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Sector-by-Sector Opening in 2026: Hospitals, Telecoms and Services Pilots

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  • The State Council’s National Health 15th Five-Year Plan (Guo Fa [2026] No. 23) explicitly calls for expanding the wholly foreign-owned hospital pilot and steadily advancing international medical services pilots.
    国务院《国民健康”十五五”规划》（国发〔2026〕23 号）明确提出”推动医疗领域有序扩大开放，进一步扩大外商独资医院开放试点，稳妥推进国际医疗服务试点”。
  • Wholly foreign-owned hospital pilots now cover nine locations — Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Guangdong, Shenzhen and all of Hainan — with foreign hospitals landing in 2026 (e.g. Pengruili International Hospital, Fuzhou Xingyao Eye Hospital).
    外商独资医院试点已覆盖北京、上海、天津、南京、苏州、福州、广东、深圳及海南全岛 9 个地方，2026 年外资医院加速落地（如鹏瑞利国际医院、福州星耀眼科医院）。
  • Value-added telecoms opening continues at scale: 166 foreign enterprises have received pilot approvals since February 2025, covering all ten value-added telecom business categories, and foreign-invested telecom enterprises nationwide exceed 3,100.
    增值电信开放持续推进：2025 年 2 月以来已有 166 家外资企业获经营试点批复，覆盖全部 10 项增值电信业务；全国外商投资电信企业超 3100 家。
  • Education, finance and services opening are broadening in parallel: nine new services-opening comprehensive pilot cities since 2025, foreign vocational training pilots, and more foreign institutions using fund-investment and risk-management tools.
    教育、金融等服务业开放同步拓宽：2025 年以来服务业扩大开放综合试点新增 9 个城市，推进职业技能培训开放试点，支持外资机构运用基金投顾与风险管理工具。
  • The National Health Plan also advances innovation-drug and medical-device channels, commercial insurance coverage of innovative drugs, and AI-enabled pharma value chains — relevant to foreign pharma and device companies entering China.
    《国民健康”十五五”规划》还推进创新药械审评审批、商业保险覆盖创新药、人工智能赋能医药全产业链，对进入中国的外资药械企业直接相关。
  • For foreign investors, the practical takeaway is that sector restrictions are being dismantled industry by industry through pilots: confirm whether the target sector is in an expanded pilot, prepare the sectoral licence application early, and use the provincial commerce one-stop channels.
    对外国投资者，实操要点是分行业限制正通过试点逐行业拆除：确认目标行业是否在扩容试点内、尽早准备行业牌照申请、善用省级商务一站式通道。

Sector-by-Sector Opening in 2026: Hospitals, Telecoms and Services Pilots | 2026 年分行业开放：医院、电信与服务业试点

Why this matters now

China’s sector restrictions on foreign investment are being dismantled industry by industry through pilot programmes rather than through a single omnibus measure. Three tracks are moving in parallel in 2026. First, healthcare: the State Council’s National Health 15th Five-Year Plan (Guo Fa [2026] No. 23) explicitly supports expanding the wholly foreign-owned hospital pilot and advancing international medical services pilots, and wholly foreign-owned hospital pilots already cover nine locations. Second, telecoms: the value-added telecoms pilot has issued approvals to 166 foreign enterprises since February 2025, covering all ten value-added categories. Third, education and finance: the services-opening comprehensive pilots added nine new cities in 2025, and the utilisation of foreign capital action plan supports foreign vocational training institutions, fund-investment advisory and risk-management tools for foreign institutions. For foreign companies whose target sector still carries restrictions, the operative question is which pilot applies and how the licence process runs. This article maps the 2026 sector-opening landscape.

