Company: ZHIHF
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000729
Chunk: 289

Company: Zhihu Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 289
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 will become effective on July 1, 2024. The amendment mainly improves the establishment and exit mechanism of companies, optimizes the organizational structure of companies, specifies shareholder rights, enhances the capital system of companies, and increases the responsibilities of controlling shareholders and management personnel. The amendment imposes a more stringent timeline on capital contributions, requiring the shareholders of a PRC company to pay their subscribed capital within five years from the establishment of the company. In addition, on July 1, 2024, the State Council of the PRC issued the Provisions on Implementing the Registered Capital Registration and Management System under the PRC Company Law, which further specify the detailed requirements and measures of the registration and management of registered capital under the amended PRC Company Law. Pursuant to such provisions, there should be a three-year 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,