In recent years, China has implemented a new round of high-level opening up, promoting the formation of a new pattern of comprehensive opening up, promoting high-quality economic development, and supply side structural reform.
Among them, in the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access in Pilot Free Trade Zones (Negative List) (2019 Edition)", restrictions on foreign investment in publication printing have been lifted. This means that in the pilot free trade zone, the printing of foreign investment publications will no longer be restricted.
It should be pointed out that in the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2019 Edition)", it is still required that "the printing of publications must be controlled by the Chinese side". That is to say, outside the free trade zone, the printing of foreign investment publications is still restricted.
The cancellation of foreign investment restrictions is not groundless
In recent years, with the continuous development of the Chinese economy, China's printing industry has deeply integrated into the global printing and processing industry chain, providing printing and packaging services to more than 50 countries in the international community. In 2017, the foreign processing trade volume of China's printing industry reached 84.2 billion yuan. Dozens of countries around the world have come to China to cooperate and establish factories. As of December 2017, there were nearly 2000 foreign-invested printing enterprises in China with a total investment of over 40 billion US dollars.
The cancellation of restrictions on foreign investment in the printing of publications in the free trade zone is not groundless. As early as the "2018 World Printing and Communication Forum" held in October 2018, Liu Xiaokai, Director of the Printing and Distribution Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department, stated that China will continue to support and promote the further relaxation of restrictions on the shareholding ratio of publication printing enterprises in free trade pilot zones, gradually narrowing the scope of negative list access; Promote the continued reduction of import tariffs on mid to high end printing equipment and enhance the level of liberalization and facilitation of printing foreign processing trade.
Gradually opening up to foreign investment
Looking back at the negative list of free trade zones in recent years, we can see that the restrictions on foreign investment in open publication printing have followed a gradual principle.
The previous negative list of China's free trade zones came from the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which was introduced in September 2013 and initially had 190 items. In 2014, adjustments reduced 139 items. In 2015, during the expansion of the free trade zone, the list was reduced by 122 items and expanded to four free trade zones in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin, and Fujian.
In the 2014 version of the negative list, it is stipulated that "investment in publication printing (controlled by the Chinese side) shall be restricted, and the registered capital shall not be less than 10 million RMB". In the 2015 version of the list, it is still stipulated that "publication printing belongs to the restricted category and must be controlled by the Chinese side." However, compared to the 2014 version, the statement "registered capital shall not be less than 10 million RMB" has been removed.
That is to say, foreign investment in publication printing still needs to follow the principle of Chinese control, but there is no longer a mandatory requirement for registered capital. Therefore, the 2015 version of the negative list still has a positive significance in promoting foreign investment in publication printing within the free trade zone, but foreign investment in publication printing within the free trade zone is still restricted, not liberalized.
In the 2019 version of the negative list, the cancellation of investment restrictions on foreign investment in publication printing will further strengthen the opening up of the printing industry to the outside world and promote the high-quality development of the entire industry.
As of 2018, China has established a total of 12 pilot free trade zones, located in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin, Fujian, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hainan and other provinces and cities.