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外 Waitan LudiPolicy terminal · China industrial-policy monitor · updated 2026-10-25

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Overview

How Chinese industrial policy travels from the State Council to provinces and cities, which documents favour domestic firms, and what is coming next.

NEW · RESEARCH ASSISTANT

What does the evidence actually say?

Ask in English or Chinese. Trace sources, compare terms and challenge a conclusion.

Local evidence mode

BENEATH THE HEADLINES

The detail changes the story.

Three findings. Follow each back to the original record.

Analyst view · for policy analysts and researchers Where is the source, what does it build on, and who followed it?
  1. Search documentsWords in the full text, firm names (CATL), 文号 or issuer, with level, province, measure and topic filters.
  2. Trace a directiveOne State Council directive: every province and city document citing it, on a clock against the usual lag.
  3. Follow a policy down the hierarchyThe promulgation graph: central roots and every document that cites them.
  4. Check the denominatorsCorpus composition, field completeness, robustness checks, CSVs.
  5. GlossaryThe English used for each Chinese policy term, what it means, and how many documents use it.
  6. Read the findingsTransmission, substitution, trade and the 15th plan, with caveats.
Policy transmission
151 days
median time from a State Council directive to a province's implementing document (middle half 84–259 days)
59%
of directives (2013–2025) answered within a year by at least one of 6 fully listed provinces (653 of 1,112)
Provinces take up most State Council directives, and take about 5 months to do it
Industrial strategy · Import substitution
2.8%
of policy documents call for 国产替代, 进口替代, 自主可控 or 卡脖子 fixes, 2013–16 (n = 251)
The language of import substitution stepped up around 2020, from 1.9% of sector policy documents in 2017–19 to 6.4% in 2020–22, and has stayed there (6.1% in 2023–26)
What comes next · The 15th Five-Year Plan
12% → 23%
of plan documents name future industries
The first 15th Five-Year Plan documents name a new set of industries: low-altitude flight, future industries, data and robotics
From buyer to rival
0.21 → 1.42
Machine tools: dollars exported per dollar imported, 2012 → 2025
China now exports more machine tools than it imports, and robots are at parity; in chip-making equipment, dependence is still growing

What's new

The latest State Council and ministry documents held, and the latest local documents that implement central policy.

LocalDocument → what it implementsProvince
2026-10-20 贵州省健康医药产业高质量发展实施方案(2026-2030年)(征求意见 Guizhou
2026-10-20 关于申报新能源汽车充换电设施建设财政奖补资金的通知 Jiangsu
2026-10-16 关于印发《长沙住房公积金信用评级评价管理办法》的通知 Hunan
2026-10-13 湖南省人民政府办公厅关于印发《湖南省煤矿“三个一批”分类处置总体方案》的通知 Hunan
2026-10-13 宁夏回族自治区人民政府办公厅关于加强基层消防工作的实施意见 Ningxia
2026-10-13 宁夏回族自治区人民政府办公厅关于印发《宁夏回族自治区全域消防安全监管实施办法(试行)》的通知 Ningxia
2026-10-09 北京市经济和信息化局 北京市卫生健康委员会等部门关于开展2026年高端医疗装备推广应用项目申报工作的通知
→ 医疗器械监督管理条例 国务院令第739号
Beijing
2026-10-09 包头市人民政府办公室关于进一步加强矿区生态修复监管工作的通知 Inner Mongolia

Provinces

Documents held per province (lighter = more). All provinces →

Central government
50,270
Policy documents held
3,734 central · 29,218 provincial · 17,304 city & county · 14 unplaced
28,748
Citations linked to a held document
of 146,044 found (20%); the rest is the crawl frontier
29
Topic trees
central roots and every document that implements them
21,361
Firms named in policy lists
180,493 entries in 382 documents
10,182
gov.cn news & briefings scanned
latest 2026-10-20

Topic trees

Most active first: documents added in the last twelve months. Bars: documents per year over ten years, this year in blue. Open a tree for its summary, China's stance and the evidence.

Equipment renewal and trade-in

Large-scale equipment renewal and consumer-goods trade-in subsidies (2024–).

