China is being urged to press ahead with reforms to create a more transparent and fair environment for foreign businesses in industries including agriculture, banking, and information technology, according to the 2015 White Paper issued by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in China. Despite the improvements made, “substantial problems” have remained in four policy priority areas: rule of law, market access, standards, and intellectual property rights, the Chamber said at a press briefing in Beijing. “Non-transparent, unclear, and inconsistent rule-making was identified by 65% of our members as limiting their ability and willingness to invest in China, and has remained a top challenge to business for the last four years in a row,” AmCham said. China’s rule-making about information and communications technology (ICT), for example, which is “by some measures the largest single category of U.S. exports to China” and a key issue in the U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) negotiations, had lacked transparency, AmCham said. The Chamber also said it was hopeful that China “will seriously and significantly” open up further to foreign investment, especially in the financial services, agriculture, automotive, and health-care sectors.

China officially inaugurated three new free trade zones (FTZs) on April 21 in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian. Each will cover around 120 square kilometers. China’s first FTZ, set up in Shanghai in September 2013, will also be quadrupled in size, taking in the Lujiazui financial hub, the manufacturing zone of Jinqiao and the high-tech base of Zhangjiang. This will increase its area more than four-fold to 120.27 square km. “FTZs are important for exploring new paths and acquiring new experiences for further reforms and opening-up,” the Chinese government said in a statement. Since its establishment in 2013, the Shanghai FTZ has introduced a raft of policies to reduce red tape, simplify customs procedures, limit government interference, widen market access across service sectors and deregulate financial markets. The Guangdong zone will aim for better economic cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, lowering the thresholds for investors, especially in areas such as financial services, shipping services and technology services. Hong Kong and Macao companies will be allowed to issue yuan-denominated bonds in the mainland and explore ways for firms in the zone to sell yuan-denominated shares in Hong Kong. With its proximity to Taiwan, the Fujian zone will play a role in boosting cross-strait ties and become a “core region” of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The Tianjin FTZ will promote integrated development with nearby Beijing and Hebei province. The government also released a new version of the negative list for investments in the new free trade zones. The list specifies restrictions for foreign investment in 122 business areas, down from the previous 139 in the list adopted by the Shanghai zone. Foreign investors are still barred from sectors such as air traffic control, internet mapping, radio and TV production and postal services. Foreign investments are restricted to joint ventures with domestic companies in sectors such as health care, securities companies, mutual fund management and shipping agencies, the Shanghai Daily reports.
Pilot free trade zones, now operating in four areas, must have the courage to roll out bolder reforms, Premier Li Keqiang said as he visited Xiamen, part of the Fujian Pilot FTZ. “FTZs should not become places for favorable policies. Instead, they should be a powerhouse of reforms,” Li said.

A team of Chinese scientists have successfully edited human DNA in an embryo for the first time, winning support at home but prompting controversy in the West. Huang Junjiu, Associate Professor of Biology at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and colleagues used cutting-edge technology to “cleave” a gene responsible for beta thalassemia, a common and sometimes deadly blood disorder among children in south China. The paper detailing the work was submitted to the journals Nature and Science but was turned down over ethical objections. Writing in the journal Protein & Cell, the authors said they were aware of the ethical issues. They used “non-viable” embryos discarded by hospitals, or eggs fertilized by multiple sperm. One critic, British biologist Edward Lanphier, told Nature that “we need to pause this research and make sure we have a broad-based discussion about which direction we are going”. Chen Guoqiang, Professor of Biology at Tsinghua University, said the critics’ demands were arbitrary. “To do as they say, no research should be done on human embryos at all,” he said. “The editing of human DNA holds the key to cure many diseases, maintain health, retain youth, live long. These will all be possible in the future and free many families from pain and suffering,” he added. Huang’s team experimented with 86 discarded embryos and found that editing was successful only in 28, or about 30% of embryos, the South China Morning Post reports.

A new draft of the Patent Law, based on the version sent to the State Council in early 2013 for approval, was released on April 1 to solicit opinions. The new draft addresses challenges in legal protection, such as difficulties in collecting evidence, insufficient compensation and high costs, Song Jianhua, Director of SIPO’s Law and Treaty Department, said at an IP forum on April 20. Courts can order suspects to provide financial records and other evidence if rights owners have already made failed efforts to access them, according to the draft. “We also suggested punitive damages, about two to three times compensation, in the case of malicious infringements,” Song said. The amended draft also has added regulations about online counterfeit cases. Zhu Xuezhong, Law Professor at Tongji University, said the revisions would not only keep China’s legal system in line with global trends but also help meet demands from within the country, including new provisions such as partial industrial design and protection of diagnosis and treatment methods for animal or plant diseases.

Ethnic Chinese account for a record one-fifth of all billionaires in the world this year, rising from 17.6% in 2014, according to the China Rich List 2015 compiled by the U.S. business magazine Forbes. The 370 billionaires identified each had at least USD1 billion in net assets and were led in the wealth stakes by 86-year-old Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-shing, with an estimated USD33.3 billion in assets, followed by fellow Hong Kong property tycoon Lee Shau-kee and Dalian Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin. In all, 213, or about 57%, of the billionaires came from the mainland, 9% came from Hong Kong and 9% from Taiwan. The rest came from other countries. Collectively, their wealth has grown by more than 20% annually over the last three years, with mainland businesspeople accounting for a growing share of the fortunes. This year’s top 10 richest included five people from the mainland, up from one two years ago. Four Hong Kong tycoons were among the 10 richest, down from five in 2013. Three mainland internet pioneers – Jack Ma of Alibaba, Pony Ma of Tencent, and Robin Li of Baidu – were among the top 10. Ma was fourth on the list, with his net assets rising 127% in value since last year. Li Hejun, founder of solar panel maker Hanergy, was fifth, with his fortune more than doubling in the year. Real estate was the biggest source of Chinese billionaires, accounting for 80 members of the super-rich, followed by retail with 25 billionaires. Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and finance were next. Liu Qiangdong, the 40-year-old founder of business-to-customer shopping platform JD.com is the youngest in the top 100 with a USD7.4 billion fortune, the South China Morning Post reports.