I would be curious to see what the biggest issues are for business now. From our members, the top three we’re working on from an advocacy perspective:

(1) export restrictions of PPE following the March 31 《关于有序开展医疗物资出口的公告》[2020年第5号]). As of April 1, exports of these products are now required to have both Chinese medical device product registration certificates and comply with the quality standards of the importing country. The intention of the policy was to respond to European criticisms of the quality of medical supplies shipped from China, but the unintended consequences have curtailed American company exports of PPE. We’ve begun to see some loosening here. for contracts signed before 4.1, MOFCOM will review the contract info and issue a letter to Customs to get products released without the certification; 2) for contracts signed after 4.1, MOFCOM will collaborate with industrial experts to review and issue letter to Customs. Not perfect but going in the right direction.

(2) Return restrictions for non-Chinese visa holders is a very difficult challenge for companies. We expect that these are unlikely to be lifted before NPC (which seem likely to be delayed to mid-late March) raising uncertainty for senior executives at our companies. We understand that MOFCOM has tried to facilitate the process a bit within their system, encouraging local commerce commissions in China to work with companies to “certify” the importance of certain expat staff (e.g. country presidents or CEOs), and companies giving that certification to local embassies for obtaining new visas. E.g. we hear that some European companies have been able to do this with the Beijing commerce commission.