。进门的成本更低了，而”把记录维护准确”从此成为需要有人负责的部分。

把备案当成一次性行政手续、办完就归档的企业，正是暴露在风险中的那一类。把备案当成一份活记录、有明确责任人和触发清单的企业，才能拿到时限缩短的好处，而不必承受记录过期带来的延误。

延伸阅读

  • 《进口食品境外生产企业注册与标签》（第 84 篇）——与进出口商备案并行的第 248 号令制度。
  • 《进口食品市场与渠道结构》（第 155 篇）——进口商搭建品类时的商业背景。
  • 《海关总署第 146 号公告与进口粮食》（第 457 篇）——近期一份公告重塑单条产品线的实例。

来源

  • 海关总署·《关于进口食品进出口商备案有关事项的公告》（公告 2026 年第 150 号）全文：http://www.customs.gov.cn/customs/2026-10/26/article_2026102615065664125.html
  • 海关总署·公告 2026 年第 150 号政策解读：http://www.customs.gov.cn/customs/2026-10/26/article_2026102617052019328.html
  • 海关总署·最新文件：http://www.customs.gov.cn/customs/302249/2480148/index.html
  • 海关总署·政务公开：http://zfs.customs.gov.cn/customs/302249/index.html
Bonded Logistics / 保税物流, Import-Export Clearance / 进出口清关

Hainan’s Sixteen Trade Measures: Goods, Services and New Trade Models, and the Order They Land

  • Four ministries issued the notice on 29 October 2026 under number Shang Zi Mao Fa [2026] No. 187, grouping sixteen Hainan Free Trade Port measures into goods trade, services trade and new trade models.
    2026 年 10 月 29 日，商务部、国家发展改革委、生态环境部、海关总署四部门印发商自贸发〔2026〕187 号通知，把海南自贸港十六项措施分为货物贸易、服务贸易、贸易新业态新模式三组。
  • Bonded remanufacturing carries the most operational detail: goods made in a special customs supervision area may leave for a domestic pilot free trade zone, taxed as provided and marked “remanufactured”.
    保税再制造的条文操作性最强：在海关特殊监管区域内生产的产品可以出区进入国内自贸试验区，照章征税并标注「再制造产品」。
  • Entering a domestic pilot free trade zone is not entering the domestic market, and even that step is taxed.
    进入国内自贸试验区不等于进入国内市场，而且连这一步都要征税。
  • A foreign physician holding the right to practise abroad may obtain a Hainan licence of up to three years, against the one-year cycle described by the spokesman.
    在境外取得合法行医权的外籍医师，在海南的执业许可有效期最长可为三年；新闻发言人说明此前为一年。
  • Bonded delivery for LNG futures may use energy metering, and Yangpu’s petrochemical tanks move to a “two capacities, total approved, classified adjustment, dynamic use” model.
    液化天然气期货保税交割可采取能量计量；洋浦石化储罐改为「两类库容、总量核准、分类调剂、动态使用」。
  • The notice is an executable departmental measure, but the handling rules from customs and Hainan are still to come, so the sixteen will land at different speeds and none is a filing channel today.
    这份通知是可执行的部门措施，但海关与海南的配套操作细则尚未出台，十六项会以不同速度落地，目前没有一项构成可申报的通道。

Hainan’s Sixteen Trade Measures: Goods, Services and New Trade Models, and the Order They Land | 海南自贸港贸易自由化便利化十六项措施：货物、服务、新业态三条主线与落地顺序

Overview

On 29 October 2026 the commerce, development and reform, ecology and environment, and customs authorities published a notice on trade liberalisation in the Hainan Free Trade Port — Shang Zi Mao Fa [2026] No. 187, dated 9 October. Sixteen measures sit in three blocks: goods trade, services trade, new trade models.

At the press conference that day, spokesman Huang Ling set the notice against the island’s independent customs operation, which began on 18 December 2025, and named three highlights: aviation kerosene inspected to international standards and exhibition licensing delegated to Hainan; bonded remanufactured goods allowed to leave for a domestic pilot free trade zone; and bonded LNG terminal use by a qualified overseas enterprise without registration in China.

The sixteen, in three blocks

Goods trade, one to six. Aviation kerosene entering an independent bonded storage facility in a Hainan bonded supervision site for re-export is inspected to international standards. In Yangpu, bonded and export supervision warehouses holding gasoline, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil and naphtha are consolidated under two capacities, total approved volume, classified adjustment and dynamic use. A pilot opens for importing faulty key components for automotive research and testing. Once LNG futures are listed, Hainan may host delivery warehouses using energy metering for bonded delivery. Overseas enterprises may use LNG terminal bonded facilities. New barter trade is to be developed in an orderly way, with renminbi pricing encouraged.

Services trade, seven to twelve. A foreign physician holding the lawful right to practise abroad who is invited, engaged or applies to treat patients in Hainan may hold a licence for up to three years, extendable on expiry. Licensing for foreign institutions co-hosting international economic and technical exhibitions is delegated to the Hainan Department of Commerce, excluding exhibitions named China, Zhonghua, national or state. Domestic trade credit insurance improves, insurance products are enriched for international transport and bonded repair, the list of recognised overseas professional qualifications is kept current with access to title review, and entry and residence procedures are eased.

New trade models, thirteen to sixteen. Offshore trade accelerates with better data sharing. Bonded remanufactured goods may leave a special customs supervision area for a domestic pilot free trade zone, taxed and marked. The “two ends outside” bonded repair catalogue may expand, with Hainan organising its own comprehensive assessment and bearing responsibility. Cooperation with Hong Kong deepens through exploration of aligned rules, and coordination with the Greater Bay Area improves.

Goods trade: putting trade and industry on one site

The Yangpu tank model is the clearest case. A refinery holding gasoline, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil and naphtha has had to separate what sits in a bonded warehouse from what sits in an export supervision warehouse, because the two carry different customs treatment. One approved total, adjustable by category and usable dynamically, turns a static allocation into a working one — where the same tank holds feedstock one month and product the next, that is the difference between capacity that exists and capacity that can be used.

Bonded delivery does the same for financial inventory. Delivery against a futures contract is a dated obligation; a bonded delivery warehouse metered by energy rather than mass matches how LNG is traded, because calorific value varies by cargo.

The automotive pilot is narrower: faulty key components brought in for research and testing are not for sale, they exist to be measured and returned.

Services trade: what a three-year licence changes

The physician measure is the most concrete service commitment in the package, and its value is administrative. A licence running three years instead of one removes two renewal cycles from a three-year posting; a three-year term becomes the natural unit of the employment contract, credentialing can be planned against it, and the risk of a gap between expiry and renewal falls.

Two limits belong with it. The licence is a Hainan licence, not a national one, and the measure addresses duration, not the scope of practice, the institution’s qualifications or recognition of foreign specialist titles.

New trade models: the repair and remanufacturing flow

Measures fourteen and fifteen describe one flow with two exits: a product enters a special customs supervision area in bonded status, is repaired or remanufactured there, and then either returns abroad — the classic “two ends outside” route — or, under measure fourteen, leaves for a domestic pilot free trade zone. That second exit carries three conditions in one sentence: import duty, import VAT and consumption tax levied as provided; conformity with every technical requirement for an equivalent new product; and prominent marking as a remanufactured product.

Two distinctions carry the weight. Entering a domestic pilot free trade zone is not entering the domestic market: a pilot zone is a customs territory with its own treatment, and goods inside it are not thereby in free circulation nationwide; the measure opens a route to that zone and stops there. And the route is taxed: “as provided” means ordinary import charges apply, so the value is the permission to move, not an exemption.

On repair, measure fifteen changes who assesses: where a product is on the national “two ends outside” catalogue, Hainan organises the assessment itself and bears responsibility, paired with the instruction to build a risk-control system and strengthen whole-process supervision.

Siting and outlook

Measure sixteen is the shortest and the most strategic: deeper ties and industrial cooperation with Hong Kong, exploration of aligned rules and connected mechanisms, and better coordination with the Greater Bay Area. For a group choosing where to place a regional trading, repair or treasury platform, this adds a dimension rather than an incentive. Hainan is positioned as a node facing Hong Kong on rules and the Bay Area on production, not as a competitor to either; a trading entity contracting under Hong Kong law, holding inventory in Hainan and serving Guangdong customers is the shape contemplated. Whether it is available depends on alignment still being explored.

The package as a whole tries to make Hainan useful to a business that crosses the border repeatedly and is sensitive to how many times it must stop. Bonded delivery, energy metering, consolidated tank capacity, three-year physician licences and delegated exhibition approval all reduce the number of stops. What none of them does is create a separate market: goods leaving a special customs supervision area for a pilot zone are taxed, and a Hainan medical licence is a Hainan licence.

The order they land

The notice is a departmental measure, not a direction-setting opinion, and the sixteen items are meant to be executed. But execution runs through two gates — customs procedures and provincial rules — and neither has been published. Until they are, the package is in force as a document and not yet available as a service.

The sequence follows from what each measure needs: an inspection standard needs a technical notice and can move quickly; a delegated approval needs the receiving authority ready; a new movement of goods needs a customs procedure, a declaration code and a supervision method; anything depending on a market event waits for it.

Practical checklist

Identify the premises. The measures point at different places: aviation kerosene to a bonded storage facility, remanufacturing to a special customs supervision area, the Yangpu model to bonded and export supervision warehouses in one development zone. A plan treating “Hainan” as one customs geography fails at the first filing.

Price the tax. For the remanufacturing exit, budget the three charges at the point of leaving, and treat the VAT as creditable only if the buyer is a general taxpayer.

Related reading

  • Using bonded facilities without a domestic entity: the LNG terminal clause and light-asset entry (Article 491).

Sources

  • MOFCOM, NDRC, MEE and GACC, *Notice on Further Raising the Level of Trade Liberalisation and Facilitation in the Hainan Free Trade Port* (announced by the Ministry of Commerce on 29 October 2026): https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zwgk/zcfb/art/2026/art_1396cc6581da478ebc9f3ee08b72a96b.html
  • The State Council of China (gov.cn), Xinhua report on the four-ministry notice, 29 October 2026: https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/202610/content_7084472.htm
  • Ministry of Commerce, regular press conference of 29 October 2026, remarks by spokesman Huang Ling: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfbzt/2026/swbzklxxwfbh2026n10y29r/index.html
  • Ministry of Commerce press office, announcement on the issuance of the notice, 29 October 2026: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfb/rcxwfb/art/2026/art_3474b02cab214c10b4a4fe49892b89da.html
  • The State Council of China, policy library entry point for State Council and ministry documents: https://www.gov.cn/

海南自贸港贸易自由化便利化十六项措施：货物、服务、新业态三条主线与落地顺序

概述

2026 年 10 月 29 日，商务部、国家发展改革委、生态环境部、海关总署对外公布《关于进一步提高海南自由贸易港贸易自由化便利化水平的通知》（商自贸发〔2026〕187 号，落款日期 2026 年 10 月 9 日），十六项措施分为三组：推动货物贸易优化升级、促进服务贸易自由便利、创新贸易新业态新模式。

同日例行新闻发布会上，新闻发言人黄玲把这份通知放在海南自贸港封关运作的背景里介绍——封关运作自 2025 年 12 月 18 日开始——并点出三方面亮点。一是创新贸易管理模式：从境外进入海南保税仓储设施内并用于出口的航空煤油，可按国际标准检验；外国机构来华合作主办部分涉外经济技术展的行政许可，委托海南方面实施。二是回应经营主体诉求：企业在海南海关特殊监管区域内以保税再制造方式生产的产品，允许进入国内自贸试验区。三是扩大高水平自主开放，包括符合条件的境外企业无需在境内注册即可使用液化天然气接收站的保税设施。

十六项措施，三组排列

货物贸易，第一至六项。 自境外进入海南保税监管场所内独立保税仓储设施并用于复出口的航空煤油，按国际标准进行检验。洋浦经济开发区内，对存储汽油、煤油、柴油、燃料油和石脑油的保税仓库与出口监管仓库进行整合，实施「两类库容、总量核准、分类调剂、动态使用」的监管模式。开展汽车研发测试用故障关键零部件进口试点。液化天然气期货上市后，支持海南开展期货交割库业务，允许保税交割采取能量计量。允许境外企业使用液化天然气接收站保税设施。稳妥有序开展新型易货贸易，鼓励以人民币计价。

服务贸易，第七至十二项。 在境外取得合法行医权的外籍医师，应邀、应聘或申请在海南从事临床诊断、治疗业务，执业许可有效期最长三年，期满可展期。外国机构合作主办涉外经济技术展的行政许可委托海南省商务厅实施，冠名「中国」「中华」「全国」「国家」的除外。优化国内贸易信用保险，聚焦国际运输、保税维修丰富产品，动态完善认可境外职业资格目录清单并支持外籍人才参加职称评审，提升外籍人员入境便利化。

贸易新业态新模式，第十三至十六项。 加快离岸贸易发展，加强部门间数据信息共享。允许在海南海关特殊监管区域进行保税再制造生产的产品出区进入国内自由贸易试验区，照章征收进口关税、进口环节增值税和消费税，并标注「再制造产品」。支持适时拓展「两头在外」保税维修目录，目录内项目由海南省自行组织综合评估、承担主体责任。支持与香港深化经贸往来和产业合作，探索规则衔接、机制对接，提升与粤港澳大湾区的协同发展水平。

货物贸易：让贸易和产业落在同一个地方

洋浦的储罐模式最清楚。持有汽油、煤油、柴油、燃料油和石脑油的炼厂或贸易商，过去必须把保税仓库与出口监管仓库的货分开，因为海关待遇不同。两类库容合并、总量核准、分类调剂、动态使用，等于把静态额度变成能运转的额度——同一个储罐这个月装原料、下个月装产品，这就是「有产能」与「产能用得上」的区别。

保税交割对金融意义上的库存做同一件事：期货交割是有截止日的义务，一个能保税运作、按能量而非质量计量的交割库，才贴合液化天然气的实际交易方式，因为不同船货热值不同。

服务贸易：三年期的执业许可改变了什么

医师那一条是最具体的服务承诺，价值在行政层面：许可从一年变成三年，等于从一次三年派驻里拿掉两个续期周期。对聘用外籍专家的医院来说，三年成为劳动合同的自然单元，资质安排可按此规划，到期与续期之间出空档的风险下降。

有两条边界要一起说。这是海南的执业许可，不是全国的。这一条处理的是有效期，不涉及执业范围、机构资质、境外专科职称的认可，那些仍各按各的规则走。

新业态：保税维修与再制造的全流程

第十四项和第十五项描述的是同一条流程的两个出口。货物以保税状态进入海关特殊监管区域，在区内维修或再制造，然后二选一：复运出境，这是经典的「两头在外」路径；或者按第十四项，出区进入国内自贸试验区。第二个出口是新的，而它在一句话里带了三个条件：照章征收进口关税、进口环节增值税和消费税；产品应符合国家对同等新品的全部适用技术要求以及再制造产品的有关规定；在显著位置标注「再制造产品」。

两个区分承载重量。第一，进入国内自贸试验区不等于进入国内市场——自贸试验区是有自身待遇的海关区域，货在区内并不因此全国自由流通；这一条打开的是从海南海关特殊监管区域到那个区域的一段路，到此为止。第二，这条路征税：「照章征收」即按普通进口征税，价值在允许移动，不在免税。建立在「免税进入自贸试验区」之上的方案，建立在误读之上。

维修那一条改的是谁来评估。产品列入国家「两头在外」目录的，由海南省自行组织综合评估并承担主体责任。这是判断权的下放，配套要求省里建立风险防控体系、强化全流程监管。

选址：香港与大湾区

对一个正在选择区域平台落脚点的集团来说，这一条增加的是一个维度而非优惠：海南被摆成对香港讲规则衔接、对湾区讲生产协同的节点，而非与任何一方竞争。在香港法下签约、在海南持有库存、向广东客户交货的贸易主体，正是它设想的形状；能否用取决于仍在探索的规则衔接，属中期选址复盘。

落地顺序

这份通知是部门措施而非方向性意见，十六项是要执行的；但执行要过两道闸——海关程序与省级规则，两道都还没公布。在此之前，准确的说法是：作为文件已生效，作为可办的服务尚未上线。

顺序可从每一项需要什么推出来：改检验标准的（航空煤油）需一份技术性公告，可以走得快；委托审批的需承接部门就位；开出新货物移动路径的（保税再制造出区）需监管方式、申报代码和监管办法，会慢一些；依赖市场事件的，要等事件发生。