Healthcare: hospital and pharma channels

The National Health 15th Five-Year Plan, issued under Guo Fa [2026] No. 23, directs orderly expansion of medical-sector opening, further expansion of the wholly foreign-owned hospital pilot and steady advancement of international medical services pilots. The hospital pilot already covers Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Guangdong, Shenzhen and the whole of Hainan. Foreign hospital groups have been landing: Pengruili International Hospital, Fuzhou Xingyao Eye Hospital and Nanjing Hanmei Viti Cosmetic Hospital are cited as examples of foreign-invested hospitals entering the market. The plan also supports optimised review and approval for innovative and clinically urgent drugs, commercial insurance coverage of innovative drugs and medical devices, and AI-enabled pharma value chains. For foreign pharma and device companies, the plan signals sustained demand-side support for innovative products alongside the supply-side opening of hospital ownership.

Telecoms: the value-added pilot at scale

The value-added telecoms pilot, launched in October 2024 in Beijing (services opening-up comprehensive demonstration zone), the Shanghai FTZ Lin-gang New Area and Shanghai’s socialist modernisation leading zone, Hainan Free Trade Port and Shenzhen’s socialist demonstration zone, removed foreign shareholding caps on specified value-added services including internet data centres (IDC), content delivery networks (CDN), internet access services (ISP), online data processing and transaction processing, and information publication platform services. Since the first batch of approvals in February 2025, 166 foreign enterprises have received pilot approvals, and some wholly foreign-owned enterprises have obtained IDC qualifications — relevant for AI data-centre investment. Nationwide, foreign-invested telecom enterprises exceed 3,100, covering all ten value-added categories under the Telecommunications Business Classification Catalogue. The utilisation of foreign capital action plan supports continuing and expanding the pilot.

Education and finance

Education opening is advancing through the services-opening comprehensive pilots, which added nine new cities in 2025, and through the action plan’s commitment to steadily expand pilots for foreign vocational training institutions, vocational colleges and high-level science, engineering, agriculture and medicine universities. In finance, the action plan supports more foreign institutions using risk-management tools including government bond futures, foreign institutions carrying out fund-investment advisory business, and facilitation of cross-border business for key foreign-invested enterprises. These items matter for foreign financial institutions and education groups assessing entry.

How sector pilots actually run

Each pilot follows the same shape: a national policy statement names the sector and the pilot regions; the competent ministry (NHSA/MOFCOM for hospitals, MIIT for telecoms, MOE for education) issues implementation rules; provincial authorities process applications; and foreign enterprises apply for the sectoral licence or approval. For hospitals, the provincial health commission and commerce department jointly review the establishment; for value-added telecoms, MIIT issues the pilot approval and the enterprise obtains the value-added telecom business licence (ICP/EDI) locally; for education, the MOE approves cooperative or independent institutions. Timing differs: hospital establishment can take months of review; telecoms approvals have been issued in batches; education approvals follow the MOE’s periodic batches.

Practical steps

First, verify the target sector’s current restriction level: full opening, pilot opening, conditional or prohibited. Second, where a pilot applies, confirm the pilot region covers the planned location and that the business line is within the pilot’s service scope. Third, prepare the sectoral application package: for hospitals, the feasibility study, qualifications of the foreign hospital group, and the cooperation or independent-establishment plan; for telecoms, the corporate structure demonstrating shareholding compliance and the security assessment materials; for education, the partner credentials and curriculum plan. Fourth, engage the provincial commerce department’s one-stop window and the competent ministry’s pre-communication channel early. Fifth, monitor pilot expansion announcements — hospital, biotech and telecom expansions are explicitly in the pipeline.

Compliance notes

Sector pilots do not remove all restrictions: negative-list limits still apply to fields outside the pilots, and each licence carries conditions (e.g. service scope, foreign shareholding, security review for telecoms). The National Health Plan is a planning document; implementing rules for hospital and international medical pilots will follow from the competent authorities. Foreign investors should not assume that a pilot in one region extends to others, and should confirm current regional scope before committing.

