According to Art. 6 of the Provisions on Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises, the capital contribution ratio of foreign investors in foreign-funded telecommunications enterprises operating basic telecommunications services (excluding wireless paging services) shall not exceed 49% in the end. However, in practice, all telecommunication companies are Chinese. In addition, the proportion of capital contribution between Chinese investors and foreign investors in foreign-invested telecommunications enterprises in different periods shall be determined by the industry and information technology department of the State Council in accordance with relevant regulations.
In addition, according to Art. 5, if the enterprise is engaged in the basic telecom business within a province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government, it shall have a registered capital of not less than 100 million yuan (Approx. USD 14,000,000). However, if the enterprise is engaged in the basic telecom business nationwide or beyond a single province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government, it shall have a registered capital of not less than 1 billion yuan (approx. USD 140,000,000).
Under the Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) 2020, authorities must treat foreign investors with the same degree of accommodation as domestic investors unless set out otherwise in the negative list. While no caps have been set out in the negative list with regard to basic telecommunication services, the negative list provides that the basic telecommunication business must be controlled by the Chinese party.

As per Art. 10 of the Government Procurement Law, the government must procure domestic goods, construction and services except when: (i) the goods, construction and services needed are not available in China and cannot be required on reasonable commercial terms; (ii) the items to be procured are for use abroad; (iii) otherwise provided for by other laws and administrative regulations.

In the Chinese public procurement regulatory framework, there is an active Buy Chinese policy. In principle, only Chinese companies are allowed to bid in public tenders and foreign ones are only allowed under exceptions. Government agencies and related entities are required to purchase equipment and technology from the Chinese state or privately owned manufacturing companies. There are also reports of insufficient publicity of public tenders. Furthermore, it is reported that central and local entities tend to implement in a very broad manner those provisions, going far beyond discriminations imposed by the law.

China is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 2002.

The Directive Number 618 aims to promote the usage of Chinese products by creating a directory of accredited products that are eligible for government procurement contracts.
In order to gain accreditation, companies and their products in these fields must satisfy a number of criteria. Accreditation is for two to four years and can be renewed. To qualify for the catalogue a product must have been produced by an enterprise that has full ownership of intellectual property in China through its own research and development. Alternatively, a product may have been produced by a Chinese enterprise, work unit, or citizen that has legally obtained the China intellectual property rights or legal rights. Furthermore, the product trademark must be owned by a Chinese company registered in China and the product must be certified by the China National Certification Administration or its provincial departmental branches.
The application guidelines attached to the notice impose additional conditions that could present a high hurdle to non-Chinese companies and products created by non-Chinese companies appear to be at a severe disadvantage in gaining accreditation under the program. In particular, any use, disposal, or improvement of the intellectual property underlying the accredited product must not be subject to any foreign restrictions. Furthermore, any trademark associated with the product must be registered in China first and may not be restricted by foreign brands.
The 2010 Notice Launching the National Indigenous Innovation Product Accreditation Work authorizes procurement of indigenous innovation products that use IP licensed from foreign firms, rather than requiring that products use IP originally developed in China. Applicants for indigenous innovation product status must have exclusive rights to the product's trademark or have the right to use the trademark in China, but the trademark no longer has to be registered in China.

The Administrative Measures for the Multi-level Protection of Information Security (MLPS) require all IT systems in China to be classified on different levels of security, from one to five (with the most sensitive systems designated as level 5). In 2019, the MLPS 2.0 has expanded the definition of 'information systems' to broader systems including network infrastructure, cloud computing systems, mobile application platforms, connected devices and industrial control systems.
The MLPS 2.0 requires networks of level 3 and above to adopt network products and services appropriate to their security protection levels. Companies classified as level 2 and above require companies' procurement and use of encryption products and services to be preapproved by the Chinese government. Under the MLPS 2.0, companies must self-assess their security management and compliance and such assessment results are evaluated and endorsed by the MLPS regulatory body.
The MLPS 2.0 requires companies to set up their cloud infrastructure, including servers, virtualized networks, software, and information systems, in China. Such cloud infrastructures are subject to testing and evaluation by the Chinese government. Overseas operation and maintenance of Chinese cloud computing platforms must also follow Chinese laws and regulations. The national standards also state that customers' data and users' personal information processed by cloud service providers should be stored inside China, which is an additional requirement. It is currently uncertain how these national standards would be enforced and there has not yet been reports of enforcement.