可操作清单

先确认场所。 十六项指向不同地方：航空煤油指保税监管场所内的独立仓储设施，再制造指海关特殊监管区域，洋浦模式指同一开发区内的保税仓库与出口监管仓库。把「海南」当一个海关地理概念做方案，第一次申报就出问题。

算税。 走再制造出区这条路，要在出区环节预算三税；只有买方是一般纳税人时，才谈得上增值税抵扣。

展望

这个包最宜理解为一次尝试：让海南对某一类企业变得有用——这类企业反复把货或人送过边境，并且对「要停几次」很敏感。保税交割、能量计量、合并库容、三年期医师执业许可、下放的涉外展审批，减少的都是停的次数。

它没有做的，是造出一个独立的市场。货从海关特殊监管区域出区进入自贸试验区要征税，海南的医师执业许可仍是海南的许可。

延伸阅读

  • 《无需境内注册使用保税设施：海南液化天然气接收站条款与「轻资产入华」结构》（第 491 篇）。

来源

  • 商务部、国家发展改革委、生态环境部、海关总署《关于进一步提高海南自由贸易港贸易自由化便利化水平的通知》（商务部 2026 年 10 月 29 日发布）：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zwgk/zcfb/art/2026/art_1396cc6581da478ebc9f3ee08b72a96b.html
  • 中国政府网，新华社关于四部门印发通知的报道（2026 年 10 月 29 日）：https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/202610/content_7084472.htm
  • 商务部，2026 年 10 月 29 日例行新闻发布会，新闻发言人黄玲答问：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfbzt/2026/swbzklxxwfbh2026n10y29r/index.html
  • 商务部新闻办公室，关于通知印发的消息（2026 年 10 月 29 日）：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfb/rcxwfb/art/2026/art_3474b02cab214c10b4a4fe49892b89da.html
  • 中国政府网，国务院及部门文件政策库入口：https://www.gov.cn/
Education & Training / 教育培训, Setup Process / 设立流程

Vocational Training Institutions and Vocational Colleges: Reading the Directional Deployment

  • The Action Plan for Stabilising and Optimising Foreign Investment Utilisation (Shang Zi Fa [2026] No. 97), issued on 16 June 2026 by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance with State Council approval, calls for steadily expanding the opening pilot for Vocational Training Institutions, Vocational Colleges and high-level science, engineering, agriculture and medical universities.
    《利用外资固稳促优行动方案》（商资发〔2026〕97 号）由商务部、国家发展改革委、财政部于 2026 年 6 月 16 日印发、经国务院同意，其中提出稳步扩大职业技能培训机构、职业院校、高水平理工农医类大学对外开放试点。
  • That sentence is a Directional Deployment: it names no pilot regions, no scale and no qualification conditions for the foreign party, all of which must come from supporting rules that have not been published.
    这句话是方向性部署：它没有点名试点地区、没有规定规模、也没有给出外方资质条件，这些都要由尚未出台的配套细则确定。
  • A Sino-Foreign Cooperative School is approved case by case, must have a qualified educational institution as the foreign party, and may not deliver compulsory education.
    中外合作办学机构须逐案审批，外方必须是具备资质的教育机构，且不得实施义务教育。
  • A for-profit vocational skills training institution is licensed by the human resources and social security authorities, which is a different track from the education authorities’ approval of schools.
    营利性职业技能培训机构由人力资源社会保障部门许可，与教育行政部门审批学校是两条不同的轨道。
  • An in-house training or technical service centre needs no school licence, but it may not enrol the public or charge tuition.
    企业内训或技术服务中心无需办学许可，但不得对外招生，也不得收取学费。
  • The three routes differ in who approves, what may be awarded and whether profit can be distributed, so the structure decision comes before the paperwork.
    三条路径在审批机关、可颁发何种证书、能否分配利润上各不相同，因此结构选择要先于材料准备。
  • The pilot wording opens a direction rather than an application window; a group that signs a cooperation agreement citing document 97 as its legal basis is signing on an assumption.
    试点的表述打开的是方向，不是申报窗口；以 97 号文为法律依据签署合作协议，等于把交易建立在假设之上。

Vocational Training Institutions and Vocational Colleges: Reading the Directional Deployment | 外资参与职业培训与职业院校：如何读懂这份方向性部署

Overview

On 16 June 2026 the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the Action Plan for Stabilising and Optimising Foreign Investment Utilisation (利用外资固稳促优行动方案), numbered Shang Zi Fa [2026] No. 97 and issued with State Council approval. Article 1, on deepening the opening of the service sector, contains one sentence that has drawn attention from education groups: the plan calls for steadily expanding the opening pilot for vocational training institutions, vocational colleges and high-level science, engineering, agriculture and medical universities. The same article supports Beijing in raising the standard of its national comprehensive demonstration zone for expanded opening in the service sector.

Read that sentence for what it is. It is a deployment of direction inside an action plan on foreign investment, not an implementing rule, not a catalogue, and not a licensing standard. It does not name pilot regions, does not set a scale, and does not state what qualifications a foreign provider must hold. Those elements come from supporting rules, and those rules have not been published.

This matters commercially because the sentence is easy to quote and hard to rely on: read as permission to establish a wholly foreign-owned vocational college, it produces a structure no regulator has agreed to approve.

What the document does and does not do

Three things are clear from the text. The sectors named — vocational training institutions, vocational colleges and high-level universities in science, engineering, agriculture and medicine — point at skills and industrial workforce supply rather than at academic education generally. The verb is “steadily expand”, which implies a pilot being widened rather than a new regime. And the setting is a foreign investment action plan, so the intended audience is foreign capital looking for permitted sectors.

What is absent is just as important: no list of cities, no statement that wholly foreign-owned provision is permitted as opposed to Sino-foreign cooperation, no foreign-party qualification standard, no minimum capital, no cap on numbers. The honest position for a board paper is therefore narrow — the direction is favourable, the instrument is directional, and the timing of any implementing rule is unknown.

Three routes, three regulators

Foreign participation in training and vocational education in China is not a single permission. It is at least three, with different regulators, different outputs and different economics.

The Sino-Foreign Cooperative School route. A cooperative institution is established under the regulations on Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools and their implementing rules. It requires approval, the foreign party must be a qualified educational institution, and the institution may not deliver compulsory education. This is the route that can award academic qualifications, and it is also the slowest and the most heavily conditioned.

The for-profit vocational skills training route. A vocational skills training institution is a private school in the sense of the law on promoting private education, but it is licensed by the human resources and social security authorities rather than the education authorities, because its subject matter is vocational skills and vocational qualification training rather than academic education. It may be registered as a for-profit entity, may distribute profit, and may not award academic qualifications.

The in-house training or technical service centre route. A foreign company may set up an ordinary foreign-invested enterprise whose business scope covers technical services, management consulting or staff training for its own employees and customers. No school licence is needed. What is not permitted is enrolling the public or charging tuition.

The cooperative school route in practice

Approval is case by case and follows a defined sequence: an application with the cooperation agreement and the institutional charter, review of the foreign party’s credentials, approval of the establishment, and then registration and a licence to operate. The approval authority depends on the level of education involved, with undergraduate degree programmes going to the Ministry of Education and sub-degree and non-degree programmes handled at provincial level.

Two constraints shape the structure. The foreign party must be an educational institution with the standing to run the programme it proposes — a training company or a corporate academy will not satisfy that test, so a group wanting to use its own corporate university should expect to partner with a recognised institution. And cooperative schools are treated as public-interest undertakings, registered in practice as non-profit legal persons; a model that depends on distributing profit should not start here.

The for-profit training route in practice

This route suits short-cycle, fee-based, skills-oriented programmes: language and exam preparation, vocational certification, industry-specific technical training. The licence comes from the human resources and social security authority at the level set by local rules, and the permitted training subjects are written into the licence. Teaching outside the licensed subjects is the most common way a compliant institution becomes a non-compliant one.

Foreign investment in this category sits outside the special administrative measures of the negative list, which cover pre-school, senior secondary and higher education institutions and prohibit foreign investment in compulsory education. But local practice on whether a wholly foreign-owned training institution is acceptable varies, and the point should be confirmed with the local authority before a lease is signed.

The in-house centre route in practice

This is the structure most groups should use first: it can be stood up in weeks rather than years, and it does not consume a regulatory position that may be needed later. It is an ordinary company — registered with the market regulator, filing the foreign investment information report, invoicing for services.

Its limits are strict and easy to cross by accident. It may not enrol the public. It may not charge tuition. It may not describe itself in a way that suggests it is a school. The moment a customer-facing programme starts taking fees from individuals for a course advertised as a qualification, the structure has become unlicensed schooling.

Documents the foreign side must produce

Whatever the route, the foreign party’s file is where applications stall. The standard set runs as follows: evidence of the institution’s legal establishment and its accreditation in its home jurisdiction; the charter and governance documents; the curriculum, hours and assessment scheme; the faculty list with qualifications; audited financial statements or a bank-issued credit reference; identity, academic background and employment history of the proposed legal representative and principal; and a notarised and authenticated set of the above with Chinese translations prepared to the receiving authority’s format.

Start authentication before the commercial negotiation concludes, not after: it is the longest lead-time item.

Three reasons applications come back

The entity is a technology company that recruits students. A company registered for educational technology or consulting cannot enrol the public for a fee. This is the single most common failure, and it usually begins with a marketing decision rather than a legal one.

The programme promises a qualification it cannot award. Non-degree institutions may not promise degrees or diplomas. Brochures that say otherwise create a misrepresentation problem that outlasts the application.

Foreign teachers lack the right to work and the right to teach. A foreign teacher needs a work permit for the position and the teaching credentials the programme claims. A short visiting lecture is not a loophole; it is a separate filing question.

Preparing for a window that has not opened

The useful work now is preparatory, and it is cheap relative to the cost of a failed application.

  • Complete the foreign party’s accreditation file and authentication early; it is the longest lead-time item and it is reusable across routes and cities.
  • Screen the Chinese partner: verify its school licence, its recent compliance record, the ownership of its premises and its financial position.
  • Track three authorities rather than one — commerce for the foreign investment angle, education for schools, human resources and social security for skills training — because their answers will differ and the binding one is the licensing authority’s.
  • Keep the board paper honest about status: a directional deployment, no implementing rule, no application window.

Related reading

  • *China’s Vocational-Training and Education Opening for Foreign Investors: The 2026 Action Plan* (Article 266) — the action plan’s education provisions read as a whole.

Sources

  • 山东省商务厅·《利用外资固稳促优行动方案》（商资发〔2026〕97 号）全文：http://commerce.shandong.gov.cn/art/2026/10/26/art_16128_10391514.html
  • 商务部·政策发布：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • 中国政府网·国务院政策文件库：https://www.gov.cn/
  • 教育部·中外合作办学条例及实施办法：https://www.moe.gov.cn/
  • 人力资源社会保障部·职业技能培训与民办职业培训学校管理：https://www.mohrss.gov.cn/

外资参与职业培训与职业院校：如何读懂这份方向性部署

概述

2026 年 6 月 16 日，商务部、国家发展改革委、财政部印发《利用外资固稳促优行动方案》，文号商资发〔2026〕97 号，经国务院同意。其中第（一）条”深化服务业领域开放”里有一句话引起了教育集团的注意：稳步扩大职业技能培训机构、职业院校、高水平理工农医类大学对外开放试点。同一条还提出支持北京提升国家服务业扩大开放综合示范区建设水平。

这句话要按它本来的性质来读。它是一份外资行动方案内部的方向性部署，不是实施细则，不是目录，也不是许可标准。它没有点名试点地区，没有规定规模，也没有说明外方须具备什么资质。这些要素要由配套细则确定，而配套细则尚未公布。

这一点在商业上很关键：这句话容易被引用，却很难被依赖。把它读成”可以设立外资独资职业院校”的许可，搭出来的结构没有任何主管部门同意批准。

文件做了什么、没做什么

从文本看，有三点是清楚的。被点名的领域——职业技能培训机构、职业院校，以及高水平理工农医类大学——指向技能与产业用工供给，而不是泛指学历教育。动词是”稳步扩大”，意味着已有试点在被拓宽，而不是另起新制度。文件性质是外资行动方案，说明它面向的是寻找可进入领域的外资。

缺什么同样重要：没有城市名单，没有”允许外商独资”的表述（只有”对外开放试点”），没有外方资质标准，没有最低资本要求，也没有机构数量上限。因此写给董事会的判断应当很窄：方向有利，工具是方向性的，实施细则的时间未知。

三条路径、三个主管部门

外资在中国参与培训和职业教育，不是一项许可，而是至少三项，主管部门不同、产出不同、经济模型也不同。

中外合作办学机构路径。 依《中外合作办学条例》及其实施办法设立。须经审批，外方必须是具备资质的教育机构，且不得实施义务教育。这是可以颁发学历学位的路径，也是最慢、条件最多的路径。

营利性职业技能培训路径。 职业技能培训机构在《民办教育促进法》意义上属于民办学校，但因内容为职业技能与职业资格培训而非学历教育，由人力资源社会保障部门审批，而不是教育行政部门。它可以登记为营利性主体，可以分配利润，不得颁发学历文凭。

企业内训或技术服务中心路径。 外资公司可以设立一家普通外商投资企业，经营范围覆盖技术服务、管理咨询或面向自有员工与客户的培训。无需办学许可。不允许的是对外招生和收取学费。

中外合作办学路径的实际操作

审批逐案进行，顺序相对固定：提交申请与合作协议、机构章程，审核外方资质，批准设立，然后登记并取得办学许可。审批层级取决于教育层次，本科及以上学历教育报教育部，专科与非学历高等教育在省级办理。

有两条约束决定结构。其一，外方必须是办学机构，且具备举办拟设项目的相应资质；培训公司或企业大学不满足这一条件，想用自有企业大学的集团应当预期需要与一家被认可的院校合作。其二，中外合作办学属公益性事业，实践中登记为非营利性法人；依赖分配利润的商业模式不宜从这里起步。

营利性培训路径的实际操作

这条路径适合短周期、收费制、技能导向的项目：语言与考试培训、职业资格培训、行业技术培训。许可由人力资源社会保障部门按地方规则确定的层级颁发，可开展的培训职业（工种）写入许可证。超出许可范围授课，是一家合规机构变成不合规机构最常见的方式。

这一类别不在外商投资准入负面清单的特别管理措施之内——清单涉及的是学前、普通高中和高等教育机构，并禁止外资进入义务教育。但”外商独资的培训机构是否可行”，各地口径并不一致，这一点应当在签租约之前向属地主管部门确认，而不是之后。

内训中心路径的实际操作

这是多数集团应当先用的结构：可以在数周内搭起来，而不是数年，而且它不占用日后可能需要的监管位置。它是一家普通公司——市场监管部门登记、报送外商投资信息报告、就服务开票。

它的边界很硬，也容易被无意越过。不得对外招生。不得收取学费。不得以任何暗示自己是学校的方式自我描述。一旦面向客户的课程开始向个人收费、并对外宣称为资格培训，这个结构就已经变成无证办学。

外方须准备的材料

无论走哪条路径，申请卡住的地方通常在外方文件。通行的一套是：机构在其本国的合法设立证明与办学资质认证；章程与治理文件；课程体系、学时与考核方式；师资名单及其资格；经审计的财务报表或银行资信证明；拟任法定代表人与主要负责人的身份、学历与从业经历；以及上述文件的公证认证件，附按受理机关格式准备的中文译本。

认证需要时间，应在商务谈判结束前启动，而不是之后——这是周期最长的一项。

三类常见的退回原因

主体是一家招生的科技公司。 登记为教育科技或咨询的公司，不能对外收费招生。这是最常见的失败，而且通常始于一个市场决策，而不是法律决策。

课程承诺了它无权授予的资格。 非学历机构不得承诺学历或文凭。宣传材料若作了相反表述，会留下比申请本身更长久的不实陈述问题。

外籍教师缺少工作许可与教学资质。 外籍教师需要与岗位相符的工作许可，以及项目所宣称的教学资质。短期讲座不是漏洞，而是另一个备案问题。

为尚未开启的窗口做准备

现在值得做的是准备工作，相对于一次失败申请的成本，这些准备很便宜。

  • 尽早完成外方资质认证与公证认证；这是周期最长的一项，且在不同路径、不同城市之间可以复用。
  • 对中方合作方做尽调：核验办学许可、近年合规记录、场地权属与财务状况。
  • 同时跟踪三个部门而不是一个——商务部门看外资角度，教育部门看学校，人力资源社会保障部门看技能培训——它们的答复会不同，而有约束力的是许可机关的那一个。
  • 董事会材料要如实写明状态：方向性部署、暂无实施细则、暂无申报窗口。

