Currently, there is a clear signal of our policy of expanding the external liberalization of services. Considerable progress has been made in the liberalization of our services sector, from the 4-value-added telecommunications unit to the liberalization of the pilot site, to the 20 provinces and cities that have been conducting a comprehensive service expansion pilot. The experts suggested that the next step should be to further advance the building of open platforms for high-level services reform, to actively participate in international agreements and to enhance institutional openness。
Systematic expansion of services such as telecommunications
The ministry of industry and communications has recently published data showing that since february 2025, when the first vat pilot batches were issued, 166 foreign-owned enterprises have been approved, and that the relevant businesses are legally able to carry out vat operations such as internet data centres, internet access services and information services。
This is the latest development in our country to promote the opening of telecommunications operations. Prior periods, the beijing, shanghai, hainan and shenzhen piloted the elimination of foreign equity restrictions on value-added telecommunications operations such as internet data centres. At present, there are more than 3,100 foreign investment telecommunications enterprises nationwide, operating with a total of 10 value added telecommunications operations covered by the catalogue of telecommunication operations. In addition to telecommunications, nine provinces and municipalities have allowed the establishment of independent foreign-owned hospitals and more than 150 co-financed and sole-funded health-care facilities throughout the country。
Policy signals to deepen services liberalization have been released since the beginning of the year. The state council's opinion on promoting the empowerment of services proposes to further expand the opening of pilot projects in areas such as value added telecommunications, biotechnology, foreign-owned hospitals, etc。
The deputy minister of commerce, tong tong, stated that, as foreign access restrictions in the manufacturing sector became fully “zero”, the next step would be to improve the system of negative list management of cross-border trade in services, to expand autonomous liberalization in services such as telecommunications, the internet, education, culture, health, etc., to secure the implementation of open pilots such as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, foreign-owned hospitals, to support the extension of the value chain of foreign investment in services, and to guarantee “access to and quasi-campaign” foreign investment in open areas。
Building high-energy open platforms
In addition to expanding liberalization in the subdivision of services, we are continuously exploring deepening services reform and liberalization based on platforms such as the ftaz and the national pilot demonstration of expanded liberalization of services。
The director of the institute of international trade in services, department of commerce institute, lee joon, described the establishment of a clear system of gradients for the management of negative list management of trade in services: the first, hainan free trade port, has the shortest negative list and is the most open; and a negative list system for cross-border trade in services is implemented nationally and in ftas. In addition, we have been able to develop a broad-based approach to services-specific, integrated, open-up pilot projects, which have gradually expanded to 20 pilot cities or pilot provinces since its inception in beijing in 2015. These pilot regions have launched a series of open-ended initiatives that have resulted in numerous policy experiences and practical examples of services sector reform and liberalization, which have contributed significantly to the development of services industries and trade in services。
In the case of cross-border data flows, for example, beijing had previously launched the first national negative list of scenery, field-level self-trade test areas, and the first comprehensive reform document on cross-border data flows, with data diversity and pass rate at the national level. As a next step, beijing will focus on such priority areas as eye medical devices and auto-driving (intellectual internet-based vehicles) to launch the second negative list of data exits。
Active interface between international economic and trade rules
Several experts expressed the need for further deepening of international cooperation and steady convergence of high-standard rules in the process of expanding services liberalization。
In the view of lee joon, there are many areas of the service sector that concern people's livelihood or national security, a large number of regulatory authorities, a more stringent regulatory system and a cautious approach to opening up the world's countries to related areas. China has made great efforts to promote the autonomous liberalization of services and the establishment of dedicated open platforms, which are rare on a global scale. Despite some success, there are still gaps in international trade and economic rules, regimes and standards that meet high standards。
He recommended active participation in international agreements to promote systemic openness. For example, the implementation of the rcep agreement on the conversion of trade in services liberalization from positive to negative list management and the translation into international rules and agreements of the experience gained in the implementation of negative lists of domestic cross-border trade in services has helped to raise the level of institutionalization and regulation of services liberalization in our country。
According to zhao wei, chief economist of shin mangung securities, services are opening up from traditional areas toHigh value added, in the area of high-technology barriers. Improved institutional safeguards and a more stable and transparent policy environment facilitate the pooling of global factor capital and stimulate dynamism within the domestic economy。
