Assessing the outward foreign investment regulatory regime in China: a unified outward foreign investment law on the horizon?

Abstract

ABSTRACT For the regulation of its outward foreign investment, China has issued various regulatory documents and policies instruments through different governmental levels and branches, such regulatory regime has governed China’s outward investment activities for more than four decades, and has been significantly complex, fragmented, and decentralized. This article provides a comprehensive and updated analysis on the main aspects and contents of China’s current regulatory regime on outward foreign investment, it finds that many inherent problems remain unresolved. These problems are analysed and unfolded from three main perspective in terms of investment regulation, promotion, and protection. The analysis reveals the potential areas for improvement in China’s regulatory regime thereof, including areas of multilayered regulation, foreign exchange regulation, compliance policies, financial policies, and overseas investment insurance. Considering China’s recent national legislative plan, this article also argues that China’s outward investment may probably continue to be governed by the current regulatory regime over the longer term.