延伸阅读

  • 《外资教育开放：2026 年行动方案中的职业培训与院校试点》（第 266 篇）——把行动方案的教育条款作为整体来读。

来源

  • 山东省商务厅·《利用外资固稳促优行动方案》（商资发〔2026〕97 号）全文：http://commerce.shandong.gov.cn/art/2026/10/26/art_16128_10391514.html
  • 商务部·政策发布：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • 中国政府网·国务院政策文件库：https://www.gov.cn/
  • 教育部·中外合作办学条例及实施办法：https://www.moe.gov.cn/
  • 人力资源社会保障部·职业技能培训与民办职业培训学校管理：https://www.mohrss.gov.cn/
Healthcare & Pharma / 医药医疗, Sector Restrictions / 分行业限制

Wholly Foreign-Owned Hospitals in China: The Nine-City Pilot, the Medical Institution Licence and What Stays Closed

  • The permission to set up a Wholly Foreign-Owned Hospital rests on a notice of 7 September 2024 issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration, not on any rule issued in 2026.
    允许设立外商独资医院的依据，是商务部、国家卫生健康委、国家药监局 2024 年 9 月 7 日印发的试点通知，而不是 2026 年出台的任何新规。
  • The Nine-City Pilot covers Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the whole of Hainan Island.
    九地试点包括北京、天津、上海、南京、苏州、福州、广州、深圳和海南全岛。
  • Traditional Chinese Medicine is excluded from the pilot and public hospitals may not be acquired; those are the two hard boundaries of the permission.
    中医类不在试点范围内，也不含并购公立医院——这是这项许可的两条硬边界。
  • The operational plan for the wholly foreign-owned hospital pilot took effect in April 2025 and fixes the pilot areas, access conditions and scope of business a project must satisfy.
    独资医院领域扩大开放试点工作方案于 2025 年 4 月施行，确定了试点地区、准入条件和经营范围等具体要求。
  • A wholly foreign-owned hospital is a medical institution rather than an ordinary foreign-invested company: it needs pre-establishment approval and then a Medical Institution Licence before it can treat a patient.
    外商独资医院是医疗机构，不是普通外商投资企业：须先取得设置批准，再取得《医疗机构执业许可证》，才能接诊。
  • On 22 October 2026 the Ministry of Commerce said it would deepen the opening pilot in wholly foreign-owned hospitals; that is a statement of direction, it adds no city to the list, and any expansion depends on a formal document.
    2026 年 10 月 22 日商务部表示将深化独资医院等领域开放试点；这是方向性表述，并未新增试点地区，是否扩围取决于正式文件。
  • Foreign doctors need their own Practising Registration and imported devices and medicines need registration or filing with the national drug regulator; a hospital licence covers neither.
    外籍医师须另行办理执业注册，进口医疗器械与药品须取得国家药监部门注册或备案；医院执业许可不覆盖这两项。

Wholly Foreign-Owned Hospitals in China: The Nine-City Pilot, the Medical Institution Licence and What Stays Closed | 外商独资医院扩大试点：九地名单、执业许可与尚未开放的部分

Overview

A foreign hospital group looking at China meets two documents, and the order in which it reads them decides whether the project is viable. The first is the negative list for foreign investment, which still treats medical institutions as a restricted sector. The second is the notice of 7 September 2024 issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration, which permits wholly foreign-owned hospitals in nine places: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the whole of Hainan Island.

In April 2025 the operational plan for the wholly foreign-owned hospital pilot took effect, setting out pilot areas, access conditions and scope of business in working detail. That plan, rather than the 2024 notice, is what a project team should read line by line.

Nothing changed in October 2026. At a State Council Information Office briefing on 22 October 2026, Wu Di of the Ministry of Commerce’s foreign investment administration said the ministry would deepen the opening pilots in cloud computing, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals to release service-sector investment potential. That is a statement of direction. It adds no city to the list, and any expansion will arrive through a formal document. On ministry data, services took more than 70 per cent of China’s total actual use of foreign capital in 2025, which is why the sector keeps appearing in opening statements.

What the pilot permits

The permission is narrow. A wholly foreign-owned hospital may be established in one of the nine places to provide medical services other than those in the Traditional Chinese Medicine category, and it must satisfy the access conditions in the operational plan — conditions that run to the investor, the site, the bed scale, the departments and the staffing.

Two features of the design are easy to miss. The permission is place-specific: outside the nine places the negative list position is unchanged, so a group cannot take a licence granted in Shanghai and open a branch in Chengdu on the strength of it. And the permission is for establishment rather than unrestricted operation: the hospital still needs every ordinary licence a medical institution needs, plus the equipment and drug approvals described below.

The scope of business deserves early attention because it drives the investment case: a general hospital, a specialty hospital and a surgical centre meet different requirements on departments, beds and personnel, and provincial rules may add local conditions. Written confirmation of the intended scope, obtained before the feasibility study is signed off, is cheaper than discovering the mismatch at registration.

The two hard boundaries

Traditional Chinese Medicine is excluded. The exclusion is drawn at the level of the TCM category. A project that intends to offer acupuncture, tuina or herbal consultation alongside Western medicine should ask the provincial health commission how the exclusion applies to specific service lines, rather than assume that a TCM department inside a Western-medicine hospital sits outside the rule.

Public hospitals may not be acquired. The boundary is drawn at public hospitals specifically. Greenfield construction is the route the pilot contemplates. Other forms of participation in existing non-public facilities are governed by the operational plan and by provincial rules, and should be put to the authorities as a question rather than treated as settled.

The pilot is in any case an opening inside a restricted sector, not the removal of the restriction, and documents drafted for headquarters should say so.

From setting approval to a licence to practise

A wholly foreign-owned hospital is a medical institution, not an ordinary foreign-invested company, and the sequence reflects that.

The first step is pre-establishment approval — the setting approval required by the regulation on the administration of medical institutions. The application goes to the health authority at the level the operational plan specifies, in practice the provincial level, and carries the substance of the project: a feasibility study, site and floor plans, proposed beds, departments and staffing, funding evidence and the foreign investor’s own qualifications.

The second step is registration, which produces the Medical Institution Licence. The licence records the name, address, legal representative, principal person in charge, permitted diagnostic and treatment subjects and bed count. Treating patients before that licence issues is not a scheduling problem to be managed; it is practice without a licence.

The third step is corporate. The investor’s company is registered under the foreign investment law and files the foreign investment information report. The hospital licence and the company registration are separate instruments held by different authorities, and neither substitutes for the other.

Alongside these sit the permits that follow the building and the equipment: configuration approval for large medical equipment, radiation diagnosis and treatment permits, and environmental and fire acceptance. Together they set the critical path.

Three misconceptions

That wholly-owned means free pricing and free hiring. Non-public medical institutions set service prices under market adjustment rather than government guidance, but a hospital seeking medical insurance designation accepts the payment standards, price publicity and cost-control rules that come with it, and foreign doctors still need their own practising registration. Ownership displaces neither constraint.

That a public hospital can be bought. It cannot, under this pilot; a transaction structured as an acquisition of a public facility will not be approved on the strength of the 2024 notice.

That the model replicates nationally. The permission is confined to the nine places. A multi-city plan needs a multi-city legal analysis, and in most cities the answer today remains a joint venture.

People, devices, medicines and payment

Foreign doctors practising in China need registration of their own. Short-term practice requires a foreign physician short-term practice permit, valid for no more than one year; longer practice requires a Chinese physician qualification and registration. One regional variation is worth knowing: under the trade facilitation measures announced on 29 October 2026 for the Hainan Free Trade Port, the validity of the practising permit for foreign physicians in Hainan extends from one year to three. That is a Hainan-specific arrangement, and it matters when staffing costs for a Hainan site are modelled.

Imported medical devices need registration or filing with the National Medical Products Administration, and large equipment needs configuration approval before installation. Imported medicines need their own registration; the channels for clinically urgent, small-quantity imports are arrangements for specific areas and are not part of this pilot.

On payment, medical insurance designation is applied for locally and is not automatic. Most wholly foreign-owned hospitals in the pilot will run a mixed model: self-pay and commercial insurance direct billing for the core business, designation where local rules and the case allow it.

Research involving human genetic resources requires separate approval for collection, preservation and international cooperation.

Practical steps

  • Choose the city first, then read that city’s implementing rules. The nine places do not implement identically.
  • Open a pre-application channel with the provincial health commission and obtain written confirmation of the intended scope, bed scale and department list.
  • Have the foreign investor’s qualification documents notarised and authenticated, with Chinese translations in the format the receiving authority expects.
  • Sequence device registrations and physician registrations against the planned opening date; registration timelines, not construction, usually set the critical path.
  • Confirm with the commerce department that the project falls inside the pilot, and keep that confirmation with the file supporting the foreign investment information report.
  • Discuss insurance designation with the local medical insurance bureau early, because the answer shapes the revenue model rather than merely the billing process.

Outlook

The direction of travel is towards more service-sector opening, and hospitals are named in that direction. The operative question is not what the next statement will say but which document grants the permission and where it applies. Until a formal expansion is published, the nine places are the perimeter.

Related reading

  • *Wholly Foreign-Owned Hospital Pilot and Private Healthcare Opening* (Article 227) — the earlier framing of the pilot within private healthcare policy.
  • *Pharma and biotech opening moves from the foreign-investment action plan* (Article 405) — where the biotechnology pilot sits relative to hospitals.

Sources

  • 商务部、国家卫生健康委、国家药监局·关于在医疗领域开展扩大开放试点工作的通知（2024-09-07）：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • 国务院新闻办公室·”十五五”商务高质量发展有关情况新闻发布会（2026-10-22）：https://www.scio.gov.cn/live/2026/39833/index.html
  • 中国政府网·国务院政策文件库：https://www.gov.cn/
  • 国家卫生健康委员会·医疗机构管理条例及配套规章：https://www.nhc.gov.cn/
  • 国家药品监督管理局·医疗器械注册与备案管理：https://www.nmpa.gov.cn/

外商独资医院扩大试点：九地名单、执业许可与尚未开放的部分

概述

一家境外医院集团看中国市场，会遇到两份文件，而阅读顺序决定了项目是否可行。第一份是外商投资准入负面清单，其中医疗机构仍属限制类。第二份是商务部、国家卫生健康委、国家药监局 2024 年 9 月 7 日印发的试点通知，允许在北京、天津、上海、南京、苏州、福州、广州、深圳和海南全岛设立外商独资医院。

2025 年 4 月，《独资医院领域扩大开放试点工作方案》施行，把试点地区、准入条件和经营范围落到操作层面。项目团队应当逐条研读的是这份工作方案，而不是 2024 年的通知本身。

2026 年 10 月没有新变化。2026 年 10 月 22 日，在国务院新闻办公室发布会上，商务部外国投资管理司负责人吴迪表示，将深化云计算、生物技术、独资医院等领域开放试点，释放服务业引资潜力。这是方向性表述：它没有为名单增加任何一个城市，是否扩围要看正式文件。按商务部数据，2025 年服务业占全国实际使用外资总额比重超过七成，这也是服务业反复出现在开放表述中的原因。

试点允许什么

许可范围很窄。外商独资医院可以设在九地之一，提供中医类以外的医疗服务，并且必须满足工作方案中的准入条件——这些条件涉及投资主体、选址、床位规模、科室设置和人员配备。

这项设计有两点容易被忽略。其一，许可与地点绑定：九地之外，负面清单的立场没有变化，企业不能拿着一张在上海取得的许可去成都开分院。其二，这是设立环节的许可，不是无限制经营：医院仍须取得任何医疗机构都需要的全部许可，还要取得下文所述的设备与药品审批。

经营范围应当尽早确定，因为它决定投资测算：综合医院、专科医院与外科中心，在科室、床位和人员上的要求并不相同，省级规则还可能附加本地条件。在可行性研究定稿之前取得关于拟设范围的书面确认，比在登记环节才发现不匹配要便宜得多。

两条硬边界

中医类除外。 排除是在中医类这一类别层面作出的。如果项目打算在综合医疗之外提供针灸、推拿或中医门诊，应当向省级卫生健康部门询问该排除对具体诊疗科目如何适用，而不是自行推定”西医院里的中医科不受限制”。

不含并购公立医院。 边界明确划在公立医院上。试点设想的路径是新建。对现有非公立医疗机构的其他参与方式，由工作方案和省级规则调整，宜作为问题向主管部门提出，而不宜当作已有定论。

还需说明一点：试点是在限制类行业内部开的口子，不是取消限制；写给总部的材料应当把这一点写清楚。

从设置批准到执业许可

外商独资医院是医疗机构，不是普通外商投资企业，办理顺序也体现了这一点。

第一步是设置审批，即《医疗机构管理条例》体系下的设置批准。申请提交至工作方案确定的层级，实践中为省级卫生健康行政部门，材料承载的是项目的实质内容：可行性研究报告、选址与建筑设计平面图、拟设床位、科室与人员、资金证明，以及外方投资者自身的资质文件。

第二步是执业登记，产出《医疗机构执业许可证》。许可证载明名称、地址、法定代表人、主要负责人、诊疗科目和床位。在许可证下发前接诊，不是可以排期的进度问题，而是无证执业。

第三步是主体层面。投资者的公司依外商投资法登记，并报送外商投资信息报告。医院执业许可与公司登记是两份由不同机关出具的文书，彼此不能替代。

与上述三步并行的，是跟着建筑和设备走的许可：大型医用设备配置许可、放射诊疗许可，以及环保与消防验收。这些合起来决定了关键路径。

三个误区

以为”独资”等于自由定价、自由引医。 非公立医疗机构的医疗服务价格实行市场调节价，不由政府定价；但一家希望取得医保定点的医院，要接受随之而来的支付标准、价格公示和费用控制要求，外籍医师也仍须办理各自的执业注册。股权结构改变不了这两项约束。

以为可以收购公立医院。 本试点下不可以。把交易结构设计成收购公立医疗机构，不能凭 2024 年的通知获得批准。

以为模式可以全国复制。 许可限于九地。多城市布局需要多城市的法律分析，而在多数城市，目前的答案仍是合资。

人员、设备、药品与支付

外籍医师在华执业须另行办理注册。短期行医需取得外国医师短期行医许可，有效期不超过一年；长期执业须取得中国医师资格并注册。有一处地区差异值得了解：按 2026 年 10 月 29 日公布的海南自由贸易港贸易便利化措施，外籍医师在海南的执业许可有效期由一年延长至三年。这是海南特有的安排，在测算海南机构人力成本时会用到。

进口医疗器械须取得国家药品监督管理局的注册或备案，大型设备在装机前须取得配置许可。进口药品须另行注册；临床急需少量进口的通道属于特定区域的安排，不在本试点范围内。

支付方面，医保定点在属地申请，并非自动取得。试点内的外商独资医院多数会走混合模式：核心业务以自费与商业保险直付为主，在本地规则和具体条件允许时申请定点。

涉及人类遗传资源的科研，其采集、保藏和对外合作须另行取得审批。

实务动作

  • 先定城市，再读该市的实施细则。九地的执行并不一致。
  • 与省级卫生健康部门建立预沟通渠道，取得关于拟设范围、床位规模和科室清单的书面确认。
  • 外方资质文件办理公证认证，中文译本按受理机关的格式准备。
  • 把器械注册与医师注册排到计划开业日之前倒推。决定关键路径的通常是注册周期，而不是施工。
  • 向商务主管部门确认项目属于试点范围，并将该确认与支持外商投资信息报告的材料一并归档。
  • 尽早与属地医保部门沟通定点事宜，因为这个答案决定的是收入模型，而不只是结算流程。

展望

方向是服务业进一步开放，医院被写进了这个方向。对具体项目而言，真正的问题不是下一句表态会说什么，而是哪份文件授予许可、许可适用于哪里。在正式扩围文件公布之前，九地就是边界。

延伸阅读

  • 《外资独资医院试点与社会办医扩大开放》（第 227 篇）——试点在社会办医政策中的早期定位。
  • 《外资行动方案中的医药与生物技术开放举措》（第 405 篇）——生物技术试点与医院试点的相对位置。

来源

  • 商务部、国家卫生健康委、国家药监局·关于在医疗领域开展扩大开放试点工作的通知（2024-09-07）：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • 国务院新闻办公室·”十五五”商务高质量发展有关情况新闻发布会（2026-10-22）：https://www.scio.gov.cn/live/2026/39833/index.html
  • 中国政府网·国务院政策文件库：https://www.gov.cn/
  • 国家卫生健康委员会·医疗机构管理条例及配套规章：https://www.nhc.gov.cn/
  • 国家药品监督管理局·医疗器械注册与备案管理：https://www.nmpa.gov.cn/
Security Review / 安全审查, Supplier Due Diligence / 供应商尽调