2026 年分行业开放：医院、电信与服务业试点

为什么当下重要

中国对外资的分行业限制正通过试点逐行业拆除，而非依赖一部一揽子法规。2026 年有三条线并行推进。其一，医疗：国务院《国民健康”十五五”规划》（国发〔2026〕23 号）明确提出扩大外商独资医院开放试点、稳妥推进国际医疗服务试点，外商独资医院试点已覆盖 9 个地方。其二，电信：增值电信开放试点自 2025 年 2 月以来已向 166 家外资企业发放经营批复，覆盖全部 10 项增值电信业务。其三，教育与金融：服务业扩大开放综合试点 2025 年新增 9 个城市，稳外资行动方案支持外资职业技能培训机构、基金投顾业务与风险管理工具。对目标行业仍带限制的外国公司，操作性问题在于适用哪个试点、牌照流程如何运转。本文梳理 2026 年分行业开放版图。

医疗：医院与药械通道

《国民健康”十五五”规划》（国发〔2026〕23 号）部署推动医疗领域有序扩大开放、进一步扩大外商独资医院开放试点、稳妥推进国际医疗服务试点。医院试点已覆盖北京、上海、天津、南京、苏州、福州、广东、深圳及海南全岛。外资医院集团加速落地：鹏瑞利国际医院、福州星耀眼科医院、南京韩美维媞整形医院被作为外资医院进入市场的案例提及。规划还支持优化创新药和临床急需药品审评审批、商业健康保险覆盖创新药械、人工智能赋能医药全产业链。对外资药械企业，规划在供给侧开放医院股权的同时，提供需求侧对创新产品的持续支持信号。

电信：增值电信试点规模化

增值电信开放试点于 2024 年 10 月在北京（服务业扩大开放综合示范区）、上海自贸试验区临港新片区及社会主义现代化建设引领区、海南自由贸易港、深圳中国特色社会主义先行示范区启动，取消互联网数据中心（IDC）、内容分发网络（CDN）、互联网接入服务（ISP）、在线数据处理与交易处理、信息发布平台服务等指定增值业务的外资股比限制。自 2025 年 2 月首批批复以来，已有 166 家外资企业获试点批复，部分全外资企业取得 IDC 资质——这对 AI 数据中心投资具有参照价值。全国外商投资电信企业超 3100 家，经营范围覆盖《电信业务分类目录》全部 10 项增值电信业务。稳外资行动方案支持继续推进并扩大试点。

教育与金融

教育开放依托服务业扩大开放综合试点（2025 年新增 9 个城市）与行动方案关于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开放试点的承诺推进。金融端，行动方案支持更多外资机构运用包括国债期货在内的风险管理工具、外资机构依法开展基金投资顾问业务、优化重点外资企业跨境业务管理。这些对外资金融机构与教育集团评估进入都直接相关。

试点如何实际运转

各试点遵循同一形态：国家政策文件点名行业与试点区域；主管部委（医院为卫生健康部门与商务部、电信为工信部、教育为教育部）发布实施细则；省级部门处理申请；外资企业申办行业牌照或批复。医院由省卫健委与商务部门联合审查设立；增值电信由工信部核发试点批复、企业再就地申领增值电信业务许可证（ICP/EDI）；教育由教育部审批合作或独立机构。时序不同：医院设立审查可能长达数月；电信批复分批发放；教育审批跟随教育部周期性批次。

实操步骤

其一，核验目标行业当前限制级别：全面开放、试点开放、有条件开放还是禁止。其二，适用试点的，确认试点区域覆盖计划地点且业务线在试点业务范围内。其三，准备行业申请材料：医院为可行性研究、外资医院集团资质、合作或独立设立方案；电信为企业架构证明股比合规与安全评估材料；教育为伙伴资质与课程方案。其四，尽早对接省商务部门一站式窗口与主管部委的预沟通渠道。其五，紧盯试点扩容公告——医院、生物技术、电信扩容明确在推进之列。

合规提示

行业试点并未消除全部限制：试点之外领域仍适用负面清单限制，每张牌照都附带条件（如业务范围、外资股比、电信安全审查）。《国民健康”十五五”规划》是规划性文件，医院与国际医疗试点的实施细则将由主管机关后续出台。外资投资者不应假设一地的试点扩展至其他地区，投入前应确认现行区域范围。

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