Published by ChinaMNC · Hengzhou

China's Government Information Disclosure Rules: A Practical Guide for Foreign Founders

A concise, founder-focused overview of China's Government Information Disclosure Regulations, explaining what government information is, how it is published, and how foreign-invested enterprises can request it.

Why Government Information Disclosure Matters for Foreign Founders

For foreign entrepreneurs establishing or running a company in China, access to reliable government information is essential for compliance, planning, and understanding local regulations. China's Government Information Disclosure Regulations, originally issued in 2007 and amended in 2019, set out the framework for how administrative organs disclose information and how citizens, legal persons, and other organizations—including foreign-invested enterprises—can obtain it. This article summarizes the key provisions relevant to foreign founders and offers practical guidance.

What Counts as Government Information

The regulations define government information as information that administrative organs create or obtain in the course of performing their administrative functions, and that is recorded and preserved in a certain form. This broad definition covers a wide range of documents, data, and records that may affect business operations.

Local government offices at or above the county level serve as the competent departments for government information disclosure in their respective administrative areas. They are responsible for advancing, guiding, coordinating, and supervising disclosure work in their regions.

Core Principles of Disclosure

Administrative organs must adhere to the principle that disclosure is the norm and non-disclosure is the exception. They must follow principles of fairness, impartiality, legality, and convenience. When false or incomplete information is found that affects or may affect social stability or disrupt social and economic management order, organs must release accurate government information to clarify the situation.

Governments at all levels are required to strengthen the standardized, digital management of government information resources, enhance online disclosure platforms, integrate these platforms with government service platforms, and improve the level of online processing for information disclosure.

Who Is Responsible for Disclosure

Administrative organs that create government information are responsible for disclosing it. If an organ obtains information from citizens, legal persons, or other organizations, the organ that preserves the information is responsible for disclosure. If an organ obtains information from another administrative organ, the organ that created or first obtained the information is responsible. Where laws or regulations provide otherwise on disclosure authority, those provisions apply.

Dispatched agencies or internal departments established by administrative organs that perform administrative functions in their own name according to law may be responsible for disclosing information related to those functions.

Administrative organs must establish coordination mechanisms for disclosure. When disclosure involves other organs, they must consult and confirm with the relevant organs to ensure accuracy and consistency.

What Information Is Not Disclosed

Government information that is classified as a state secret according to law, or whose disclosure is prohibited by laws or administrative regulations, is not disclosed. Information whose disclosure may endanger national security, public safety, economic security, or social stability is also withheld.

Information involving trade secrets, personal privacy, or other third-party lawful rights and interests that would be harmed by disclosure must not be disclosed, unless the third party consents or the administrative organ determines that non-disclosure would significantly affect the public interest. In that case, disclosure may proceed.

Process information such as discussion records, drafts, consultation letters, and request reports formed during the performance of administrative functions, as well as administrative law enforcement case files, may be withheld. If laws, regulations, or rules require disclosure, those provisions apply.

Administrative organs must review information proposed for disclosure in accordance with the Law on Guarding State Secrets and other laws, regulations, and state provisions. If an organ cannot determine whether information can be disclosed, it must report to the relevant competent department or secrecy administration for a determination.

Administrative organs must establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for information management, periodically evaluate and review information they have not disclosed, and disclose information that becomes disclosable due to changed circumstances.

Proactive Disclosure: What Governments Must Publish

Administrative organs must proactively disclose government information that involves adjustments to public interests, that the public needs to broadly know, or that requires public participation in decision-making. Additionally, governments at the city and county levels with districts, and their departments, must proactively disclose information related to municipal construction, public services, public welfare undertakings, land expropriation, housing expropriation, public security management, and social assistance, based on local conditions.

Township governments must also proactively disclose information on implementing agriculture and rural policies, construction and operation of farmland water conservancy projects, transfer of rural land contractual management rights, review of homestead use, land and housing expropriation, fundraising and labor mobilization, and social assistance.

Administrative organs must determine the specific content of proactive disclosure according to the regulations and continuously increase the content disclosed in accordance with superior authorities' arrangements.

How Information Is Published

Administrative organs must establish information release mechanisms and disclose proactive information through government gazettes, government websites, other online government media, press conferences, newspapers, radio, and television.

Governments at all levels must strengthen disclosure through government portals and use unified government information disclosure platforms to centrally publish proactive information. These platforms must have functions for information retrieval, viewing, and downloading.

Governments at all levels must set up government information access points in national archives, public libraries, and government service venues, equipped with appropriate facilities to facilitate access for citizens, legal persons, and other organizations.

Information within the scope of proactive disclosure must be disclosed within 20 working days from the date it is formed or changed. If laws or regulations provide otherwise on the time limit, those provisions apply.

Requesting Government Information: A Practical Guide

In addition to proactive disclosure, citizens, legal persons, or other organizations—including foreign-invested enterprises—may apply to local governments at all levels and to departments at or above the county level that perform administrative functions in their own name (including dispatched agencies and internal departments mentioned in Article 10, paragraph 2) to obtain relevant government information.

Administrative organs must establish and improve channels for information disclosure applications to facilitate access for applicants.

Applicants must submit requests to the government information disclosure work agency of the administrative organ, using written forms including letters and electronic data messages. If written form is genuinely difficult, applicants may make oral requests, and the receiving agency will fill out the application on their behalf.

If the content of an application is unclear, the administrative organ must provide guidance and explanation, and within 7 working days of receiving the application, inform the applicant in one go of the items that need correction and a reasonable correction period. The response period is calculated from the date the organ receives the corrected application. If the applicant fails to correct without justified reason, the application is deemed abandoned, and the organ will no longer process it.

When an application is submitted by mail, the date the administrative organ signs for receipt is the date of receipt. If submitted by ordinary mail that does not require signature, the government information disclosure work agency must confirm with the applicant on the day of receipt; the confirmation date is the date of receipt.

Key Takeaways for Foreign Founders

• Know the default: Disclosure is the norm; non-disclosure is the exception. Use official channels to obtain information that affects your business.
• Check proactive disclosure first: Many categories of information relevant to businesses—such as land expropriation, public services, and social assistance—are proactively published on government websites and portals.
• File a request if needed: If information is not proactively disclosed, you can file a written request (including by email) to the relevant government information disclosure work agency.
• Be precise: Clearly describe the information you seek to avoid delays from unclear applications.
• Respect exemptions: Understand that state secrets, trade secrets, personal privacy, and certain process information are protected and may not be disclosed.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.