China’s Draft Special Provisions on Protecting Trade Secrets: What the Six Proposed Measures Would Reach

  • The Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Treaty and Law released a draft of the Special Provisions on the Protection of Trade Secrets for public comment on 26 October 2026, and the text remains a consultation draft that has not taken effect.
    商务部条法司于 2026 年 10 月 26 日就《保护中国商业秘密特别规定（征求意见稿）》公开征求意见，该文本仍为征求意见稿，尚未生效。
  • The draft is directed at foreign entities that carry out, outside China, acts infringing China’s trade secrets.
    征求意见稿针对的是在中国境外实施侵犯中国商业秘密行为的外国实体。
  • It sets out six categories of measures that may be applied individually or in combination, running from trade restrictions through investment, entry and work authorisation to a fine of an appropriate amount.
    征求意见稿列出可单独或合并采取的六类措施，从贸易限制延伸到投资、入境、工作许可，直至相应数额的罚款。
  • Five of the six operate on eligibility rather than on property: they touch trade in goods, technology and services, new investment in China, entry, and work, stay or residence status.
    六类措施中的五类作用于资格而非财产：涉及货物、技术与服务贸易，境内新增投资，入境，以及工作、停留或居留资格。
  • The draft sets no fine amount and no calculation method; it says only that a fine of an appropriate amount may be imposed in accordance with the circumstances.
    征求意见稿未设定罚款数额，也未规定计算方法，仅规定可根据情节轻重依法给予相应数额的罚款。
  • For companies already operating in China the exposure runs the other way: an employee who leaves with technical material can trigger Chinese trade secret liability and a group compliance failure at the same time.
    对已在华经营的企业，风险方向相反：员工带着技术资料离职，可能同时触发中国商业秘密法律责任与集团合规失守。
  • Cross-border technology transfer inside a group needs a three-part record — source, authorisation and purpose — because one document can be a trade secret, a controlled export item and personal data at once.
    集团内部的跨境技术转移需要”来源—授权—用途”三段留痕，因为同一份文件可能同时是商业秘密、受管制出口物项和个人信息。
  • Supply chain due diligence should add lawful provenance of intellectual property as a separate line item, alongside the export control screening most groups already run.
    供应链尽调应在多数集团已做的出口管制筛查之外，把知识产权的合法来源单列一项。

China’s Draft Special Provisions on Protecting Trade Secrets: What the Six Proposed Measures Would Reach | 中国《保护中国商业秘密特别规定（征求意见稿）》：六类拟采取措施对外国实体意味着什么

Overview

On 26 October 2026 the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Commerce published a draft of the Special Provisions on the Protection of Trade Secrets and opened it for public comment. The document is a consultation draft: it has not been adopted, has not been promulgated and is not in force. The channel for comment is the one published on the ministry’s website, and the ministry’s policy consultation page carries the text.

What the draft does is narrow and specific. It is directed at foreign entities that carry out, outside China, acts infringing China’s trade secrets, and it lists the measures that may be taken against them. It is not a restatement of the domestic trade secret rules, and it does not amend them.

Where the draft sits

China already has several routes against trade secret infringement, and each works on conduct with a Chinese nexus. The Anti-Unfair Competition Law, as revised with effect from 15 October 2025, prohibits infringement of commercial secrets and provides civil and administrative remedies. The Criminal Law reaches serious cases through the offence of infringing trade secrets. Technology leaving the country is separately regulated under the technology import and export rules, which operate through a catalogue of prohibited and restricted technologies and through licensing and registration. Cross-border data transfer is regulated on its own track.

Those routes are effective where the infringer, the act or the assets are in China. The draft addresses the case they handle awkwardly: an act committed abroad by a foreign entity, where a Chinese rights holder holds a judgment or finding but has few assets in the jurisdiction to enforce it against. Whether the measures will be used in that way is a matter for the final text and for practice; the draft itself only lists what may be done.

The six proposed measures

As published for comment, the draft provides that one or more of the following measures may be taken against a foreign entity:

  1. Trade. Restricting or prohibiting its engagement in goods and technology import and export, and in international service trade, connected with China; and prohibiting the export of relevant items to it.
  2. Investment. Restricting or prohibiting new investment by it within China.
  3. Entry. Restricting or prohibiting the entry of its relevant personnel and means of transport.
  4. Work and residence. Restricting or cancelling the work permits, stay or residence qualifications of its relevant personnel in China.
  5. Fine. Imposing a fine of an appropriate amount in accordance with law, according to the seriousness of the circumstances.
  6. Residual. Other necessary measures.

Read as a set, five of the six operate on eligibility. They remove or condition the ability to trade with China, to invest in China, to enter China, or to work and reside in China. Only the fifth is monetary, and the draft leaves its amount open. For a company whose business depends on a Chinese supply chain, a Chinese customer base or a Chinese technical team, the eligibility measures are the ones that matter: a restriction on new investment or on entry does not need a large number attached to it to change a business plan.

On the text as published, no entity is named and no listing mechanism is described. The measures are framed as powers that may be applied, not as a schedule of designations.

What the draft does not do

Three limits should be recorded before the text is read into a compliance programme.

It is not in force. A consultation draft has no legal effect. Nothing in it can be relied on as a basis for a decision, and any internal note should say so in terms.

It sets no amount. The reference to a fine of an appropriate amount is a reference to the applicable law and to the circumstances; the draft does not fix a figure, a range or a method. Any figure circulating in commentary is not from the text.

It does not replace the existing routes. The civil, administrative and criminal routes to trade secret infringement continue unchanged. A foreign entity that infringes a Chinese party’s trade secrets abroad remains exposed to those routes in the ordinary way, and a Chinese party that suffers the loss retains its claims.

What it means for foreign-invested companies in China

The direction of the draft points outward, at foreign entities acting abroad. A foreign-invested company operating in China is, in the ordinary case, a rights holder rather than an addressee. The practical relevance is indirect, and it runs through three points.

Departing employees. A researcher or engineer who leaves a Chinese subsidiary for a competitor, taking process documentation, formulation data or source code, is the classic fact pattern. It engages the Chinese trade secret rules directly, and it engages the group’s own compliance record: a group that cannot show what it protected, how it was protected and when access was withdrawn has a weak position both in the Chinese proceedings and in its own internal review.

Intra-group technical flows. Technical material moving between a Chinese entity and an overseas affiliate is often treated as internal and therefore unremarkable. It is not. The same file may be a trade secret, a technology whose export is restricted or prohibited, and personal data. A transfer file that records only the sender and the recipient is not enough; the record needs to show where the material came from, who authorised the transfer and what it is being used for.

Supply chain due diligence. Most groups already screen suppliers for export control exposure. The additional question is provenance of intellectual property: whether the supplier’s technology, tooling or design was lawfully obtained, from whom, and under what agreement. A supplier that cannot document provenance can transmit risk upstream, and the risk runs in both directions — a Chinese rights holder may claim against the group, and the group may find its own technology in a supplier’s product.

Preparing during the comment period

The comment period is the right time to do work that is useful whatever the final text says.

  • Audit the confidentiality architecture. Identify what the Chinese operation actually treats as a trade secret, and whether the classification is documented. Secrecy that exists only in a policy manual is difficult to prove.
  • Upgrade exit protocols. Return-of-material obligations, device imaging, access revocation on the last working day, and an exit interview record. These are the facts that decide a case two years later.
  • Map intra-group technical transfers. For each recurring flow, record source, authorisation and purpose, and check the export control position of the technology concerned before the next transfer.
  • Separate the three legal characters of a document. A technical file may need handling as a trade secret, as controlled technology and as personal data; one review that covers all three is cheaper than three.
  • Add an IP provenance line to supplier questionnaires. Ask for the origin of the technology, the licence chain and any restriction on further transfer.
  • Track the final text. The measures may change; the drafting of the fine provision and any procedural article are the parts to watch.

Outlook

A consultation draft is a statement of intent, and the gap between the draft and the final instrument is usually where the operative detail appears: the standard for identifying an entity, the procedure, and the relationship between these measures and the existing enforcement routes. Until the text is promulgated, the appropriate internal position is that the instrument is pending and that no decision should be built on it.

What can be said now is that the direction is consistent with a broader pattern: Chinese trade secret protection has been strengthened on the domestic side over several years, and the draft extends the frame to conduct outside the territory. For a group with technology in China, the useful response is not to speculate about the final text but to be able to demonstrate, with documents, where its technology came from and where it went.

Related reading

  • *China’s Five Export-Control Notices of 19 October 2026: A Supplier Screening Update* (Article 475) — the export control screening that the provenance review described above sits alongside.

Sources

  • Ministry of Commerce, Department of Treaty and Law — consultation page for the draft Special Provisions on the Protection of Trade Secrets: https://tfs.mofcom.gov.cn/lfzqyj/art/2026/art_db6a858a9d4e4ec0a3dbeece659c324d.html
  • Ministry of Commerce — policy and regulation consultation column: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zqyj/zcfgzqyj/index.html
  • Ministry of Commerce — policy releases: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • The State Council of China — policy document library: https://www.gov.cn/

中国《保护中国商业秘密特别规定（征求意见稿）》：六类拟采取措施对外国实体意味着什么

概述

2026 年 10 月 26 日，商务部条法司公布《保护中国商业秘密特别规定（征求意见稿）》，公开征求意见。该文件是征求意见稿：尚未通过、尚未公布、尚未生效。反馈渠道为商务部网站公布的渠道，商务部政策法规征求意见栏目载有该文本。

这份稿子的内容范围很窄，也很具体。它针对的是在中国境外实施侵犯中国商业秘密行为的外国实体，并列出可对其采取的措施。它不是对境内商业秘密规则的重复表述，也不修改这些规则。

这份稿子在制度中的位置

中国对侵犯商业秘密行为已有若干条路径，每一条都作用于与中国有连接点（属地、属人、财产所在地等）的行为。《反不正当竞争法》经修订后自 2025 年 10 月 15 日起施行，禁止侵犯商业秘密，并提供民事与行政救济。《刑法》通过侵犯商业秘密罪处理情节严重的案件。技术出境另由技术进出口管理规则调整，通过禁止类、限制类技术目录以及许可、登记程序运行。数据出境则另有独立轨道。

这些路径在侵权人、侵权行为或财产位于中国境内时有效。征求意见稿针对的正是这些路径处理起来不顺畅的情形：行为由外国实体在境外实施，中国权利人有生效裁判或认定，但在境内可供执行的财产有限。这些措施最终是否这样使用，取决于正式文本与实务；征求意见稿本身只列出”可以做什么”。

六类拟采取措施

按公开征求意见的文本，可对外国实体采取以下措施中的一项或多项：

  1. 贸易。 限制或禁止其从事与中国有关的货物、技术进出口以及国际服务贸易活动；禁止向其出口相关物项。
  2. 投资。 限制或禁止其在中国境内新增投资。
  3. 入境。 限制或禁止其相关人员、交通运输工具等入境。
  4. 工作与居留。 限制或取消其相关人员在中国境内的工作许可、停留或者居留资格。
  5. 罚款。 根据情节轻重，依法给予相应数额的罚款。
  6. 兜底。 其他必要的措施。

作为一组来看，六类中有五类作用于”资格”。它们取消或限制与中国贸易、在中国投资、进入中国、在中国工作与居留的能力，或者为其附加条件。只有第五类是金钱性的，而征求意见稿对其数额留白。对业务依赖中国供应链、中国客户群或中国技术团队的公司而言，起决定作用的是资格类措施：限制新增投资或限制入境，不需要配上很大的数字，就足以改变一项商业计划。

就公开的文本而言，没有点名任何实体，也没有描述列名机制。这些措施被表述为”可以采取”的权力，而不是一份列名清单。

征求意见稿没有做什么

在把这份文本读进合规方案之前，有三点界限应当先记下来。

它尚未生效。 征求意见稿没有法律效力。其中任何内容都不能作为决策依据，内部备忘应当把这一点写明。

它没有设定数额。 “相应数额的罚款”指向的是适用法律与具体情节；征求意见稿没有固定金额、区间或计算方法。流传于评论中的任何数字都不是文本内容。

它不替代既有路径。 侵犯商业秘密的民事、行政与刑事路径照旧运行。在境外侵犯中国主体商业秘密的外国实体，仍按原有方式面对这些路径；受损害的中国主体也仍然保有相应请求权。

对在华外资企业意味着什么

征求意见稿的方向是向外的，指向在境外行事的外国实体。在华经营的外资企业，通常情况下是权利人而不是被采取措施的对象。其现实关联是间接的，落在三点上。

离职人员。 研发或工程人员带着工艺文档、配方数据或源代码离职加入竞争对手，是最典型的场景。它直接触发中国商业秘密规则，也触及集团自身的合规记录：一个无法说明保护了什么、如何保护、何时收回访问权限的集团，在中国程序中与在自身内部复盘中都处于弱势。

集团内部技术流转。 中国实体与境外关联方之间的技术资料流转，常被视为内部事项而不以为意。事实并非如此。同一份文件可能同时是商业秘密、属于限制或禁止出口的技术、以及个人信息。只记录发件人与收件人的传输档案不够；记录需要显示材料从何而来、由谁授权转移、用于何处。

供应链尽调。 多数集团已就出口管制风险筛查供应商。需要增加的问题是知识产权的来源：供应商的技术、工装或设计是否合法取得、从谁取得、依据何种协议。无法证明来源的供应商，会把风险向上游传导，而这一风险现在是双向的——中国权利人可能向集团主张，集团也可能在供应商的产品中发现自己的技术。

征求意见期内的准备工作

征求意见期适合做那些无论正式文本如何都有用的工作。

  • 梳理保密体系。 确认中国业务实际把什么当作商业秘密，这一分类是否有文档记录。只存在于制度手册里的”保密”，在举证时很难成立。
  • 升级离职流程。 资料返还义务、设备镜像、最后工作日的权限收回、离职面谈记录。这些正是两年后决定案件走向的事实。
  • 绘制集团内部技术转移图。 对每一类反复发生的流转，记录来源、授权与用途，并在下一次转移前核对相关技术的出口管制状态。
  • 区分一份文件的三种法律属性。 技术文件可能同时需要按商业秘密、按受管制技术和按个人信息处理；一次覆盖三项的审查，比三次分别做更省成本。
  • 在供应商问卷中增加知识产权来源一项。 询问技术来源、许可链条以及是否限制再转移。
  • 跟踪正式文本。 措施内容可能调整；罚款条款的写法以及任何程序性条款是值得关注的部分。

展望

征求意见稿是意向的表达，而草案与正式文件之间的差距，通常正是可操作细节出现的地方：认定实体的标准、程序，以及这些措施与既有执法路径之间的关系。在文本正式公布之前，恰当的内部立场是：该文件尚在制定过程中，不应据此作出任何决定。

现在可以确定的是，方向与一个更大的趋势一致：中国在境内一侧对商业秘密的保护已持续强化数年，征求意见稿把视野延伸到境外行为。对在中国拥有技术的集团而言，有用的应对不是猜测正式文本，而是能够用文件证明：技术从何而来，又去了哪里。

延伸阅读

  • 《2026 年 10 月 19 日五份出口管制公告：供应商筛查更新》（第 475 篇）——与上述来源审查并行的那套出口管制筛查。

来源

  • 商务部条法司·《保护中国商业秘密特别规定（征求意见稿）》公开征求意见页面：https://tfs.mofcom.gov.cn/lfzqyj/art/2026/art_db6a858a9d4e4ec0a3dbeece659c324d.html
  • 商务部·政策法规征求意见栏目：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zqyj/zcfgzqyj/index.html
  • 商务部·政策发布：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • 中国政府网·政策文件库：https://www.gov.cn/
Sector Restrictions / 分行业限制, VIE Structure / VIE架构

Foreign Investment in Chinese Agriculture and Seed Breeding: Where the Negative List Still Bites, and Why Contractual Control Does Not Cure It

  • China’s Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access still list rare and unique precious improved varieties — and the propagating material produced from them — as a restricted activity, while processing, machinery and farm services sit outside the list.
    中国现行外商投资准入特别管理措施仍将稀有和特有的珍贵优良品种及其繁殖材料的生产列为限制类活动，而农产品加工、农业机械与农业技术服务不在清单之内。
  • A seed business needs a seed production and operation licence before any question of shareholding arises, so the licensing authority examines the applicant’s actual foreign status rather than the name on the holding company.
    种业经营须先取得种子生产经营许可证，股权结构问题在其后才出现；发证机关审查的是申请人的实际外资身份，而不是控股公司的名称。
  • Contractual control does not change the identity of the foreign investor, does not convert a domestic licence holder into a domestic-controlled entity, and does not remove the form-of-investment requirement in the negative list.
    协议控制不改变外资身份，不使持证的境内主体变成内资控股，也不消除负面清单对投资形式的要求。
  • The arrangement suits an asset-light service business where the licence is not the regulated asset; it fails where the licence itself is what the access rule protects.
    该安排适用于许可证本身不是受监管资产的轻资产服务业务；当准入规则保护的正是许可证时，它不成立。
  • Genetically modified seed work runs on a second track: a biosafety certificate is required before a modified variety can be approved or registered, and the certificate is a precondition for the seed licence as well.
    转基因种子研发另走一条轨道：品种须先取得安全证书才能审定或登记，安全证书同时是取得种子许可证的前提。
  • Layered structures also create tax and foreign exchange exposure, because a licence holder controlled by contract remains a Chinese taxpayer and every outbound payment still needs a genuine transaction basis.
    多层架构还带来税务与外汇敞口：以合同控制的持证主体仍是中国纳税人，每一笔对外支付仍需真实交易基础。
  • The workable sequence is to fix variety provenance, quarantine and biosafety documentation and pre-communication with the provincial agriculture department before the equity chain is designed.
    可行的顺序是先落实品种来源、检疫与生物安全文件以及与省级农业农村部门的前置沟通，再设计股权链条。

Foreign Investment in Chinese Agriculture and Seed Breeding: Where the Negative List Still Bites, and Why Contractual Control Does Not Cure It | 外资进入中国农业与种业：负面清单剩余限制在哪里，协议控制为何解决不了准入

Overview

Foreign investment in Chinese agriculture raises two questions that are usually answered in the wrong order. The first is whether the activity appears in the Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access — the negative list — and, if so, in what corporate form it may be carried on. The second is whether it needs a licence under the Seed Law, and who may hold that licence.

