be considered as legitimate. Conversely, if ultimate controlling person(s) is/are of foreign nationalities, such domestic enterprise may be treated as a foreign investor or FIE, and therefore the operation of such domestic enterprise through VIE structures without obtaining necessary permission may be considered as illegal.

Neither the Draft Foreign Investment Law nor its accompanying explanatory notes (the “Explanatory Notes”) provides a clear direction in dealing with VIE structures existing before the Draft Foreign Investment Law becoming effective. However, the Explanatory Notes contemplate three possible approaches in dealing with FIEs with existing VIE structures and conducting business in an industry falling within the “catalog of special administrative measures”:

(i) requiring them to make a filing (申報) to the competent authority that the actual control is vested with Chinese investors, after which the VIE structures may be retained;

(ii) requiring them to apply to the competent authority for certification that their actual control is vested with Chinese investors and, upon verification (認定) by the competent authority, the VIE structures may be retained; and

(iii) requiring them to apply to the competent authority for permission (准入許可) to continue to use the VIE structure. The competent authority together with the relevant departments will then make a decision after taking into account the actual control of the FIE and other factors.

To further clarify, under the first possible approach, “making a filing” is simply an information disclosure obligation, which means the enterprise does not have to receive any confirmation or permission from the competent authorities, whilst for the second and third approaches, the enterprise has to receive either the confirmation or the access permission from the competent authorities. For the latter two approaches, the second approach focuses on the nationality of the controller, whereas the third approach may take factors in addition to the nationality of the controller (which are not clearly defined in the Draft Foreign Investment Law or the Explanatory Notes) into consideration.

The three possible approaches above are set out in the Explanatory Notes to solicit public opinion on the treatment of existing contractual arrangements, have not been formally adopted and may be subject to revisions and amendments taking into account the results of the public consultation.

Where foreign investors and FIEs circumvent the provisions of the Draft Foreign Investment Law by entrusted holding, trust, multi-level re-investment, leasing, contracting, financing arrangements, protocol control, overseas transaction or otherwise, make investments in sectors specified in the Catalog of Prohibitions, or make investments in sectors specified in the Catalog of Restrictions without permission or violate the information reporting obligations specified therein, penalty shall be imposed in accordance with Article 144 (Investments in Sectors Specified in the Catalog of Prohibitions), Article 145 (Violation of Provisions on Access Permission), Article 147 (Administrative Legal Liability for Violating the Information Reporting Obligation) or Article 148 (Criminal Legal Liability for Violating the Information Reporting Obligation) of the Draft Foreign Investment Law, as the case may be.