Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 16 January 2026 the Yunnan Provincial People's Government issued Yunzhengfa [2026] No. 2, a package of 34 policy measures (effective through 2030) to support high-quality development of the Central Yunnan New Area (滇中新区), a national-level new area centred on Kunming. The measures span industrial upgrading, innovation, opening-up and fiscal/land support: transformation of traditional petrochemical and metallurgy industries into "hundred-billion-yuan" clusters, development of semiconductor materials/equipment, new-energy battery materials and non-ferrous/rare-precious-metals manufacturing using Yunnan's mineral and plateau-agriculture resources, and cultivation of low-altitude economy, biomanufacturing and new-materials industries. It also seeks to establish a South/Southeast Asia aircraft-delivery centre and one-stop aviation-maintenance base in the new area.

On 30 December 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufubangui [2025] No. 20, a three-year action plan (1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028) to support the transformation and upgrading of advanced manufacturing. The plan sets quantitative targets — 100 new manufacturing enterprises with annual output above CNY 1 billion by 2028 (cumulative 600+), 500 new above-designated-size supply-chain enterprises, 100+ new national-level green factories, a robot density of 600 units per 10,000 workers, and 70%+ digital-equipment penetration — across next-generation electronics, intelligent connected new-energy vehicles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, green low-carbon and fashion consumer-goods industries, plus emerging bets on the low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace, embodied intelligence (robotics) and biomanufacturing. It is funded through tiered direct subsidies rather than tax relief: one-off R&D subsidies up to CNY 10 million, equipment/new-materials cost-share up to 30% of contract value (capped at CNY 20 million), technical- transformation loan/leasing interest support up to CNY 20 million cumulative, and 0.8-1.3% interest subsidies on component/material backup-inventory financing.

China's State Council Tariff Commission published its annual "2026 Tariff Adjustment Plan" (税委会公告2025年第11号) on 29 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026. The plan sets provisional import tariff rates below MFN levels on 935 products, while cancelling provisional rates on certain other products (reverting them to standard MFN rates). It adds new national tariff subheadings for intelligent bionic robots, bio-aviation kerosene, forest-grown ginseng, and other items, bringing the total tariff schedule to 8,972 lines. The government frames the provisional-rate cuts — covering key components and advanced materials such as CNC hydraulic air cushions for stamping presses, recycled "black powder" (黑粉) lithium-ion battery feedstock, artificial blood vessels and infectious-disease diagnostic kits — as support for "high-level sci-tech self-reliance" and modernisation of the industrial system. China also continues zero-tariff treatment on 100% of tariff lines for the 43 least-developed countries with diplomatic relations with China, and continues Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement preferential rates for Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

On 25 December 2025 Shanghai's Huangpu District Science and Technology Commission and Investment Promotion Office jointly issued Huangkeweigui [2025] No. 3, "Several Measures of Huangpu District on Promoting Brain-Computer Interface Innovation and Transformation Services (Trial)" (informally the "BCI Service 10 Provisions"), effective 24 January 2026 and valid through 31 December 2027. The measures subsidize BCI core- technology R&D and district co-funding of national/municipal projects (up to CNY 2m, 1:1 district match), shared innovation-platform construction (up to 30% of investment, capped CNY 2m), registered medical-device commercialisation (up to 40% of R&D cost, capped CNY 5m/ year per entity), application-demonstration scenarios (up to 30% of investment, capped CNY 2m), enterprise-growth and unicorn/gazelle recognition rewards (CNY 20k-100k), industrial-park operator support (up to CNY 2m/year), equity-financing support (up to 10% of R&D cost, capped CNY 2m, for firms with ≥CNY 20m in equity funding), and international BCI conference/event sponsorship (up to 30%, capped CNY 500k).

On 25 December 2025 Shanghai's Huangpu District Science and Technology Commission and Investment Promotion Office jointly issued Huangkeweigui [2025] No. 2, "Several Measures on Focusing on Translational Medicine to Accelerate Industry-Medicine Integration Innovation and Development," effective 30 days after promulgation (4 February 2026 per Global Trade Alert tracking) and valid through 31 December 2027. The measures subsidize cell-and-gene therapy, mRNA, synthetic biology, regenerative medicine and digital-medicine R&D (up to CNY 2m/year per entity), platform/lab construction (up to 30% of investment, capped at CNY 2m), use of the district's translational-medicine national science facility (up to 50% of annual usage fee, capped at CNY 1m), and domestic Class 1 new-drug clinical trials (Phase I up to CNY 2m, Phase II up to CNY 5m, capped at CNY 50m/year per entity), plus annual support for biopharma industrial- park operators (up to CNY 2m/year).

