Company: ZHIHF
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000729
Chunk: 139

Company: Zhihu Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 139
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 interim period from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027 for the existing companies to adjust their periods of capital contribution. If the period of capital contribution of a company established before the effective date of the amended PRC Company Law exceeds the period prescribed under the Amended PRC Company Law, such company should make an adjustment within the foregoing interim period to meet the requirements under the Amended PRC Company Law. As such, we may need to fulfill capital contribution obligations to our subsidiaries or provide financial support to the nominee shareholders of the VIEs within a much shorter time frame than we are currently required.

Regulations Relating to Foreign Investment

Investment activities in the PRC by foreign investors are principally governed by the Catalog of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment, or the Encouraging Catalog, and the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access, or the Negative List, which were promulgated and amended from time to time by the Ministry of Commerce and the NDRC, and together with the Foreign Investment Law, and their respective implementation rules and ancillary regulations. The Encouraging Catalog and the Negative List lay out the basic framework for foreign investment in China, classifying businesses into three categories with regard to foreign investment: “encouraged,” “restricted,” and “prohibited.” Industries not listed in the Catalog are generally deemed as falling into a fourth category “permitted” unless specifically restricted by other PRC laws.

On September 6, 2024, the Ministry of Commerce and the NDRC released the 2024 Negative List effective on November 1, 2024, to replace the previous Negative List. On October 26, 2022, the Ministry of Commerce and the NDRC released the Catalog of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment (2022 Version) effective on January 1, 2023, to replace the previous Encouraging Catalog.

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress promulgated the PRC Foreign Investment Law effective on January 1, 2020. Pursuant to the Foreign Investment Law, “foreign investments” refer to investment activities conducted by foreign investors directly or indirectly in China, which include any of the following circumstances: (i) foreign investors setting up foreign-invested enterprises in China solely or jointly with other investors, (ii) foreign investors obtaining shares, equity interests, property portions or other similar rights and interests of enterprises within China, (iii) foreign investors investing in new projects