On October 02, 2015, State Council of People’s Republic of China (the "China") released Opinions of the State Council on the Implementation of the Market Access Negative List (the “Negative List”) System (the "Opinions"). The Draft will come into effect as of December 1, 2015 and shall remain in force till December 31, 2017. The Draft, once taken into effect, will affirm the equal basis for all the market entities to invest in the different industries, sectors and businesses not included in the Negative List, which is comprehensively used by other countries to administrate domestic market, administrating state-owned enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, domestic enterprises and foreign invested enterprises on an equal basis. The implementation of the market access negative list system is a significant change of approach and framework regarding administration of Chinese government from government-led administration to a looser resident self-governance.

1. Background