By Jin Yuying
As global cross-border foreign direct investment (FDI) continues to face persistent pressure, with industrial and supply chains undergoing rapid restructuring and geopolitical risks — alongside trade protectionism — growing multinational companies are becoming increasingly cautious in their global investment strategies.
Against this backdrop, China has remained steadfast in its commitment to expanding high-standard opening up. The country has introduced practical measures to improve the investment environment and further strengthened the “Invest in China” brand, providing robust support to global investors seeking long-term opportunities within the Chinese market.
In the first half of 2026, nearly 4,800 foreign-invested enterprises scaled up their investments in China. Meanwhile, the share of FDI flowing into high-tech industries continued to increase, further improving the overall structure of foreign investment.
The resilience of China’s FDI performance reflects the country’s sustained efforts to improve the business environment and implement a series of policies aimed at stabilizing foreign investment.
On June 16, 2026, China’s Ministry of Commerce, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, jointly released an action plan to stabilize foreign investment.
This plan covers five priority areas: expanding market access, improving investment facilitation, strengthening investment promotion, optimizing the business environment, and refining foreign investment administration. It provides a comprehensive policy framework designed to stabilize existing foreign investment, attract new investment, improve its quality, and optimize its structure through greater openness.
China has now removed all foreign investment restrictions in the manufacturing sector, while the services sector has become the new focus of its opening-up efforts.
The action plan introduces a series of measures to further open the services sector, responding both to the practical needs of foreign businesses seeking greater access to the Chinese market and to China’s own demand for consumption upgrading, industrial transformation, and high-quality growth in the services industry.
These measures are expected to create broader opportunities for foreign investors while improving both the quality and composition of foreign investment.
The action plan also includes targeted measures covering key areas such as foreign mergers and acquisitions, cross-border data flows, domestic reinvestment by foreign companies, and the establishment of research and development (R&D) centers. These initiatives represent a shift from simply expanding market access to making business operations more convenient after market entry.
China’s approach to attracting foreign investment is also evolving — from bringing in capital and production capacity to attracting innovation capabilities and global resource allocation. By strengthening policy support for R&D hubs, China is encouraging foreign companies to move beyond “Made in China” toward “Innovated in China” and “Developed in China.” This fosters deeper integration between global innovation resources and China’s market demands and industrial ecosystem.
High-quality utilization of foreign investment calls for not only open policies and convenient business measures, but also more effective communication of China’s policy advantages, market opportunities, and industrial strengths to global investors.
China is ramping up efforts to amplify the influence of the “Invest in China” brand. This helps global investors gain deeper insight into China’s market opportunities, opening-up policies, and business conditions, while boosting the visibility, appeal, and credibility of China as an investment destination.
The action plan sets out new arrangements for attracting foreign-invested projects. It will bolster the professionalism, standardization and sustainability of investment promotion work, and help foreign-funded projects better align with China’s development opportunities.
A sound business environment forms the foundation for business operations and development, and is one of the most important factors influencing investment decisions. For foreign enterprises, what matters is not merely temporary preferential policies, but a fair, transparent, stable and predictable institutional environment.
The action plan advances efforts across multiple fronts: delivering national treatment to foreign-invested enterprises, supporting their participation in consumption-boosting initiatives, improving the protection of their legitimate rights and interests, and upgrading services for investment projects.
These measures precisely address foreign firms’ core concerns regarding fair competition and long-term growth. They help reduce uncertainties surrounding investment and operations in China and strengthen their confidence to further tap into the Chinese market.
The plan seeks to refine the foreign investment information reporting system, improve direct reporting channels and information-sharing mechanisms. Such progress will cut down redundant filings, eliminate inter-departmental information barriers, boost the efficiency of foreign investment administration and strengthen firms’ sense of policy gains.
The plan also lays out arrangements for coordinated regional investment promotion and the digitalization of foreign investment administration, enabling better support for foreign enterprises’ layout and long-term growth in China.
Amid profound shifts in the global investment landscape, China’s resolve to pursue high-standard opening up remains unwavering. Going forward, China will continue advancing high-standard opening up, fully implement national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises, and deliver refined whole-cycle services. These efforts will further enhance the “Invest in China” brand.
As policies to stabilize foreign investment continue to take effect, China’s vast market and strong industrial foundation will increasingly translate into lasting competitive advantages in attracting global capital.
The ongoing trend of foreign enterprises ramping up capital investment and scaling up R&D operations fully proves that China serves as a pivotal hub for multinationals’ global layout. A growing number of foreign firms will choose to establish long-term footholds in China to share the extensive opportunities brought by Chinese modernization.
(Jin Yuying is the vice president of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.)
China intensifies efforts to stabilize and optimize foreign investment
