Published by ChinaMNC ยท Zhalute
How China's Government Information Disclosure Platform Helps Foreign Founders Find Official Rules
A practical guide for foreign founders on using China's Government Information Disclosure Platform to locate official regulations, plans and annual disclosure reports before incorporating or operating a company in China.
What This Platform Is
The Chinese government operates a central platform, hosted on the gov.cn website, that publishes government information disclosures. The page carries the site's official identifier codes, including a registration number, an ICP filing number and a public security filing number. For a foreign founder setting up or running a company in China, this platform is a useful starting point for locating official documents rather than relying on secondary commentary.
The site functions as an index. A policy search area lists items by sequence number, title, document number, date of drafting and date of publication. If a search returns nothing, the page suggests checking the input for errors, simplifying the search terms, or trying similar or common words. Founders should treat these suggestions as practical search advice: official titles in Chinese rarely match loose English descriptions, so short, simple Chinese keywords tend to work best.
Core Rules Listed on the Platform
The platform lists the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on Open Government Information, dated 15 April 2019. This is the foundational rule behind the disclosure system. It also lists several notices from the General Office of the State Council and its government information and open government affairs office. These cover:
- A notice on measures for drafting disclosure rules for public enterprises and public institutions, dated 21 December 2020.
- A notice on measures for managing information processing fees for government information disclosure, dated 1 December 2020.
- Guidance from the Ministry of Justice on hearing administrative reconsideration cases involving government information disclosure, forwarded on 4 January 2022.
- A notice on centralized and dynamically updated publication of departmental rules, dated 29 October 2021.
- A notice on the format of annual work reports on government information disclosure, dated 29 September 2021.
- A notice on standardizing matters relating to the government information disclosure platform, dated 3 December 2019.
Several interpretive documents from the open government affairs office address practical questions: handling disclosure applications after institutional reform, channels for receiving applications, the proper respondent in an application, how to fill in annual report items, how decisions are delivered, and the boundary between disclosure requests and general business inquiries. Each of these is dated, with most interpretations issued on 24 October 2017 and the institutional reform explanation on 11 February 2019.
National and Sector Plans
The platform indexes national economic and social development plans. It lists the outline of the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan, the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan and the 2035 long-range objectives, the Thirteenth, Twelfth, Eleventh and Tenth Five-Year Plan outlines. It also indexes special plans, including State Council approvals and notices on special education development, intellectual property protection and use, the national fitness plan for 2026 to 2030, consumption expansion, national health, and the revitalization of traditional Chinese medicine. Each is framed as a five-year or multi-year plan.
For founders, these plans signal the policy areas the government is prioritizing. They are official documents, not investment advice, and they do not create guarantees for any business. Local development plans are indexed by province and region, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang.
Annual Disclosure Reports
A large section of the platform collects annual work reports on government information disclosure. It includes a 2025 report and earlier reports for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020. For each year, the page organizes reports into three groups:
- Provincial level: reports from each province, autonomous region and municipality, following the same list of regions as the local plans.
- Vertically managed systems: reports from systems such as the People's Bank of China, customs, taxation, financial supervision, securities regulation, meteorology, grain and strategic reserves, tobacco, railways, civil aviation, postal services, mine safety supervision, fire and rescue, and foreign exchange.
- State Council departments: reports from ministries and agencies including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the National Intellectual Property Administration, the National Data Administration, the National Medical Products Administration and many others.
The lists vary slightly by year. The 2022 report lists the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, while later years list the National Financial Regulatory Administration. The 2022 list also includes the National Rural Revitalization Administration, which does not appear in the 2023 and later lists. This reflects institutional changes over time, and founders should check the year that matches the period they are researching.
Practical Use for Founders
Before registering a company, a foreign founder can use the platform to confirm which department regulates a given activity and to read the underlying rules directly. The document numbers and drafting dates allow cross-checking against other official sources. The annual reports show how disclosure works in practice across departments and regions, which can help a founder understand where to direct an inquiry.
The interpretations on application channels and the boundary between disclosure and business inquiries are particularly relevant. They explain that a disclosure application is a formal request for existing government information, not a general question about how to do business. Founders with procedural questions should use the appropriate channels rather than filing disclosure requests.
The platform also lists fees for processing information requests, pointing to a separate fee management measure. Founders should review that measure before making large or repeated requests.
Because the site is an index, some items link to documents hosted elsewhere. Founders should verify each document on the issuing department's own page and, where the stakes are high, seek professional advice on how the rules apply to their specific situation.
This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.