The current list has been in force since 1 November 2024 and cleared the manufacturing entries; what remains in agriculture is narrow but not empty. Two parallel lists sit alongside it, for pilot free trade zones and for Hainan Free Trade Port; a project inside a zone is tested against the zone’s list, where the difference is usually which entries are suspended.

What the list still restricts

The surviving agriculture entry concerns China’s rare and unique precious improved varieties: research and development, breeding and cultivation, and the production of related propagating material, with the official wording also referring to improved genes in the crop, livestock and aquaculture sectors. The entry is not about farming in general. It is about genetic material China treats as a national asset — varieties that exist here and nowhere else, and the propagation stock derived from them.

Because the entry is drafted around the variety rather than the crop, the compliance question is always the same: does this variety, or this batch of propagating material, fall inside the description? Growing commodity maize for the domestic feed market is ordinary production; seeking access to a protected local landrace to build a breeding pipeline is the regulated core.

Where the entry applies, the list imposes a requirement on the form of investment. In practice a wholly foreign-owned operating company is not the vehicle, and the project proceeds through a joint venture or a cooperative arrangement with a Chinese party. The constraint attaches to the vehicle, not to the profitability or scale of the activity.

Three lanes that are open

Most of the value chain sits outside the list: the sector is often described as closed when only one link in it is.

Processing and distribution. Food and feed processing is manufacturing, and the manufacturing entries have been cleared. A group may own a plant, a cold chain, a flour mill or a feed mill outright, subject to the ordinary establishment regime and to product standards. Wholesale, retail and cross-border e-commerce are also outside the list.

Machinery and equipment. Agricultural machinery, irrigation equipment, greenhouse systems and the software that runs them are manufacturing and services, not restricted agriculture.

Technical services. Agronomy advisory, soil and water testing, farm management software and irrigation design are outside the list. Two overlays remain: testing bodies need accreditation before issuing reports that regulators accept, and services in a regulated category — pesticide advice, veterinary diagnosis — carry their own professional requirements.

Licensing comes before shareholding

For a seed business the sequence matters more than the structure. The Seed Law, as revised with effect from 1 March 2022, works through a single seed production and operation licence — the former separate production and operation licences were merged some years ago — and the applicant must show facilities, equipment and technical personnel appropriate to the category, and lawful provenance of the variety: an owned variety right, an authorisation from the right holder, or a documented breeding source.

Three further gates sit above the licence, and projects fail at them more often than on the equity question. Major crop varieties must pass national or provincial approval before promotion, and varieties of non-major crops on the registration catalogue must be registered. Seed and propagating material brought from abroad requires plant quarantine approval, and the phytosanitary status of the consignment is examined on entry. Genetically modified material runs on a separate track: a biosafety certificate is required before a modified variety can be approved or registered, and the certificate is a precondition for the seed licence as well.

The licence is therefore issued to an applicant whose ownership the authority can see.

Why contractual control does not cure the access problem

The contractual control structure was built for a different problem: a domestic operating company holds a licence that a foreign-owned company could not hold, and the foreign investor reaches the licence holder’s economics through contracts — exclusive service fees, equity pledges, voting proxies, call options — rather than through registered equity.

In a sector where the restriction is on corporate form, that arrangement is sometimes tolerated. In seed breeding it does not work, for two compounding reasons.

The authority reviews the applicant, not the chart. The licence is granted after an examination of the applicant’s facilities, personnel and variety provenance, and the applicant’s actual controller is part of that examination. A company whose registered shareholders are Chinese nationals but whose decisions, cash flow and technology run to an offshore parent presents a factual question the authority may test. If the arrangement is treated as a device to circumvent the access rule, the licence is exposed to revocation and the parties to administrative penalties.

The contractual layer creates no lawful capital account route. Dividends require equity. Without equity, value leaves as service fees, royalties or purchase payments — each needing a genuine transaction, an arm’s-length price and invoicing, and, for payments abroad, withholding tax treatment plus a transfer pricing file where the payee is related. The cost is priced in downstream too: borrowing against the business, a group treasury arrangement or a portfolio transfer all require a clean equity chain.

Contractual control is a financing technique for asset-light, licence-free service businesses. Where the licence itself is the regulated asset — seeds, propagating material, GMO events — the structure does not reach the licence at all.

Practical steps

Work in this order; each step assumes the previous one is closed.

  1. Characterise the variety in writing. A legal opinion or internal memorandum naming the variety, the propagating material and the intended activity, and stating whether each falls within the entry — before the term sheet, not after.
  2. Fix provenance of the variety right. A variety right certificate, an exclusive licence recorded with the competent authority, or a documented breeding record. An unrecorded assignment from a research institute is a common defect.
  3. Assemble the quarantine and biosafety file. Introduction approval, phytosanitary certificates and, for modified material, the safety certificate at the applicable stage.
  4. Pre-communicate with the provincial agriculture department. Practice differs by province on personnel thresholds and on-site inspection; a pre-application meeting prevents a rejection cycle.
  5. Then design the equity chain — confirming whether a joint venture or cooperative form is required, and whether the Chinese partner must hold the variety right or the production site.
  6. File the foreign investment information report through the commerce system, separately from the licence and from market entity registration.
  7. Map the tax and foreign exchange consequences — royalty withholding, service fee pricing, and the capital account route for any future dividend.

Outlook

The direction of the negative list has been one-way for a decade: entries are removed and rarely added. Agriculture has moved slowest, and the reason is not commercial. The retained entry protects genetic material, which is treated as a resource over which the state asserts sovereignty; the rules on providing germplasm abroad rest on that premise. Separating the variety from the breeding activity is technically conceivable but has not been proposed.

More likely in the near term is zone-level experimentation — pilot arrangements around germplasm introduction and transit, such as Hainan’s germplasm transit facility. A group with a breeding pipeline should plan on the national entry staying, with access obtained through a Chinese partner holding the licence, a licence-in arrangement, or a zone pilot.

Related reading

  • *China’s Three Negative Lists for Services Opening: What the 22 October 2026 Briefing Confirmed* (Article 479) — how the national, free trade zone and Hainan lists differ.

Sources

  • National Development and Reform Commission — Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access (negative list): https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/
  • Ministry of Commerce — foreign investment reporting and access administration: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs — seed production and operation licensing, variety approval and registration: https://www.moa.gov.cn/
  • The State Council of China — policy document library: https://www.gov.cn/
  • State Administration for Market Regulation — registration of foreign-invested enterprises: https://www.samr.gov.cn/

外资进入中国农业与种业：负面清单剩余限制在哪里，协议控制为何解决不了准入

概述

外资进入中国农业，会引出两个常被颠倒顺序回答的问题。第一个：这项活动是否列入《外商投资准入特别管理措施（负面清单）》，如果列入，应以何种企业形式经营。第二个：这项活动是否需要依《种子法》取得许可，谁有资格持有该许可。

现行清单自 2024 年 11 月 1 日起施行，制造业条目已经清零；农业领域保留的条目范围很窄，但并非空白。与全国清单并行还有自贸试验区与海南自由贸易港两张清单；项目落在园区内的，应对照园区清单判断，差别通常在于哪些条目被暂停适用。

清单还限制什么

保留的农业条目指向中国稀有和特有的珍贵优良品种：研发、养殖、种植，以及相关繁殖材料的生产，官方表述同时括注涉及种植业、畜牧业、水产业的优良基因。这一条目管的不是一般意义上的种地，而是中国视为国家资产的遗传材料——只存在于中国、别处没有的品种，以及由这些品种繁育出的繁殖材料。

由于条目按”品种”而非”作物”起草，实际项目中的合规问题永远是同一个：这个具体品种、这批具体繁殖材料，是否落在条目的描述之内。为国内饲料市场种植商品玉米属于普通生产；为搭建育种管线而获取某一受保护地方品种，才是受监管的核心。

条目适用的，清单对投资形式设有要求。实务中这意味着外商独资的经营公司不是合适的载体，项目通常以与中国一方合资或合作的方式推进。约束落在载体上，不落在项目的盈利性或规模上。

三条开放通道

价值链的大部分不在清单之内：这个行业常被描述成”关闭”，而关闭的只是其中一环。

加工与流通。 食品与饲料加工属于制造业，制造业条目已经清零。集团可以独资持有加工厂、冷链、面粉厂或饲料厂，适用一般设立制度与产品标准。批发、零售、跨境电商同样不在清单之内。

机械与设备。 农业机械、灌溉设备、温室系统，以及运行这些设备的软件，属于制造业与服务业，不属于受限农业。

技术服务。 农艺咨询、土壤与水质检测、农场管理软件、灌溉设计都不在清单之内。仍有两层叠加要求：检验检测机构在出具监管机关认可的报告前须取得资质认定；农药用药指导、兽医诊断这类受监管服务另有各自的专业资质要求。

许可在前，股权在后

对种业而言，顺序比结构更重要。《种子法》自 2022 年 3 月 1 日起施行的修订，沿用”两证合一”的种子生产经营许可证（原生产许可证与经营许可证已于数年前合并）。申请人须证明具备与所申请类别相适应的设施、设备与技术人员，并证明品种来源合法：自有品种权、品种权人的授权，或有据可查的育种来源。

许可证之上还有三道关口，项目在关口上失败的概率高于在股权问题上失败。主要农作物品种须经国家级或省级审定后方可推广，列入登记目录的非主要农作物品种须办理登记；从境外引进种子与繁殖材料须办理植物检疫审批，进境时查验植物检疫状况；转基因材料另走一条轨道，须先取得安全证书才能审定或登记，安全证书同时是取得种子许可证的前提。

许可证因此发给的是一个所有权能被审查机关看清的申请人。

协议控制为何解决不了准入

协议控制架构本来是为另一个问题设计的：境内经营公司持有一张外资公司无法持有的许可证，境外投资人通过一组合同——独家服务费、股权质押、表决权委托、买入选择权——取得持证主体的经济利益，而不是通过登记股权。

在限制落在”企业形式”上的行业，这种安排有时被容忍。在种业，它不成立，原因有二，且相互叠加。

审查机关审的是申请人，不是架构图。 许可证在审查申请人的设施、人员与品种来源之后核发，申请人的实际控制人属于审查内容。一家登记股东为中国籍自然人、但决策、现金流与技术全部指向境外母公司的公司，呈现的是一个审查机关有权核查的事实问题。若该安排被认定为规避准入的工具，许可证面临被撤销的风险，相关方亦面临行政处罚。

合同层不产生合法的资本项目通道。 分红需要股权。没有股权，价值只能以服务费、特许权使用费或采购款的形式流出——每一项都需要真实交易、公允价格与发票；向境外支付的，还需要预提所得税处理，收款方为关联方的另需转让定价文档。结构的成本还会传导到下游：以种业资产举债、并入集团资金池、转让品种组合，都要求股权链条干净。

协议控制是一种适用于轻资产、无需持证的服务类业务的融资技术。当许可证本身就是受监管的资产时——种子、繁殖材料、转基因事件——这个结构根本触不到许可证。

实操步骤

按下面的顺序推进，每一步都以前一步已完成为前提。

  1. 把品种定性写下来。 用法律意见或内部备忘写明品种、繁殖材料与拟从事的活动，并逐项说明是否落入条目——在条款清单之前完成，而不是之后。
  2. 落实品种权来源。 植物新品种权证书、在主管机关备案的独占许可，或有据可查的育种记录。来自科研院所但未办理备案的转让，是常见瑕疵。
  3. 备齐检疫与生物安全文件。 引进审批、植物检疫证书，转基因材料还需相应阶段的安全证书。
  4. 与省级农业农村部门前置沟通。 各省在人员门槛与现场核查上做法不同；一次预沟通可以避免一轮退回。
  5. 再设计股权链条——确认是否要求合资或合作形式，中方合作方是否须持有品种权或生产基地。
  6. 办理外商投资信息报告。 通过商务系统报送，与许可证和市场主体登记分开。
  7. 梳理税务与外汇后果——特许权使用费预提税、服务费定价，以及未来分红所需的资本项目路径。

展望

十年来负面清单的方向是单向的：条目被删除，极少被新增。农业移动最慢，原因不在商业层面。保留的条目保护的是遗传材料，而遗传材料被视为国家主张主权的资源；向境外提供种质资源的规则正建立在这一前提之上。把品种与育种活动分开处理的放开思路在技术上可行，但目前没有被提出。

近期更可能出现的是园区层面的试验——围绕种质资源引进与中转的试点安排，类似海南的种质资源中转设施。拥有育种管线的集团，现实规划假设应是：全国条目维持不变，准入通过持有许可证的中方合作方、许可引进安排，或园区试点取得。

延伸阅读

  • 《中国服务业开放的三张负面清单：2026 年 10 月 22 日发布会确认了什么》（第 479 篇）——全国、自贸试验区与海南三张清单的区别。

来源

  • 国家发展和改革委员会·外商投资准入特别管理措施（负面清单）发布与解读：https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/
  • 商务部·外商投资信息报告与外资准入管理：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
  • 农业农村部·种子生产经营许可、品种审定与登记：https://www.moa.gov.cn/
  • 中国政府网·政策文件库：https://www.gov.cn/
  • 国家市场监督管理总局·外商投资企业登记注册：https://www.samr.gov.cn/
Deregistration / 注销清算, Registered Capital / 注册资本

Leaving China Cleanly: Simplified Deregistration, Annual Reporting and the Liability That Outlives the Licence

  • A foreign-invested company leaves China through one of three doors — ordinary liquidation, simplified deregistration, or compulsory deregistration by the registry — and each leaves a different residue of liability.
    外资企业退出中国只有三道门——普通清算注销、简易注销、登记机关强制注销；三道门留下的责任尾巴各不相同。
  • Under the Company Law revised in 2023 and effective 1 July 2024, directors are the liquidation obligors and must form a liquidation committee within 15 days of the dissolution event, bearing personal liability for loss caused by delay.
    2023 年修订、2024 年 7 月 1 日施行的《公司法》规定，董事为清算义务人，应在解散事由出现之日起 15 日内组成清算组，怠于履行义务造成损失的承担赔偿责任。
  • The liquidation committee must notify known creditors within 10 days and publish in a newspaper or on the national publicity system within 60 days, leaving unnotified creditors 45 days to declare claims.
    清算组应自成立之日起 10 日内通知已知债权人，并在 60 日内在报纸或国家企业信用信息公示系统公告，未获通知的债权人自公告之日起 45 日内申报债权。
  • Simplified deregistration rests on an undertaking by all investors, a 20-day publication and a 20-day filing window, and is closed to a company on the abnormal operations list.
    简易注销以全体投资人承诺、20 日公示与 20 日申请窗口为核心，被列入经营异常名录的企业不得适用。
  • Where a shareholder has an outstanding capital contribution at deregistration, the debts do not vanish with the certificate, and a false undertaking makes shareholders jointly liable.
    注销时股东出资仍未缴足的，债务并不随营业执照注销而消灭；承诺不实的，股东对注销登记前的债务承担连带责任。
  • Annual report publicity from 1 January to 30 June is a precondition to exit rather than an alternative to it: a missed report shuts the simplified route.
    每年 1 月 1 日至 6 月 30 日的年报公示是退出的前置条件而非替代方案：漏报即关闭简易注销通道。

Leaving China Cleanly: Simplified Deregistration, Annual Reporting and the Liability That Outlives the Licence | 干净退出：简易注销、年报公示与营业执照注销后仍然存续的责任

Overview

A foreign-invested company exits through one of three doors, and the choice is made when the shareholder decides to stop. Ordinary liquidation is the default; simplified deregistration is a fast track for companies with no debts; compulsory deregistration is what the registry does to a company revoked, ordered closed or struck off and left underegistered for three years.

