China to further open auto sector to foreign investment

China will further open its auto and other high-end manufacturing sectors to foreign investment, including automotive electronics and new energy vehicle batteries.Sun Jiwen, spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce, made the remarks when responding to a question concerning recent comments from German Minister of Economic Affairs Brigitte Zypries that China's market was not truly free, especially in sectors such as auto manufacturing."China encourages foreign investment in high-end manufacturing including the auto sector," Sun said, noting that most sectors were completely open to foreign investors.Only a few "sensitive" sectors have restrictions on foreign investment, but that number has been on the decline, he said.Sun revealed that a revised guidance catalogue for foreign investment in China would soon come into force, relaxing restrictions on foreign ownership in automotive electronics, new energy vehicle batteries, motorcycles and other sectors."As one of the beneficiaries of China's opening up, German auto companies have witnessed China's improvement in the investment environment in past decades and made handsome returns from it," he said.Meanwhile, Chinese investment to Germany has rapidly increased in recent years, according to Sun. In 2016, Chinese investors made a total of 11 billion euros (about 12.35 billion U.S. dollars) of investment in Germany on 281 projects, creating 3,900 jobs for the local community.

China, Australia embrace cooperation, free trade in face of rising

China and Australia inked a series of bilateral agreements and moved to expand free trade between the two major Asia-Pacific economies in a vote of confidence for regional cooperation in the face of rising protectionism.

China allows more foreign investment in onshore financial market

China's foreign exchange regulator has approved a bigger amount of foreign investment in the country's onshore financial market, official data showed on Monday.As of Feb. 27, 278 Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) have received quotas amounting 89.21 billion U.S. dollars, up from 87.31 billion dollars registered at the end of January, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).In total, 181 overseas institutions have received quotas amounting to 541.13 billion yuan (80.75 billion U.S. dollars) under the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program. It was 529.63 billion yuan a month earlier.China's currency, the yuan, is convertible for trade purposes under the current account, while the capital account, which covers portfolio investment and borrowing, is largely run by the state in an effort to control capital flow.To gradually liberalize the capital account, the government introduced the QFII and RQFII programs in 2003 and 2011, respectively, part of China's strategy to promote RMB's use overseas.The QFII program represents China's effort to allow licensed foreign investors to invest in China's RMB denominated capital market.The RQFII program allows institutional investors with offshore Renminbi deposits to invest in China's onshore market.The RQFII program is currently open to 18 countries and regions, including Britain, Singapore, France, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Qatar, Canada, Australia and Luxembourg as well as China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

China strengthens protection of intellectual property rights

BEIJING — China will strengthen the protection and use of intellectual property rights, a move to develop intellectual property and encourage innovation, according to an official on Jan 17.Gan Shaoning, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said that the guideline, issued by the State Council, specified the goals and major tasks for the development of intellectual property during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).According to the plan, China will improve rules and regulations related to intellectual property rights in newly-emerged fields including Internet Plus, e-commerce and big data.China’s invention patent ownership will increase from 6.3 per 10,000 people in 2015 to 12 per 10,000 in 2020. Intellectual property royalties earned abroad will rise from $4.44 billion in 2015 to $10 billion in 2020, according to the plan.The plan also put forward seven major areas for improving intellectual property, including the legal system, protection of intellectual property rights, quality and benefits, industrial upgrading, and international cooperation and exchanges.

How should foreign-invested enterprises pay taxes?

A foreign-funded business-starting investment enterprise (hereafter referred as FBIE) shall make tax declaration in accordance with the tax laws of the state. As to a non-legal-person organization, in accordance with the law, it may request all the investing parties to file returns for enterprise income taxes on their own, or file an application by itself, after the application has been approved, it shall, in accordance with the law, calculate and pay the enterprise income tax in a consolidated way.The concrete regulatory measures concerning the levy of enterprise income tax upon the non-legal-person FBIEs shall be promulgated separately by the State Administration of Taxation.It’s an international practice that non-legal-person partnership FBIEs enjoys low income taxation rate, and non-legal-person FBIEs have the same request in China. Though not explicitly written in the Provisions Concerning the Administration of Foreign-funded Business-starting Investment Enterprises, it retains that the tax authorities will formulate the specific corporate income tax collection management measures of non-legal-person FBIEs.