On 24 December 2025 China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) jointly issued Order No. 37, the Catalogue for Encouraging Foreign Investment in Industries (2025 Edition), effective 1 February 2026 and replacing the 2022 Edition (issued 26 October 2022). The revised catalogue expands to 1,679 total entries — a net increase of 205 and 303 modified relative to 2022 — split between a nationwide catalogue (619 entries, +100, 131 modified) and a regional catalogue for central/western China, the northeast, and Hainan (1,060 entries, +105, 172 modified). Foreign investors in listed sectors qualify for tariff and tax preferences on imported equipment and other incentives under China's foreign-investment regime. The revision prioritises advanced manufacturing and modern services and steers new entries toward inland and border provinces.

China's State Council General Office issued Guobanfa [2025] No. 34 ("Notice on Implementing Domestic Product Standards and Related Policies in Government Procurement") on 28 September 2025, effective 1 January 2026. The notice applies a 20% price deduction to domestic-product bids when evaluating government procurement tenders; suppliers whose domestic-content cost share reaches 80% or more of total product cost get the deduction applied to their entire quoted price rather than only the domestic-content portion. Coverage is economy-wide across the government's Goods Classification Directory (Global Trade Alert separately tagged natural/man-made textile fibres and yarn under this measure), with narrow carve-outs for real estate, cultural relics, agricultural/forestry/fishery products, minerals, utilities, and food/tobacco raw materials. The Ministry of Finance published implementing guidance (Caiku [2025] No. 30) shortly after.

On 17 September 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufubangui [2025] No. 8, a five-year (26 September 2025 - 25 September 2030) state-aid framework to accelerate frontier-technology innovation and cultivate "future industries" across six domains — future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future health. Targeted technology areas include cell and gene therapy, brain-computer interfaces, biomanufacturing, embodied intelligence (humanoid robotics/AI hardware), fourth-generation semiconductors, silicon photonics, 6G, neuromorphic computing, quantum technology, controlled nuclear fusion and regenerative medicine. Support is disbursed as tiered direct subsidies rather than tax relief, with named ceilings up to CNY 30 million per proof-of-concept/R&D platform and CNY 20 million per high-quality incubator or first-product/batch innovation award.

On 28 July 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufubangui [2025] No. 6, the "Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Industry Development Implementation Plan" (上海市具身智能产业发展实施方案), a dedicated municipal state-aid package to build Shanghai into a global innovation hub for embodied intelligence (humanoid robotics / physical AI). The plan targets an industry scale of CNY 500 billion by 2027, alongside at least 20 core algorithm/technology breakthroughs, four or more high-quality incubators, and "100-100-100" targets for leading enterprises, applications and products. Support is disbursed as tiered direct subsidies capped at CNY 50 million (30% of project cost) for core-technology R&D, CNY 40 million per company per year for computing-power credits, CNY 20 million (50% of cost) for public-platform construction, CNY 10 million (20% of cost) for application-demonstration projects, CNY 5 million per company per year for language-corpus services, CNY 5 million (5% of contract value) for robot sales/rental incentives, CNY 5 million per open-source project, and CNY 1 million per leading enterprise for standards development. Target application sectors are logistics, industrial manufacturing, retail, healthcare/eldercare and domestic services.

On 23 July 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufu Bangui [2025] No. 5, "Several Measures to Support Enterprises in Strengthening Basic Research and Enhancing New Momentum for High-Quality Development," effective 1 August 2025 through 31 July 2030. The measure tiers one-time subsidies of CNY 2m-10m/year to enterprises based on basic-research investment (CNY 10m-50m, 50m-100m, and 100m+ investment bands), reimburses 50% of shared scientific- equipment usage fees (capped CNY 1m/year), and grants a 100% tax deduction for corporate donations to basic research at nonprofits and universities, with integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence named as priority participating industries.

On 10 July 2025 the Huairou District Economic and Information Technology Bureau (Beijing) issued Huaijingxinfa [2025] No. 35, district-level support measures to promote high-quality development of the advanced manufacturing and software/information-technology services industries, implementing the district's broader high-quality-development guiding opinions (Huaizhengfa [2024] No. 16). The measures cover 13 support categories (R&D, technology upgrading, standards/certification, "specialized, refined, unique and new" (专精特新) enterprise recognition, among others), with individual awards decided case-by-case through an application and government-approval process rather than a disclosed schedule of fixed amounts. A follow-on December 2025 notice solicited enterprise applications for the 2025 award cycle under this same document.