The frame is settled rather than new. The Company Law revised on 29 December 2023 and effective 1 July 2024 governs dissolution and liquidation; the Regulation on the Administration of Market Entity Registration (State Council Order No. 746, effective 1 March 2022) and its implementing rules govern registration; the Interim Regulation on the Publicity of Enterprise Information governs the annual report. What varies is the intensity with which two bottlenecks are policed — tax clearance and the annual report.

Three doors and what each leaves behind

Ordinary liquidation forms a committee, notifies creditors, realises assets, clears tax, distributes the residue and files a report. It is slower, costlier and the only route for a company with unresolved debts, and it produces the documented break a parent will want if a creditor later argues that the exit was designed to escape a claim.

Simplified deregistration requires no debts or all discharged — taxes, late fees, fines, wages, social insurance, statutory compensation, liquidation expenses — plus an undertaking from all investors, 20 days of publication and a filing within 20. It is closed to a company on the abnormal operations or seriously dishonest lists, with frozen or pledged equity, under investigation, in litigation, subject to an unperformed penalty, or revoked, closed or struck off.

Compulsory deregistration under Article 241 lets the registry publish for at least 60 days and then deregister a company whose licence was revoked, ordered closed or struck off and which has not applied for three years. It ends the entity and leaves the debts in place.

The distinction that matters is not speed but survival: simplified deregistration is fast because the shareholders have represented that there are no debts, and if that is untrue Article 240 makes them jointly liable for pre-deregistration debts.

The liquidation track: an order that cannot be reshuffled

The 2023 revision moved the duty onto the directors. Article 232 makes directors the liquidation obligors, requiring a committee within 15 days of the dissolution event, composed of directors unless the articles provide otherwise; an obligor that delays and causes loss compensates. Where the directors are parent-appointed nominees, that is personal exposure resting on people who may never have visited the site.

Article 229 requires the dissolution event to be published within 10 days. Article 235 requires the committee to notify known creditors within 10 days and publish in a newspaper or on the publicity system within 60 days; notified creditors have 30 days to declare, others 45 days from publication, with no distributions in that period. Article 237 requires a bankruptcy application where assets are insufficient, and Article 239 a report confirmed by the shareholders’ meeting and filed with the registry.

Registration adds its own clocks: committee membership published within 10 days; deregistration filed within 30 days of the end of liquidation; branches deregistered first; failure to notify or publish creditors fined RMB 10,000 to 100,000 under Article 255. The sequence cannot be compressed by running steps in parallel, because each produces the document the next authority reads.

Simplified deregistration: the 20-day window and its exclusions

The conditions in Article 33 are cumulative: no debts or all discharged, nothing outstanding for liquidation expenses, wages, social insurance, statutory compensation or taxes including late fees and fines, and an undertaking from all investors accepting legal responsibility for the truth of those statements. Undertaking and application are published for 20 days; absent objection, the filing follows within 20.

The implementing rules bar the fast track where the company is on the abnormal operations or seriously dishonest lists; its equity is frozen, pledged or mortgaged, or it holds an investment in another market entity; it is under investigation or in litigation; it was revoked, closed or struck off; or a fine remains unperformed. A group holding a subsidiary through the entity being closed therefore cannot use it until the subsidiary is dealt with.

Being on the abnormal operations list is an absolute bar to this route, and an objection during the 20 days spends the publication, leaving the company to clear it or convert to liquidation.

Annual reporting: the sequence trap

Every enterprise reports the previous year between 1 January and 30 June through the national publicity system. A foreign-invested enterprise uses the same channel, and the market regulator pushes the data to the commerce authority, so the foreign investment annual report is not a second filing: Article 14 of the Measures for Reporting Foreign Investment Information sets the same window, and a company established in a given year starts the following year.

A missed window means the abnormal operations list; three years there means the seriously dishonest list, with the legal representative barred from those posts elsewhere for three years and removal following five years without recurrence. Article 18 of the Interim Regulation requires authorities to treat listing as a factor, and to restrict or bar the entity, in procurement, tendering, land grants and honours. A company intending to deregister must therefore clear any outstanding report first — and one that deregisters without the final period’s report leaves a record the parent meets again when it applies for a new entity, a branch or a facility in the same jurisdiction.

Capital still unpaid at the moment of exit

Deregistration ends the company, not the obligation to contribute. A liquidator must pursue an outstanding capital contribution as an asset, and an unpaid creditor may pursue the shareholder to that extent. Article 54 adds timing: where the company cannot pay due debts, it or a creditor may require a subscriber whose payment period has not arrived to pay early.

A simplified exit on an undertaking that all debts are settled, where capital was never paid, is a statement the parent may have to defend years later. Leaving with reduced capital is a separate procedure with its own clock — resolution, notice within 10 days, publication within 30, and 45 days for creditors to demand payment or security under Article 224.

The practical sequence

Work backwards from the last item.

  1. Confirm the route: any debt, dispute, frozen equity, live branch or intercompany investment rules out the simplified route.
  2. Clear the annual report and the abnormal operations list; removal takes time.
  3. Obtain tax clearance. Under the 2024 joint opinion of eight departments, the tax authority pushes clearance data to the registry, which verifies the electronic record, so no paper certificate is needed.
  4. Close the customs declaration entity registration and any bonded or processing trade account before applying.
  5. Terminate employment, settle wages and severance, complete social insurance reductions, so the undertaking is true when signed.
  6. Deregister the branches, then the company.
  7. Afterwards, cancel the foreign exchange registration, close bank accounts and remit distributable property on the strength of the liquidation report.
  8. Surrender the seals and keep the file: report, notices, clearance record, publication screenshots, deregistration notice.

One step is automatic: deregistration, or conversion to a domestic enterprise, is deemed to be the cancellation report under Article 13 of the Measures.

Sources

  • State Council, Regulation on the Administration of Market Entity Registration (Order No. 746), Articles 32–33: https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-08/24/content_5632964.htm
  • State Administration for Market Regulation, Implementing Rules of the Regulation, Articles 44–49: https://www.samr.gov.cn/zw/zfxxgk/fdzdgknr/fgs/art/2023/art_37bd9ff741584f9289394193fe2c3c3a.html
  • National Government Service Platform, company deregistration guide, quoting Articles 229–241 and 255 of the Company Law (2023 revision): https://gjzwfw.www.gov.cn/fwmh/item/v3/item_113307810931049759400013100300019.do
  • State Council, Interim Regulation on the Publicity of Enterprise Information (Order No. 654), Articles 17–18: https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2014-08/23/content_9038.htm
  • Ministry of Commerce and SAMR, Measures for Reporting Foreign Investment Information (Order No. 2 of 2019), Articles 13–14: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zcfb/wgtzgl/art/2019/art_3d80efe1fd8242809c8d59687606875f.html
  • Eight departments including SAMR, Implementation Opinion on Enterprise Deregistration (Guo Shi Jian Zhu Fa No. 57 of 2024): https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202406/content_6956126.htm

干净退出：简易注销、年报公示与营业执照注销后仍然存续的责任

概述

外资企业退出要走三道门中的一道，而这道门在股东决定停止经营时就已选定。普通清算是默认路径；简易注销是留给无债务企业的快车道；强制注销是登记机关对已被吊销营业执照、责令关闭或撤销、满三年仍未申请注销的企业所作的处理。

框架是既定的，不是新近变动的。《公司法》2023 年 12 月 29 日修订、2024 年 7 月 1 日施行，规范解散与清算；《市场主体登记管理条例》（国务院令第 746 号，2022 年 3 月 1 日施行）及其实施细则规范登记环节；《企业信息公示暂行条例》规范年报。逐年变化的是两个堵点被查处的力度：清税与年报。

三道门，各自留下什么

普通清算注销成立清算组、通知债权人、变价财产、清缴税款、分配剩余财产并报送清算报告。它更慢更贵，也是存在未了结债务的企业唯一可走的路径；同时它留下完整的书面断点，日后债权人主张”这次退出是为逃避债务而设计的”时，母公司需要的就是这份断点。

简易注销要求未发生债权债务或已全部清偿——含税款、滞纳金、罚款、职工工资、社会保险费用、法定补偿金、清算费用——并由全体投资人书面承诺。公示 20 日，申请在期满后 20 日内提出。对在经营异常名录或严重违法失信名单中、股权被冻结或出质、正被立案调查、处于诉讼中、有未执行完毕的罚款、被吊销营业执照或责令关闭或撤销的企业，一律关闭。

强制注销依《公司法》第二百四十一条，登记机关可对执照被吊销、被责令关闭或撤销、满三年未申请注销的企业公告不少于 60 日，期满无异议即注销。它终止主体，却把债务留在原地。

真正的区别不是快慢，而是什么会留下来。简易注销之所以快，正因为股东承诺了没有债务；承诺不实的，第二百四十条让股东对注销登记前的债务承担连带责任。

清算路径：顺序不能重排

2023 年修订把义务交给了董事。第二百三十二条规定董事为清算义务人，应在解散事由出现之日起 15 日内组成清算组，除章程另有规定外由董事组成；怠于履行并造成损失的应予赔偿。若董事是母公司指派的挂名董事，这份责任就落在可能从未到过现场的个人身上。

第二百二十九条要求解散事由在 10 日内公示。第二百三十五条要求清算组自成立之日起 10 日内通知债权人，并在 60 日内在报纸或公示系统公告；获通知的债权人 30 日内申报，未获通知的自公告之日起 45 日内申报，该期间不得清偿。第二百三十七条要求财产不足时申请破产清算，第二百三十九条要求清算报告经股东会确认后报送登记机关。

登记环节另有时限：清算组成员名单 10 日内公告；注销申请在清算结束后 30 日内提出；分支机构先注销；未依法通知或公告债权人的，依第二百五十五条处一万元以上十万元以下罚款。这条链条无法靠并行推进压缩，因为每一步产出的文件正是下一个机关要读的文件。

简易注销：20 日窗口与排除情形

第三十三条的条件是叠加的：未发生债权债务或已清偿完结，清偿费用、职工工资、社会保险费用、法定补偿金、应缴税款（含滞纳金、罚款）未发生或已结清，并由全体投资人书面承诺对真实性承担法律责任。承诺书与申请公示 20 日；无异议的，期满后 20 日内申请。

实施细则列明不得适用的情形：在经营异常名录或严重违法失信名单中；股权被冻结、出质或动产抵押，或对其他市场主体存在投资；正被立案调查或处于诉讼中；被吊销营业执照、责令关闭或撤销；罚款等处罚尚未执行完毕。因此通过待注销主体持有子公司的集团，在子公司处理完毕前用不了简易注销。

在经营异常名录中是这条路径的绝对障碍；公示期内一旦有人提异议，这次公示即作废，企业要么解决异议，要么转普通清算。

年报：顺序上的陷阱

所有企业应在每年 1 月 1 日至 6 月 30 日通过国家企业信用信息公示系统报送上一年度年报。外商投资企业走同一渠道，市场监管部门将信息推送至商务主管部门，因此外商投资年度报告不是第二次报送：《外商投资信息报告办法》第十四条规定同一窗口，当年设立的企业自下一年起报送。

错过窗口即入经营异常名录；满三年入严重违法失信名单，其法定代表人三年内不得在其他企业担任同类职务，满五年未再发生方可移出。《企业信息公示暂行条例》第十八条要求有关部门在政府采购、工程招投标、国有土地出让、授予荣誉称号中将之作为重要考量，依法限制或禁入。因此打算注销的企业仍须先清掉未报年报；而注销时未报最后一期年报，会留下记录，母公司日后在同一辖区申请新设主体、分支机构或银行授信时还会再遇上。

退出时出资仍未缴足

注销终止的是公司，不是出资义务。清算组应将未缴出资作为公司财产追收，债权未获清偿的债权人可在未缴范围内向股东追索。第五十四条另加时点规则：公司不能清偿到期债务的，公司或已到期债权的债权人可要求已认缴但未届期股东提前缴纳。

出资从未到位却以”债务已了结”承诺办简易注销，是一份多年后仍可能要出面抗辩的陈述。以减少注册资本退出则是独立程序，有自己的时钟：作出决议、10 日内通知债权人、30 日内公告、债权人自公告后 45 日内可要求清偿或担保。

实务顺序

从最后一项往前倒推。

  1. 定路径。存在债务、争议、被冻结股权、未注销分支机构或对外投资，简易路径即不可用。
  2. 清掉年报与经营异常名录，移出需要时间。
  3. 取得清税结果。按八部门 2024 年实施意见，税务部门向市场监管部门推送清税信息，登记机关查验电子清税信息，不再要求纸质清税证明。
  4. 申请前注销报关单位备案，以及保税、加工贸易账册。
  5. 解除劳动合同、结清工资与经济补偿、完成社保减员，让承诺在签字时是真实的。
  6. 先注销分支机构，再注销公司。
  7. 之后办理外汇登记注销、关闭银行账户，并凭清算报告汇出可分配剩余财产。
  8. 缴销印章并留存档案：清算报告、债权人通知、清税记录、公示截图、注销通知书。

有一步是自动的：注销或转为内资企业视同已提交注销报告，《外商投资信息报告办法》第十三条规定信息由市场监管部门推送。

来源

  • 国务院《中华人民共和国市场主体登记管理条例》（国务院令第 746 号）第三十二条、第三十三条：https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-08/24/content_5632964.htm
  • 国家市场监督管理总局《市场主体登记管理条例实施细则》第四十四条至第四十九条：https://www.samr.gov.cn/zw/zfxxgk/fdzdgknr/fgs/art/2023/art_37bd9ff741584f9289394193fe2c3c3a.html
  • 国家政务服务平台·公司注销登记办事指南（引《公司法》2023 年修订第二百二十九条至第二百四十一条、第二百五十五条）：https://gjzwfw.www.gov.cn/fwmh/item/v3/item_113307810931049759400013100300019.do
  • 国务院《企业信息公示暂行条例》（国务院令第 654 号）第十七条、第十八条：https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2014-08/23/content_9038.htm
  • 商务部、市场监管总局《外商投资信息报告办法》（2019 年第 2 号令）第十三条、第十四条：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zcfb/wgtzgl/art/2019/art_3d80efe1fd8242809c8d59687606875f.html
  • 市场监管总局等八部门《关于进一步优化政务服务提升行政效能推进”高效办成一件事”的实施意见》（国市监注发〔2024〕57 号）：https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202406/content_6956126.htm
Hainan FTP Closure / 海南自贸港封关, Structure Choice / 架构选择

Bonded Facilities Without a Domestic Entity: The Hainan LNG Receiving Terminal Clause and Light-Asset Entry

  • A notice issued by four ministries on 29 October 2026 allows an overseas enterprise to use the bonded facilities of a Hainan LNG receiving terminal, and the ministry spokesman described the beneficiary as a qualified offshore entity that need not register anywhere in China.
    2026 年 10 月 29 日四部门印发的通知允许境外企业使用海南液化天然气接收站的保税设施；商务部新闻发言人把受益主体表述为「符合条件的境外企业」，无需在中国境内注册。
  • This reverses the usual sequence: instead of establishing a vehicle first and looking for business afterwards, a group can prove the cargo flow and only then decide whether a domestic entity is worth creating.
    这把通常的顺序倒了过来：不必先设主体再找业务，可以先跑通货物流，再判断是否值得设立境内实体。
  • The clause sits inside a package of sixteen measures whose neighbours point the same way — bonded remanufactured goods may leave a special customs supervision area for a domestic pilot free trade zone, and aviation kerosene for re-export may be inspected to international standards.
    这一条处在一组十六项措施之中，相邻条款指向同一方向——保税再制造产品可以出区进入国内自贸试验区，用于复出口的航空煤油可按国际标准检验。
  • Bonded status is not a licence: customs declaration entity filing, foreign exchange collection and payment, general VAT taxpayer status and employment all still require a domestic establishment.
    保税状态不等于经营资格：海关报关单位备案、外汇收付、增值税一般纳税人资格、用工，仍然需要境内设立的主体。
  • Entering a domestic pilot free trade zone is not the same as entering the domestic market; the notice itself requires import duty, import VAT and consumption tax to be levied on those remanufactured goods as provided.
    进入国内自贸试验区不等于进入国内市场；通知本身即要求对这些再制造产品照章征收进口关税、进口环节增值税和消费税。
  • The conditions attached to “qualified” are not set out in the notice, and the operational rules from customs and the Hainan authorities are still to come, so no filing channel exists yet.
    「符合条件」的具体条件通知未列明，海关与海南方面的配套操作细则尚未出台，目前还没有可申报的通道。

Bonded Facilities Without a Domestic Entity: The Hainan LNG Receiving Terminal Clause and Light-Asset Entry | 无需境内注册使用保税设施：海南液化天然气接收站条款与「轻资产入华」结构

Overview

On 29 October 2026 the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the General Administration of Customs published a notice on further raising the level of trade liberalisation and facilitation in the Hainan Free Trade Port — Shang Zi Mao Fa [2026] No. 187, dated 9 October 2026. It sets out sixteen measures in three blocks: upgrading goods trade, facilitating services trade, and creating new trade formats.

