Effect of foreign investment on national security to be reviewed

China will accurately review foreign investment that affects or may affect national security, while avoiding generalization actions to better ensure and protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment, the Ministry of Commerce said.

The government will, in accordance with the principle of necessary reasonableness, implement these policy measures to effectively prevent and resolve national security risks, said Gao Feng, the ministry's spokesman.

The official made the remarks at a weekly news conference, adding that it is an international practice to carry out a foreign security review.

China released rules on foreign investment security review to safeguard national security while spurring foreign investment in December last year. The 23-clause rules specified provisions concerning the security review mechanism on foreign investment, including the types of investments subject to review, review scopes and procedures, among others.

The official reiterated that the direction of encouraging more foreign-funded enterprises to develop in China will not change.

The ministry will work with other government branches to promote wider, broader and deeper opening-up, fully implement the Foreign Investment Law and other related regulations, maintain fair competition order and protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment over the course of China's 14th Five-Year Plan period, Gao said.

The Chinese government will continue to improve its services for foreign-funded enterprises and foreign-funded projects to create a market-oriented, legalized, and internationalized business environment, he added.