Imported and exported encryption products must be certified by the Office of State Commercial Cryptography Administration (OSCCA). The use of encryption products without OSCCA certification is prohibited, regardless of public, commercial or individual nature of use. However, it is reported that, in practice, only Chinese or Chinese-owned companies are eligible for OSCCA certification to sell, produce and carry out R&D for encryption technology in China, as well as to gain product licensing. Foreign or foreign-owned companies, even if based in China, are excluded. In practice, this means that using foreign encryption products in public procurement is effectively prohibited in China, and that international firms are therefore excluded from government contracts for ‘information security products’ such as smart cards, firewalls and secure databases.

A report by the National Development and Reform Commission of China and the Ministry of Finance bans the purchase of certain foreign IT products for selected government procurement lists. For example, one government procurement list banned ten Apple Inc. products, including the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
A separate procurement list includes some Apple computers that departments can continue to buy on a smaller scale, i.e. purchases totalling less than 1.2 million yuan (USD 195,000). Products from Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Chinese maker Lenovo Group Ltd. were included on both lists. This ban applies to all central Communist Party departments, government ministries and local governments.

It is reported that the Chinese Communist Party's Central Office ordered all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign computer equipment and software within three years and to switch to home-made technologies. An estimate of 20 million to 30 million pieces of hardware need to be swapped out. The substitutions would take place at a pace of 30% in 2020, 50% in 2021 and 20% in 2022, which is nicknamed the "3-5-2" policy.

In June 2014, the centre of Public Procurement of the Central Government issued the result of the public tender for central government procurement of electronic information products of 2014.(Vol. 21, GC-HJ140283). Under the category of "Antivirus Software", all foreign security providers such as Kaspersky and Symantec were excluded from the list. Only five Chinese providers, i.e. 360, Jiangmin, Rising, Kingsoft, and KILL, are listed for the consideration of national security.

The Central Government Procurement Centre banned Windows 8 from all government computers. The Central Government Procurement Centre said in a note after it accepted “its latest batch of electronic devices” that “no computer products may be installed with the Windows 8 operating system”. However, it did not mention any reasons for the ban. While it cannot be determined if the ban on Windows 8 was revoked, Windows 8 was considered a "dead" operating system in 2016.

In April 2011, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China announced anti-dumping duties on non-displacement single-mode optical fibers (used, for example, for long-distance telephony and multichannel television broadcasting systems) (HS code: 9001.1000) imported from the EU and the U.S. This measure was reviewed and extended in April 2017 and, subsequently in April 2022. The rate of duty on imports originating from the European Union ranges from 12.9% to 29.1%, depending on the company. The rate of duty on imports originating from the United States ranges from 33.3% to 78.2%, depending on the company.

In April 2011, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China announced anti-dumping duties on non-displacement single-mode optical fibers (used, for example, for long-distance telephony and multichannel television broadcasting systems) (HS code: 9001.1000) imported from India. This measure was reviewed and extended in August 2020. The rate of duty is between 7.4% and 30.6%, depending on the company.

In January 2005, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China announced anti-dumping duties on non-displacement single-mode optical fibers (used, for example, for long-distance telephony and multichannel television broadcasting systems) (HS code: 9001.1000) imported from Japan and South Korea. This measure was reviewed and extended in January 2011 and, subsequently, in January 2017 and January 2022. The rate of duty imposed on imports originating in Japan is 46%, while for imports originating in South Korea ranges from 7.9% to 46% depending on the company.

China is a signatory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1996 and its 2015 expansion (ITA II).

In April 2007, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China announced anti-dumping duties on electrolytic capacitor paper (HS 480511, 480591) imported from Japan. This measure was revised and extended in April 2013 and then in April 2019. The rate of duty imposed ranges from 15% to 40.83%, depending on the company.