China Proposes Overhaul of Procurement, Bidding Laws to Aid Foreign Firms

China has unveiled draft revisions to laws governing government procurement and project bidding, taking aim at corruption and opaque processes that have long disadvantaged foreign and private companies.

The proposed updates to the decades-old frameworks were submitted to the nation’s top legislature in late June and are open for public consultation.

At the core of the overhaul is a mandate to guarantee equal participation. Under the proposals, buyers would be banned from imposing discriminatory conditions on government suppliers. Similarly, the bidding law revisions would prohibit restricting bidders based on ownership type, organizational structure or operational scale.