China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced its ongoing commitment to further opening the telecommunications sector to foreign investment.

This initiative aims to foster a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment, enabling more qualified foreign companies to enter the Chinese telecom market.

The ministry seeks to encourage the exploration of new business models and support the development of a new, higher-level system for an open economy.

In recent years, the ministry has pursued high-quality development in the telecom industry through high-level opening-up, steadily advancing the expansion of market access for telecom services.

Building on China's WTO commitments, free trade zone policies, and broader service sector opening measures, the ministry has proactively aligned with high-standard international economic and trade rules.

Pilot programs in Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan, and Shenzhen have removed foreign equity caps for value-added telecom services, including internet data centers.

Since the approval of the first batch of value-added telecom business pilot licenses in February 2025, 166 foreign-invested enterprises have received such approvals.

These approved companies are now permitted to legally operate value-added telecom services such as internet data centers, internet access services, and information services.

Currently, there are over 3,100 foreign-invested telecom enterprises operating nationwide, with their business scopes covering all 10 categories of value-added telecom services listed in the Telecom Services Classification Catalog.

This expansion is expected to provide Chinese consumers with a wider variety of telecom services and products, further contributing to a more open and dynamic market ecosystem.