The newly released 2024 edition of the national negative list for foreign investment access has been revised, reduced from 31 items to 29. Do not underestimate this small change—it has brought the restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector to zero.

The last two restrictive measures remaining in the manufacturing sector have been removed: one is that "publication printing must be controlled by the Chinese side," and the other is "investment is prohibited in the application of processing technologies such as steaming, stir-frying, broiling, and calcining of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces, as well as in the production of products with confidential prescriptions of traditional Chinese patent medicines."

What does this reduction to zero mean?

It means that China's manufacturing sector is now fully open to foreign investment, achieving equal treatment for domestic and foreign investment at the access stage. The significance behind this goes far beyond what a change in numbers can fully convey.

As the earliest field opened up in China, manufacturing has been opened up step by step. From the 2021 negative list for foreign investment access in pilot free trade zones achieving zero restrictions in manufacturing to the current full reduction to zero, experts say that the opening up of manufacturing has reached a world-leading level.

Sanlihe noted that at present, almost all developing countries impose foreign investment access restrictions on manufacturing, and even some developed economies still impose certain foreign investment access restrictions on manufacturing. Against the backdrop of escalating global manufacturing competition, China's resolute and comprehensive opening up of manufacturing is all the more valuable and demonstrates a clear attitude in support of economic globalization.

As the world's largest manufacturing country, China accounts for about 30% of global manufacturing value added and has ranked first globally for 14 consecutive years.

Yuan Qian, associate researcher at the Institute for International Economic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in an interview with Sanlihe that the comprehensive removal of foreign investment access restrictions in manufacturing sends a signal of further expanding high-level opening up. It is conducive to leveraging China's advantage as a unified national market, participating more deeply in global industrial division of labor and cooperation, further increasing the scale and quality of foreign investment attraction, guiding foreign investment to increase its layout in advanced manufacturing and high-tech fields, and accelerating the development of new quality productive forces.

On the same day that the news of zero foreign investment access restrictions in manufacturing was released, the opening up of the services sector also saw major measures.

According to a notice issued by multiple departments, China plans to carry out pilot work to expand opening up in the medical field and plans to allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and the entire island of Hainan.

At the same time, in the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and the Hainan Free Trade Port, foreign-invested enterprises will be allowed to engage in the development and application of human stem cell and gene diagnosis and treatment technologies.

The comprehensive opening up of foreign investment access in manufacturing and the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals—China has once again rolled out a "combination punch" for high-level opening up. The scale and substance of these measures are remarkable.

It is thought-provoking that as global trade and investment protectionism rises and some countries are busy building walls, erecting fences, and decoupling, China is opening its door wider and wider, demonstrating with concrete actions its positive willingness to expand international cooperation and its determination to continue advancing high-level opening up.

At a time when the scale of foreign investment attracted by China has fluctuated somewhat, a series of new measures also serve as an "invitation letter" and a "reassurance pill" for foreign investment, creating more investment opportunities and greater market opportunities for foreign investors.

Sanlihe noted that, focusing on attracting and utilizing foreign investment with greater efforts, China has recently introduced multiple policy measures in areas such as strengthening factor guarantees, safeguarding fair competition, and facilitating the movement of personnel. Together with the new measures to relax foreign investment access, these measures have built a systematic policy framework covering the "full life cycle" of foreign-invested enterprises' investment activities.

This sends a message to global investors: China welcomes foreign investment, encourages foreign investment, and is willing to share development opportunities with global partners.

The next "China" is still China. Yuan Qian believes that China will continue to steadily expand the pace of opening up in the services sector and further improve the market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized level of the business environment. These measures are conducive to further consolidating foreign investors' confidence in development in China.

Ensuring that foreign investment can not only "enter" but also "stay" and "develop well," China's pace of opening up will not stop, and the story of sharing development with the world will become more and more splendid.