President Xi Jinping recently made a speech at the opening ceremony of the China International Import Expo (CIIE). In the speech, Xi said that China will "accelerate the opening up" of a list of sectors including education, and will "relax restrictions on foreign ownership" in the education sector as well as other areas including medicine. The speech did not give any further details of how these restrictions would be relaxed.

Xi’s speech presented China as an advocate for an open international economy and an opponent of protectionism and has been interpreted as an attack on US trade policies. Aside from relaxing restrictions on investment in education, other policies mentioned including lowering import tariffs, expanding the Shanghai free trade zone and improving the enforcement of intellectual property rights. 

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, British Council International Education Services

Foreign investment in education in China is currently strictly regulated. Overseas investment in institutions providing compulsory education to Chinese citizens is prohibited, and draft regulations circulated earlier this year would also prevent foreign institutions from having “actual control” over schools at this level. Foreign investment is allowed at the pre-school, upper secondary and higher education levels, but this must be as part of a joint venture with a Chinese entity and the overseas partner may not own a majority share. In practice it is also very difficult to obtain approval for Sino-foreign cooperative institutions at the higher education level. On the other hand, investment in informal training centres is not restricted.

No further details of these reforms have yet been announced, nor has any timeline or implementation plan. It is not yet clear which sub-sectors of education these reforms would apply to, or to what extent foreign ownership restrictions in those sectors would be relaxed. This means that the actual impact of these changes on UK educational institutions is still unclear. 

Sources

South China Morning Post - Xi Jinping makes fresh promises to open China’s economy and boost imports:https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/2171705/xi-pledges-china-buy-us40-trillion-worth-imports-next-15-years

Reuters – China's Xi promises to raise imports amid trade row with U.S:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-trade/chinas-xi-promises-to-raise-imports-amid-trade-row-with-us-idUSKCN1NA053

British Council IES – Draft Chinese regulations for private schools would forbid foreign control of schools offering compulsory education (August 2018):https://education-services.britishcouncil.org/news/market-news/draft-chinese-regulations-private-schools-would-forbid-foreign-control-of-schools