On April 9, China’s Hainan Province officially released a three-year action plan aimed at comprehensively optimizing foreign-related services and enhancing the international business environment. The plan introduced 30 specific measures across seven key areas, focusing on improving the management level of foreign-related services, increasing the internationalization of Hainan Free Trade Port, and elevating its capacity for opening up to the outside world.
According to the plan, Hainan will enhance the level of foreign-related government services by establishing an integrated online-offline international service zone, expanding distinctive service scenarios for “efficient completion of one task,” and promoting a mutual recognition mechanism for work permits of overseas professionals.
For foreign-invested enterprises, the plan explicitly proposes to facilitate international trade and investment by streamlining registration procedures, enhancing targeted services, and ensuring effective implementation of foreign-related enterprise support policies. Additionally, Hainan will strengthen international cooperation in science and technology industries, improve rights protection and credit supervision systems, launch an English-language enterprise service platform and the “Haiyidui” policy fulfillment system, and further expand the list of “automatic entitlement” services.
These measures not only provide a more convenient and transparent service environment for foreign investors and professionals, but also mark substantial progress in institutional integration innovation and opening-up by the Hainan Free Trade Port. From an international perspective, the plan demonstrates the systematic and forward-looking approach of China’s local governments in attracting global resources and optimizing the business environment. Especially against the backdrop of sluggish global economic recovery and cautious cross-border investments, Hainan’s proactive actions undoubtedly send a positive signal to international capital and talent.
The introduction of Hainan’s action plan is not an isolated local initiative, but rather a part of China’s ongoing strategy to promote high-level opening-up. In recent years, the Chinese central government and governments at all levels have introduced a series of policies and measures to expand openness, demonstrating a firm determination to deepen economic and trade exchanges with countries around the world. From establishing free trade pilot zones and releasing negative lists for cross-border service trade, to continuously hosting the China International Import Expo and promoting the high-quality implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and more recently to fully lifting foreign investment restrictions in manufacturing sectors and relaxing market access in services, China is building a more stable, transparent, and predictable open economic system.
At the institutional level, China has provided foreign-funded enterprises with a rule-of-law-based, market-oriented, and internationalized business environment by revising the Foreign Investment Law, improving intellectual property protection, and establishing international commercial dispute resolution mechanisms. At the operational level, free trade zones such as Hainan, Shanghai, and Guangdong have continuously introduced facilitation measures, including “one-stop online services,””single windows,” and pilot programs for cross-border data flow, significantly reducing transaction costs in international economic and trade cooperation.
China also actively promotes international cooperation in emerging fields such as green economy and digital economy, proposes the Global Development Initiative, supports the multilateral trading system, and opposes “decoupling and disconnection”. The core logic of these policies is to share the development dividends of China’s super-large market with countries around the world by actively opening up markets, optimizing rule alignment, and reducing institutional transaction costs. For foreign enterprises and investors, this means a more equitable competitive environment, broader market space, and more stable policy expectations. China is willing to strengthen cooperation with other countries in industrial chains, supply chains, and innovation chains to jointly address challenges facing the global economy, which not only reflects economic rationality but also provides strong support for the globalization process.
The action plan of Hainan and China’s overall opening-up policy demonstrate that China can rapidly roll out and implement systematic opening-up measures nationwide by leveraging its unique institutional advantages—including policy continuity and stability, an efficient administrative execution system, and a development-oriented governance model. For instance, the Hainan Free Trade Port established a comprehensive institutional framework covering trade, investment, cross-border capital flows, personnel exchanges, and orderly data security flows within just a few years from legislation to policy implementation. This “top-level design + local pilot programs + legal safeguards” model ensures the predictability and enforceability of opening-up policies.
Meanwhile, China has provided international investors with a stable and predictable legal environment by continuously improving institutional safeguards such as pre-establishment national treatment for foreign investment, negative list management, and intellectual property protection. In recent years, the United States has adopted a series of trade policies characterized by tariffs, subsidies, and localization requirements. These practices have objectively affected the compliance costs and operational stability of multinational enterprises, while also exerting certain adjustment pressures on the operation of the current multilateral trading system. Additionally, there is significant variability in U.S. trade policies across different administrations—for example, subsequent governments may modify or reverse trade agreements or policy commitments made by their predecessors—compelling businesses to more frequently assess policy uncertainty when conducting long-term business planning.
China has solidified its opening-up commitments into enforceable rules through multi-level institutional tools such as legislation, planning documents, and departmental regulations, and ensured their implementation through mechanisms like government performance evaluations and supervision accountability. This institutional stability and execution capability are precisely the key reasons why China has maintained high growth rates in attracting foreign investment for consecutive years. An increasing number of countries and enterprises are re-evaluating their global strategies, viewing China as a more reliable and efficient partner.