On 27 May 2025 the People's Government Office of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province) issued Xiao Zhengbanfa [2025] No. 22, "Several Policies to Promote the High-Quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry," published 30 May 2025. The notice establishes a district-level subsidy stack covering EDA design, IC design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and equipment/materials firms operating in Xiaoshan District. Headline instruments include R&D subsidies for enterprises investing over CNY 50m (with a lower CNY 10m tier) in key IC materials and core equipment with realized sales, a wafer tape-out subsidy capped at CNY 20m per enterprise per year, public innovation-platform purchase subsidies of up to CNY 500k, "chip-mould linkage" support up to CNY 3m, and talent-support measures including housing subsidies for IC industry personnel.

On 6 September 2024 China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) jointly issued Order No. 23, the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access (2024 Edition), effective 1 November 2024. The 2024 list reduces nationwide restrictions from 31 to 29 entries, removing the last two manufacturing- sector restrictions (publication printing must be Chinese-controlled; investment in TCM-decoction steaming/roasting/calcination processes and confidential-formula proprietary Chinese-medicine production prohibited). Restrictions remain in services (telecommunications value-added, healthcare, education) and in 21 prohibited categories (news publishing, postal monopoly, fishing, gene therapy, tobacco). The 2021 edition is repealed on the same date.

On 13 March 2024 the State Council issued the Action Plan on Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In as Guo Fa [2024] No. 7, distributed by NDRC alongside ten implementing ministries. Branded the "Two New" (两新) initiative, it is the flagship Xi/Li-era domestic-demand industrial-policy instrument structured around four action lines (equipment renewal, consumer-goods trade-in, recycling and circular utilisation, standards uplift) with twenty specific tasks and 2027 quantitative targets including ≥25% increase in equipment investment vs 2023 across industry, agriculture, construction, transport, education and healthcare. Funded by CNY 150bn of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024, expanded to CNY 300bn earmarked in 2025, the programme drove >CNY 1.3 trillion of consumer-goods trade-in transactions (autos, appliances, home furnishings, e-bikes) in its first year and is the central pillar of Beijing's response to the property-sector slowdown.

China's State Council Tariff Commission published its annual "2023 Tariff Adjustment Plan" (税委会公告2022年第11号) on 28 December 2022, effective 1 January 2023. Alongside routine import-side changes (provisional-rate cancellations reverting some goods to MFN rates, and an eighth-step MFN cut on 62 information-technology products from 1 July 2023), the plan raises export tariffs on aluminum and aluminum alloy to support "transformation, upgrading and high-quality development" of the domestic industry. Global Trade Alert logs this export-tax increase as the "certainly harmful" intervention within the bundled state act; a separate import-tariff cut is logged as liberalising.

China's State Council Tariff Commission published its annual "2022 Tariff Adjustment Plan" (税委会〔2021〕18号) on 13 December 2021, effective 1 January 2022. Within the bundled annual schedule, the commission cancelled the 20% provisional preferential export tariff on ferrochrome (HS 72024100/72024900) that had applied since May 2021, reverting it to the standard 40% export rate — a doubling. Ferrosilicon (HS 72022100/72022900) continued at the 25% rate it had already moved to when its own preferential rate was cancelled in May 2021. Both are framed as measures to restrain export of energy- and emissions-intensive primary ferroalloy products and preserve domestic steelmaking input supply.

On 15 March 2019, the Second Session of the 13th National People's Congress adopted the Foreign Investment Law of the People's Republic of China (FIL), effective 1 January 2020. The statute replaced the prior tripartite FDI regime — the 1979 Equity Joint Venture Law, the 1986 Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise Law, and the 1988 Contractual Joint Venture Law (collectively the "Three Laws") — with a unified legal framework covering all foreign investment in China. The FIL establishes a pre-establishment national treatment plus negative-list regime jointly administered by NDRC and MOFCOM, a Foreign Investment Information Reporting System replacing the former case-by-case approval regime, a national security review mechanism (China's CFIUS equivalent, codified at Art. 35), and Art. 22 technology-transfer prohibition protections. The State Council Implementation Regulations (Order No. 723, promulgated 26 December 2019) entered force on the same date as the FIL.