One of the sixteen reads in full: “Overseas enterprises are permitted to use the bonded facilities of LNG receiving terminals in the Hainan Free Trade Port.” At the regular press conference that day, spokesman Huang Ling put it more concretely: a qualified overseas enterprise, without registering anywhere in China, may use the bonded facilities of a Hainan liquefied natural gas receiving terminal.

That is why the notice travels beyond Hainan. The rest of the package adjusts how a good or a service is handled once inside the island. This clause adjusts something prior: whether a corporate body has to exist in China before the commercial activity begins.

What the clause says, and what it leaves open

The text names three elements and stops — an overseas enterprise, a bonded facility of an LNG receiving terminal, the Hainan Free Trade Port. It does not define “qualified”, does not describe the contract by which a foreign company books capacity in a bonded tank, and does not say what happens to the gas afterwards.

The spokesman’s gloss adds the element that carries the structural weight, no registration in China, but attaches it to a qualifier rather than removing conditions. Read together, the two statements set a direction and leave the gatekeeping to the implementing rules. Customs and the province are to publish the operational detail; until they do there is no application window, no form and no list of qualifying entities. A plan built on this clause in late 2026 is built on a text, not on a channel.

Two paths, two cost curves

The conventional route is entity first. A wholly foreign-owned enterprise, branch or representative office is registered, licensed, banked and staffed, and only then does business begin. The fixed cost is front-loaded and largely irreversible: capital or operating funds, a registered address, a legal representative or chief representative, statutory books, annual reporting, audit and tax filings. For a trading or logistics operation with thin margins, that fixed cost is often the reason a project never starts.

The new route reverses the order. A foreign company contracts for bonded storage or throughput, moves cargo, and watches whether the flow works — volume, counterparties, spread, sailing schedule — before incorporating anything. If the business does not justify an entity, none is created. The saving is not only money but optionality: an entity created before the business is proven tends to outlive it, because closing it costs more attention than leaving it dormant.

Where the clause fits

Four uses are visible from the text and its neighbours.

Terminal capacity in a window. Receiving capacity is sold in windows. A group that must first register a company, open an account and complete filings will miss windows while doing so. Direct use of bonded facilities lets the cargo decision and the corporate decision run on separate clocks.

Bonded storage and transit. Goods in a bonded facility are not yet imported. A foreign trader using a Hainan bonded warehouse for cargo moving between third countries keeps the goods outside the domestic duty perimeter while gaining a physical presence in the region. The measures on renminbi-priced barter trade and on offshore trade data sharing point at the same counterparty.

Bonded delivery. Measure four provides that once LNG futures are listed, Hainan may host delivery warehouses and may use energy metering for bonded delivery. Delivery is mechanical and deadline-driven; the party standing in the delivery chain is not always the party that wants a permanent Chinese presence.

Samples. Measure three opens a pilot for importing faulty key components for automotive research and testing. A component brought in to be examined, measured and returned is a poor reason to incorporate.

What still requires a domestic entity

A customs declaration entity must be filed with customs before it can declare; a foreign company with no Chinese establishment is not that entity. Foreign exchange collection and payment for goods trade runs through a domestic account held by an entity on the trader list. General VAT taxpayer status, with input credit and the invoicing domestic customers expect, belongs to a domestic taxpayer. Employing staff in China requires a domestic employer, and licensed activities are licensed to a domestic licensee.

The clause therefore buys time and reduces sunk cost; it does not buy market access.

Three misreadings

That it permits operating without an entity. It permits using a bonded facility. Using a facility is not trading in the domestic market and is not a licence for a regulated activity. A group reading it as general permission will find the gap at the first customs declaration.

That it displaces foreign investment reporting. A foreign company that never establishes a domestic entity has nothing to report, because the obligation attaches to the establishment and change of foreign-invested entities. The moment a vehicle is set up — including one set up to consolidate flows that began under this clause — the ordinary obligations resume in full. The clause defers the obligation by deferring the entity; it does not waive it.

That goods in a bonded facility can be sold domestically. Bonded means duty-suspended, not duty-free. Goods leaving for the domestic market are imported and taxed accordingly. The same notice says so explicitly: measure fourteen allows bonded remanufactured goods produced in a Hainan special customs supervision area to leave for a domestic pilot free trade zone, and in the same sentence requires import duty, import VAT and consumption tax to be levied as provided. Entering a domestic pilot free trade zone is not entering the domestic market, and even that step is taxed.

Practical steps

Map the flow before the entity. Write down origin, buyer, seller, vessel, terminal, offtaker and currency for a single cargo. The map usually shows two or three parties already domestic, which changes what the structure must achieve.

Ask the terminal, not the notice. Capacity, berth windows and the contractual form of access are commercial matters settled with the operator; the notice creates the permission, not the product.

Keep a domestic option warm. A small reserve entity, or an existing group company in another province, shortens the interval between a proven flow and a bankable contract.

Watch the implementing rules. The conditions attached to “qualified”, the customs procedure code, and the treatment of the gas after it leaves the tank are all still to come. A monthly check of the customs and provincial websites is cheaper than a legal opinion written ahead of them.

Outlook

Read as a signal rather than a permission, the clause says something about how the island is being used: a place where a foreign company can hold physical inventory and move cargo before it decides to become a Chinese company. That is a different proposition from a tax incentive.

The caveat belongs in the same paragraph. Sixteen measures with implementation left to customs and the province will land at different speeds, and the ones that need only a change of inspection standard will land first. Groups that draw the flow map now can move when the procedure appears.

Related reading

  • Hainan’s sixteen trade measures: goods, services and new business models (Article 492) — the package this clause belongs to.
  • Entity selection for foreign investors: company, partnership, branch and representative office compared on fixed cost and reversibility.

Sources

  • MOFCOM, NDRC, MEE and GACC, *Notice on Further Raising the Level of Trade Liberalisation and Facilitation in the Hainan Free Trade Port* (Shang Zi Mao Fa [2026] No. 187, 9 October 2026): https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zwgk/zcfb/art/2026/art_1396cc6581da478ebc9f3ee08b72a96b.html
  • The State Council of China (gov.cn), Xinhua report on the four-ministry notice, 29 October 2026: https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/202610/content_7084472.htm
  • Ministry of Commerce, regular press conference of 29 October 2026, remarks by spokesman Huang Ling: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfbzt/2026/swbzklxxwfbh2026n10y29r/index.html
  • Ministry of Commerce press office, announcement on the issuance of the notice, 29 October 2026: https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfb/rcxwfb/art/2026/art_3474b02cab214c10b4a4fe49892b89da.html
  • General Administration of Customs, portal for customs declaration entity filing and bonded supervision: https://www.customs.gov.cn/

无需境内注册使用保税设施：海南液化天然气接收站条款与「轻资产入华」结构

概述

2026 年 10 月 29 日，商务部、国家发展改革委、生态环境部、海关总署对外公布《关于进一步提高海南自由贸易港贸易自由化便利化水平的通知》，文号为商自贸发〔2026〕187 号，落款日期为 2026 年 10 月 9 日。通知从推动货物贸易优化升级、促进服务贸易自由便利、创新贸易新业态新模式三个方面提出十六项措施。

其中第五条全文只有一句：「允许境外企业使用海南自由贸易港 LNG 接收站保税设施。」同日商务部例行新闻发布会上，新闻发言人黄玲把这句话说得更具体：符合条件的境外企业，无需在中国境内注册，就可以使用海南液化天然气接收站的保税设施。

这句话是这份通知超出海南本地的原因。包里其余条款调整的都是「货或服务进入岛内之后怎么管」；这一条调整的是更前面的一件事——商业活动开始之前，中国境内到底要不要先有一个法人。

这一条说了什么，留了什么没说

条文点了三个要素就停住：主体是境外企业，对象是液化天然气接收站的保税设施，地点是海南自由贸易港。它没有定义「符合条件」，没有描述一家外国公司通过什么合同订到保税储罐里的容量，也没有交代气体出罐之后怎么处理。

发言人的解释补上了真正有结构分量的那一点——无需在境内注册——但给它挂了一个限定词，而不是把条件全部拿掉。两句话合起来读，确立的是方向，把守门交给实施细则。海关与海南省方面要公布操作细节；在公布之前，没有申请窗口，没有表单，也没有合格主体名单。2026 年第四季度据此做的方案，是建立在文本上的方案，不是建立在通道上的方案。

两条路径，两条成本曲线

进入中国的常规路径是主体先行。设立外商独资企业、分公司或代表处，然后办许可、开账户、招人，一切就绪之后商业活动才开始。固定成本前置且大体不可逆：注册资本或营运资金、注册地址、法定代表人或者首席代表、法定账簿、年度报告，以及随之而来的审计与纳税申报。对一个毛利很薄的贸易或物流项目来说，这笔固定成本往往就是项目做不起来的理由。

新路径把顺序倒过来。外国公司先订保税仓储或周转能力，先走货，观察这条流跑不跑得通——量、交易对手、价差、船期——再决定要不要设立主体。业务撑不起一个实体，就不设。省下的不只是钱，是选择权：在业务被验证之前设下的实体，往往在业务失败之后还留着，因为关掉它比让它休眠更费神。推迟设立，也推迟了载体的选择，直到集团知道这个载体要干什么。

这一条适合什么

从条文本身和它的邻居，可以看到四种用法。

窗口期里的接收站容量。 接收能力按窗口出售。一个必须先注册公司、开立账户、办完备案的集团，在做这些事的时候窗口已经过去了。直接使用保税设施，让订货的决策和设公司的决策跑在两块不同的表上。

保税仓储与转口。 保税设施里的货物在海关意义上尚未进口。一家外国贸易商使用海南保税仓库存放第三国之间流转的货物，货在境内关税边界之外，同时在区域内有了实体存在。关于开展以人民币计价的新型易货贸易、关于加强离岸贸易数据信息共享的两条，处在同一板块，指向同一类交易对手。

保税交割。 第四条明确，液化天然气期货上市后，支持海南开展期货交割库相关业务，允许保税交割采取能量计量。交割是机械的、有截止时点的事件；站在交割链条上的主体，未必是想在中国长期存在的那个主体。这两条应当成对读。

样品。 第三条在海南开展汽车研发测试用故障关键零部件进口试点。一件送进来检测、测量、再送回去的零部件，不构成设立公司的理由。

仍然必须由境内主体承担的事

报关单位必须先向海关备案才能报关，没有境内机构的外国公司不是那个主体。货物贸易的外汇收付通过名录内主体在境内开立的账户办理。增值税一般纳税人资格、随之而来的进项抵扣和境内客户期待的发票，属于境内纳税人。在中国雇人，需要一个境内雇主。任何按行业发放许可的活动，许可发给的是境内持证主体。

所以这一条买的是时间和更低的沉没成本，不是市场准入。

三条常见误区

以为等于可以免设主体在境内经营。 它允许的是使用保税设施。使用设施不是境内市场交易，也不是任何受监管活动的许可。把它读成一般性许可的集团，会在第一次报关时发现缺口。

以为可以绕开外商投资信息报告。 从不设立境内主体的外国公司没有可报告的对象，因为义务附着于外商投资企业的设立与变更。一旦设了载体——包括为归集按这一条起步的货流而设的载体——常规义务全部恢复。这一条通过推迟主体来推迟义务，并没有免除义务。

以为保税设施里的货可以在境内销售。 保税是暂缓征税，不是免税。离开保税设施进入境内市场即属进口，须照章申报纳税。同一份通知在别处讲得很明确：第十四条允许在海南海关特殊监管区域内以保税再制造方式生产的产品出区进入国内自贸试验区，并在同一句话里要求照章征收进口关税、进口环节增值税和消费税。进入国内自贸试验区不等于进入国内市场，而且连这一步都要征税。

实操动作

先画货流，再谈实体。 把一船货的起运地、买方、卖方、船舶、接收站、提货方、结算币种写下来。这张图通常显示其中两三个当事方已经在境内，而这会改变结构需要达成的目标。

问接收站，不要只问通知。 容量、泊位窗口、使用权的合同形式，都是与运营方谈的商业事项。通知创设的是许可，不是产品。

留一个境内备选。 一个备用的小实体，或者集团在其他省份已有的公司，可以缩短「货流被验证」到「合同可融资」之间的间隔。

盯实施细则。 「符合条件」的具体条件、货物按哪个海关监管方式走、气体出罐之后如何处置，都还没有公布。每月查一次海关与海南省政府网站，比在细则出台前先写一份法律意见更省成本。

展望

当作信号而不是当作许可来读，这一条透露的是这座岛被怎样使用：一个外国公司可以在决定成为中国公司之前，先在这里持有实物库存、先走货。这与税收优惠是两种不同的东西。

提醒要写在同一段里。十六项措施落实交给海关与省里，落地速度不会一致，只需要改变检验标准的会先落地。现在把货流图画出来的集团，程序出现时就能动。

延伸阅读

  • 《海南自贸港贸易自由化便利化 16 项措施：货物、服务、新业态三条主线》（第 492 篇）——本条所处的整份文件。
  • 外资主体架构选择：公司、合伙企业、分公司与代表处在固定成本与可逆性上的比较。

来源

  • 商务部、国家发展改革委、生态环境部、海关总署《关于进一步提高海南自由贸易港贸易自由化便利化水平的通知》（商自贸发〔2026〕187 号，2026 年 10 月 9 日）：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zwgk/zcfb/art/2026/art_1396cc6581da478ebc9f3ee08b72a96b.html
  • 中国政府网，新华社关于四部门印发通知的报道（2026 年 10 月 29 日）：https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/202610/content_7084472.htm
  • 商务部，2026 年 10 月 29 日例行新闻发布会，新闻发言人黄玲答问：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfbzt/2026/swbzklxxwfbh2026n10y29r/index.html
  • 商务部新闻办公室，关于通知印发的消息（2026 年 10 月 29 日）：https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfb/rcxwfb/art/2026/art_3474b02cab214c10b4a4fe49892b89da.html
  • 海关总署，报关单位备案与保税监管相关政务入口：https://www.customs.gov.cn/
Employment Management / 雇佣管理, Labour Dispatch / 劳务派遣

Labour Dispatch in China: Social Insurance, Payroll and the Ten Percent Cap

  • Labour dispatch is lawful only for temporary, auxiliary or substitute positions, with temporary meaning a post lasting no more than six months and an auxiliary post requiring consultation with employee representatives and internal publicity.
    劳务派遣只能在临时性、辅助性或替代性岗位上使用；临时性指存续不超过 6 个月，辅助性岗位须经职工代表大会或全体职工讨论并与工会协商后在企业内公示。
  • The ten percent cap is measured against the host company’s total workforce — staff on employment contracts plus dispatched workers — and a group with several employing entities is assessed entity by entity.
    10% 的上限以用工单位的用工总量为基数——订立劳动合同人数加上使用的被派遣劳动者人数；集团内多个用人主体须各自单独计算。
  • Social insurance registration for cross-region dispatch must be at the host company’s location on local standards, and where the agency has no local branch the host company registers and pays on its behalf.
    跨地区派遣应在用工单位所在地办理参保、按当地标准缴费；派遣单位在当地未设分支机构的，由用工单位代为办理参保并缴费。
  • Contributing in a cheaper jurisdiction produces a record that does not match the workplace, which is the fact pattern enforcement treats as an untrue social insurance relationship.
    为省成本在缴费成本较低的地区参保，会产生与实际工作地不符的记录，而这正是执法中认定为社保关系不实的事实形态。
  • Under current VAT policy labour dispatch may use differential taxation at a 5% levy rate, deducting wages, benefits, social insurance and housing fund paid on the host’s behalf, but the deducted portion cannot be covered by a special VAT invoice.
    按现行增值税政策口径，劳务派遣可选择差额征税，依 5% 征收率就扣除代用工单位支付的工资、福利、社保及住房公积金后的余额计税，被扣除部分不得开具增值税专用发票。
  • Host company joint liability is statutory: where the arrangement causes loss to the dispatched worker, agency and host compensate jointly, and an outsourcing label does not change that if the substance is dispatch.
    用工单位连带责任是法定责任：给被派遣劳动者造成损害的，派遣单位与用工单位承担连带赔偿责任；若实质是派遣，外包的名义不改变这一结果。

Labour Dispatch in China: Social Insurance, Payroll and the Ten Percent Cap | 中国劳务派遣：社保参保地、工资支付与 10% 用工比例

Overview

A foreign-invested company in China may use dispatched workers only inside a narrow exception to direct employment. The Labour Contract Law, Articles 57 to 67, sets the licensing, contract, equal-pay and joint-liability rules; the Interim Provisions on Labour Dispatch, issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security as Order No. 22 and effective 1 March 2014, supplies the operational detail — the three permitted position types, the ten percent cap, the workforce base, the cross-region social insurance rule and the treatment of arrangements dressed up as outsourcing.

None of this is new law, and treating it as new is the first mistake a compliance team can make. The rules have been stable for more than a decade; what changes is enforcement attention, which concentrates on the three points where paperwork and reality diverge: the position test, the ratio, and where social insurance is paid.

The position test and the ratio

Article 3 of the Interim Provisions permits dispatch only in temporary, auxiliary or substitute positions. Temporary means a post existing for no more than six months; auxiliary means a non-core post serving the main business; substitute means a post filled while the host’s own employee is on study leave, holiday or otherwise absent. For auxiliary posts a procedural condition is routinely skipped: the host must put the proposal to the employee representative congress or the whole workforce, consult the union or employee representatives on an equal footing, and publicise the outcome inside the company. Without that record the auxiliary post is not established, whatever the contract says.

Article 4 caps dispatched workers at ten percent of the host’s total workforce, defined as people on employment contracts plus dispatched workers. The base is not headcount in the ordinary sense and it moves: hiring permanent staff raises the permitted number of dispatched workers, while converting dispatched workers lowers both numerator and base. The calculation is per employing entity, so a group with a manufacturing, a trading and a service company cannot pool the ratio.

Two drafting rules sit alongside. Article 66 of the Labour Contract Law prohibits an employer from setting up a dispatch agency to supply its own or affiliated entities; Article 67 prohibits splitting a continuous engagement into successive short agreements to keep each within the temporary window.

Where the social insurance is paid

Article 18 of the Interim Provisions is the provision that costs foreign groups the most money. Where an agency dispatches workers across regions, it must register them for social insurance at the host’s location and pay on that location’s rules, with benefits enjoyed accordingly. Article 19 adds the mechanism: if the agency has a branch at the host location, the branch registers and pays; if it has none, the host registers and pays on the agency’s behalf.

The second branch is often overlooked in drafting, because it turns a commercial arrangement into a filing obligation of the user. A host in Shanghai receiving workers from an agency registered in a lower-cost province cannot simply accept the agency’s contribution receipts: either the agency establishes a local branch, or the host registers the workers itself — and that requires contracts, payroll data and the agency’s cooperation, which is what a cheap agency is least able to supply.

Contributing in a cheaper jurisdiction produces a record that does not match the workplace, and that mismatch is the fact pattern enforcement treats as an untrue social insurance relationship. Correction is retrospective: contributions recalculated on the host’s base, with late fees.

Payroll, withholding and VAT

Wages are paid by the agency, which is the employer and in practice the withholding agent for individual income tax; where the host pays workers directly, both the withholding position and the cost-deduction trail become unclear. Article 61 requires remuneration and working conditions for cross-region dispatch to follow the host location’s standards, so the payroll model must be built on the host’s pay structure.

On VAT, current policy lets a provider choose differential taxation: taxable sales are the total price and off-price fees less wages, benefits, social insurance and housing fund paid on the host’s behalf, taxed at a 5% levy rate under the simple method, or the full amount under the general method. Where the differential method is chosen, the amounts collected to fund those items cannot be covered by a special VAT invoice, only a general one. For a host the consequence is practical: input credit on a dispatch invoice is limited to the service fee, so procurement must compare net cost after credit, not the headline rate. Confirm the application against the VAT rules in force and the competent tax authority’s position.

Equal pay is the third cost line. Article 63 gives dispatched workers the right to equal pay with the host’s own employees in comparable posts, and Article 9 of the Interim Provisions requires post-related benefits without discrimination. In a dispute the evidence that matters is the host’s pay structure and comparison group, so the documents to keep in order are the host’s pay tables and job grading, not the agency’s invoices.

Outsourcing or dispatch: the substance test

Article 27 of the Interim Provisions closes the obvious escape: where an employer uses workers under the name of contracting or outsourcing but in the form of dispatch, the dispatch rules apply. The label is irrelevant, and three questions decide the character. Who directs the daily work? Who controls attendance, leave and discipline? Who bears the risk of the output — the contractor, who must deliver a result at an agreed price, or the host, who pays for hours?

Genuine outsourcing differs on all three: the contractor assigns supervisors, sets methods, manages its own attendance system, bears rework and penalty risk, and prices by output or service level. Where the host’s managers assign tasks, approve leave and assess individuals, the arrangement is dispatch whatever the contract is called, and reclassification brings the cap, equal pay and the insurance rule with it.

Representative offices and the service-company model

Article 25 of the Interim Provisions exempts representative offices of foreign enterprises and foreign financial institutions, together with crew employers using seafarers on international voyages, from the position test and the ratio cap — which is why the representative-office-through-service-company model has survived: the office cannot employ staff directly in the ordinary way, the service company is the employer, and the ratio and position limits do not bite.

But it is narrow: the service company still needs a dispatch licence if dispatching, social insurance must still be registered where the work is performed, and the office remains exposed to joint liability where the arrangement causes loss to the worker. That removes two constraints, not the employment relationship.

A compliance checklist

  1. Position file. For each dispatched role, record which category applies, the expected duration, and for auxiliary posts the consultation and publicity record.
  2. Ratio ledger. Count contract staff and dispatched workers per employing entity monthly rather than annually, and keep the calculation with the HR file.
  3. Social insurance mapping. For each agency, record the contributing jurisdiction, branch status at each host location, and who registers and pays; require evidence of local registration or accept host-side registration.
  4. Contract terms. Article 7 lists thirteen items the dispatch agreement must contain, from post and its nature to remuneration fixed on the equal-pay principle, service fee and breach liability.
  5. Equal-pay evidence. Keep the host’s job grading and pay bands, and document how a dispatched worker’s pay was benchmarked.
  6. Tax modelling. Model both VAT methods and compare net cost after input credit; confirm the invoice format before the first payment.
  7. Substance review. For every outsourcing contract, test the three questions above and record the conclusion, so that an inspection reads a documented assessment rather than an assertion.

Sources

  • Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Interim Provisions on Labour Dispatch (Order No. 22), Articles 3–7, 18–20, 25 and 27: https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2014/content_2667613.htm
  • Labour Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China, Articles 57–67 and 92: https://www.gov.cn/flfg/2012-12/28/content_2305571.htm
  • State Taxation Administration, answer on differential taxation for labour dispatch under Cai Shui No. 47 of 2016: https://www.chinatax.gov.cn/chinatax/n810356/n3255681/c5170429/content.html
  • State Taxation Administration 12366 platform, answer distinguishing labour dispatch from human resources outsourcing: https://12366.chinatax.gov.cn/nszx/onlinemessage/detail?id=734224c746fe43b3a963a9ad4177a00b
  • State Taxation Administration 12366 platform, answer on invoicing under the differential taxation function: https://12366.chinatax.gov.cn/nszx/onlinemessage/detail?id=1fb2cb1fb4104f07b5bafe40c6b87247

中国劳务派遣：社保参保地、工资支付与 10% 用工比例

概述

外资企业在中国只能在直接用工之外的一道窄门里使用派遣员工。《劳动合同法》第五十七条至第六十七条规定了许可、合同、同工同酬与连带责任；《劳务派遣暂行规定》（人力资源和社会保障部令第 22 号，2014 年 3 月 1 日施行）提供了操作细节——三类岗位、10% 比例、用工总量口径、跨地区参保规则，以及名为外包实为派遣的处理。

这些都不是新法，把它当成新法来对待，是合规团队最容易犯的第一个错误。规则十余年未变；变化的是执法关注度，而关注点集中在文书与事实分离的三处：岗位性质、比例、参保地。

岗位性质与比例

《劳务派遣暂行规定》第三条只允许在临时性、辅助性或替代性岗位上派遣。临时性指存续时间不超过 6 个月的岗位；辅助性指为主营业务岗位提供服务的非主营业务岗位；替代性指用工单位劳动者脱产学习、休假等期间可由他人替代的岗位。辅助性岗位有一道经常被跳过的程序：用工单位应当将方案提交职工代表大会或全体职工讨论、提出方案和意见，与工会或职工代表平等协商确定，并在单位内公示。没有这份记录，辅助性岗位就没有成立，合同怎么写都不算。

第四条将被派遣劳动者数量限制在用工总量的 10%，用工总量指订立劳动合同人数与使用的被派遣劳动者人数之和。基数因此不是通常意义上的在册人数，而且是变动的：多招正式员工会抬高可用的派遣人数，把派遣员工转为正式员工则同时降低分子与基数。比例按用人主体分别计算，集团下有制造、贸易与服务公司的，不能合并计算。

另有两道起草规则并行。第六十六条禁止用人单位设立劳务派遣单位向本单位或所属单位派遣劳动者；第六十七条禁止将连续用工期限分割订立数个短期协议。

社保在哪里缴

第十八条是让外资集团付出代价最大的条款。劳务派遣单位跨地区派遣的，应当在用工单位所在地为被派遣劳动者参加社会保险，按照用工单位所在地的规定缴纳，被派遣劳动者按国家规定享受待遇。第十九条补上机制：派遣单位在用工单位所在地设有分支机构的，由分支机构办理参保缴费；未设分支机构的，由用工单位代派遣单位办理参保缴费。

后半句在合同起草中常被忽略，因为它把一项商业安排变成了用工方的申报义务。上海的一家用工单位接收来自低缴费成本省份的派遣员工，不能只收下缴费凭证了事：要么派遣单位在当地设立分支机构，要么用工单位自己去参保——而后者需要劳动合同、工资数据与派遣单位的配合，这恰恰是低价派遣公司最不擅长提供的。

为省成本在缴费成本较低的地区参保，会产生与实际工作地不符的记录，而这种不匹配正是执法中认定为社保关系不实的事实形态。纠正具有溯及力：按用工单位所在地基数重新计算，加收滞纳金。

工资支付、扣缴与增值税

工资由派遣单位发放，它是用人单位，实务中也是个人所得税的扣缴义务人；若由用工单位直接发放，扣缴地位与费用列支链条都会变得不清楚。第六十一条要求跨地区派遣的劳动报酬和劳动条件按用工单位所在地标准执行，这意味着薪酬模型要按用工单位的薪酬结构搭建。

增值税方面，现行政策允许派遣服务选择差额征税：以取得的全部价款和价外费用，扣除代用工单位支付给被派遣劳动者的工资、福利和为其办理社会保险及住房公积金后的余额为销售额，按简易计税方法依 5% 征收率计算；也可以选择全额按一般计税方法计算。选择差额征税的，向用工单位收取用于支付工资、福利、社保及住房公积金的费用不得开具增值税专用发票，可以开具普通发票。对用工单位而言，后果是实际的：派遣发票可抵扣的进项仅限于服务费部分，因此采购比价要比扣除进项后的净成本，而不是票面费率。具体适用应以现行增值税规定和主管税务机关口径为准。

同工同酬是第三条成本线。第六十三条赋予被派遣劳动者与用工单位同类岗位劳动者同工同酬的权利，第九条要求用工单位提供与岗位相关的福利待遇、不得歧视。发生争议时，真正起作用的证据是用工单位自己的薪酬结构与可比岗位，因此需要保持整齐的是岗位等级表与薪酬带宽，而不是派遣单位的发票。

外包还是派遣：实质判断

第二十七条堵住了最明显的出口：用人单位以承揽、外包等名义，按劳务派遣用工形式使用劳动者的，按派遣处理。名义因此不重要，三个问题决定性质。谁指挥日常工作？谁掌握考勤、请假与纪律？谁承担成果风险——按约定价格交付成果的承包方，还是按工时付费的用工单位？

真正的外包在这三个维度上都不同：承包方派出管理人员、自行决定作业方法、用自己的系统管理考勤、承担返工风险、按产出计价。反之，若由用工单位的直线经理分派任务、审批请假、考核个人，那么无论合同叫什么，都是派遣，而重新定性会把比例、同工同酬与参保地规则一并带进来。

代表处与服务公司模式

第二十五条把外国企业常驻代表机构、外国金融机构驻华代表机构，以及以劳务派遣形式使用国际远洋海员的船员用人单位，排除在岗位性质与用工比例限制之外。这条豁免正是”代表处通过外服公司配备人员”的模式得以延续的原因：代表处本身不能以通常方式直接用人，服务公司是用人单位，比例与岗位限制不适用。

豁免的范围很窄，并不免除其他义务。服务公司若从事派遣仍须持有劳务派遣经营许可证，社保仍须在工作地参保，造成劳动者损害时代表处仍可能承担连带责任。把这条豁免理解为可以在核心职能上随意使用派遣人员的通行证，是对第二十五条的误读：它去掉的是两项限制，不是劳动关系本身。

合规清单

  1. 岗位档案。为每个派遣岗位记录属于三类中的哪一类、预计存续期间；辅助性岗位另存协商与公示记录。
  2. 比例台账。按用人主体分别统计合同制员工与派遣员工，按月而非按年重算，计算过程与人力资源档案一并留存。
  3. 参保地图。对每家派遣单位记录参保地、在各工作地是否设有分支机构、由谁办理参保缴费；要求派遣单位提供当地参保凭证，或接受用工方参保。
  4. 协议条款。第七条规定派遣协议应载明十三项内容，从岗位名称与性质到同工同酬原则下的报酬、服务费与违约责任。
  5. 同工同酬证据。保存用工单位的岗位等级与薪酬带宽，并记录派遣员工薪酬的比对方法。
  6. 税务测算。两种增值税方法都测算，比较扣除进项后的净成本；首笔付款前确认开票方式。
  7. 实质复核。对每份外包合同跑一遍上述三个问题并写下结论，让日后检查读到有记录的评估，而不是一句主张。

来源

  • 人力资源和社会保障部《劳务派遣暂行规定》（部令第 22 号）第三条至第七条、第十八条至第二十条、第二十五条、第二十七条：https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2014/content_2667613.htm
  • 《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》第五十七条至第六十七条、第九十二条：https://www.gov.cn/flfg/2012-12/28/content_2305571.htm
  • 国家税务总局·劳务派遣服务差额征税（财税〔2016〕47 号）政策答复：https://www.chinatax.gov.cn/chinatax/n810356/n3255681/c5170429/content.html
  • 国家税务总局 12366 纳税服务平台·劳务派遣与人力资源外包增值税计税方式区分答复：https://12366.chinatax.gov.cn/nszx/onlinemessage/detail?id=734224c746fe43b3a963a9ad4177a00b
  • 国家税务总局 12366 纳税服务平台·差额征税开票方式答复：https://12366.chinatax.gov.cn/nszx/onlinemessage/detail?id=1fb2cb1fb4104f07b5bafe40c6b87247