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 02024: 1252025: 692026: 53
+63 in 12 months
247 documents · 205 local · 1 root

AI and computing power

Artificial intelligence, computing infrastructure and data centres.

2017: 42018: 112019: 112020: 52021: 22022: 42023: 02024: 12025: 262026: 38
+52 in 12 months
102 documents · 67 local · 2 roots

Medical devices and equipment

Medical-device regulation and review reform, high-value consumables, the medical-equipment industry.

2017: 52018: 02019: 12020: 22021: 292022: 202023: 122024: 222025: 362026: 33
+36 in 12 months
167 documents · 128 local · 4 roots

Government procurement and domestic products

Public procurement rules, the 2026 domestic-product standard and its price preference.

2017: 72018: 92019: 32020: 52021: 112022: 232023: 92024: 182025: 372026: 33
+35 in 12 months
157 documents · 137 local · 3 roots

Unified national market and fair competition

Central rules against local protection: fair-competition review, market access, investment-incentive discipline.

2017: 312018: 232019: 32020: 32021: 82022: 102023: 102024: 172025: 412026: 25
+33 in 12 months
184 documents · 154 local · 2 roots

Charging infrastructure

Building and operating EV charging and battery-swap networks.

2017: 52018: 42019: 42020: 32021: 32022: 32023: 112024: 112025: 172026: 26
+27 in 12 months
103 documents · 88 local · 2 roots

Low-altitude economy

Drones, eVTOL and general aviation: airspace rules, industrial support, local pilot zones.

2017: 22018: 32019: 32020: 12021: 02022: 02023: 22024: 92025: 212026: 18
+25 in 12 months
62 documents · 57 local · 2 roots

Drones and UAV technology

Unmanned aircraft: flight rules, airworthiness, industrial support, export controls and countermeasures.

2017: 02018: 02019: 22020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 42024: 102025: 202026: 18
+25 in 12 months
54 documents · 48 local · 5 roots

Hydrogen and fuel cells

Fuel-cell vehicle demonstration city clusters and hydrogen industry support.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 12021: 02022: 102023: 92024: 72025: 142026: 16
+21 in 12 months
57 documents · 52 local · 3 roots

New energy vehicles

Promotion of NEV production and uptake: purchase subsidies, tax relief, industrial plans.

2017: 142018: 182019: 142020: 122021: 242022: 232023: 172024: 212025: 292026: 15
+20 in 12 months
216 documents · 103 local · 4 roots

Pharmaceuticals and biopharma

Drug review reform, generics, volume-based procurement, innovative drugs and traditional Chinese medicine.

2017: 82018: 112019: 52020: 32021: 92022: 42023: 42024: 12025: 122026: 12
+13 in 12 months
80 documents · 54 local · 7 roots

Overcapacity and anti-involution

Capacity cuts and the campaign against below-cost "involuted" competition.

2017: 142018: 52019: 32020: 02021: 42022: 52023: 72024: 12025: 232026: 8
+12 in 12 months
121 documents · 103 local · 1 root

Critical minerals and export control

Rare earths and strategic minerals: extraction, quotas, and dual-use export control.

2017: 12018: 12019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 02024: 32025: 222026: 9
+10 in 12 months
40 documents · 4 local · 3 roots

Specialised SMEs (专精特新)

The tiered cultivation of "specialised, refined, distinctive and novel" SMEs and little giants: recognition, finance and named-firm lists.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 12022: 102023: 112024: 152025: 52026: 6
+6 in 12 months
48 documents · 37 local · 2 roots

Foreign investment

Entry rules, negative lists, incentives and treatment of foreign-invested firms.

2017: 62018: 72019: 22020: 72021: 62022: 72023: 112024: 92025: 42026: 3
+4 in 12 months
62 documents · 55 local · 3 roots

Consumption and services demand

Boosting household and services consumption (trade-in has its own topic).

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 02024: 22025: 22026: 4
+4 in 12 months
8 documents · 4 local · 3 roots

Data as a factor of production

Data-element markets, public-data authorisation, data industry and cross-border data rules.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 22023: 72024: 142025: 102026: 1
+3 in 12 months
34 documents · 26 local · 5 roots

Solar PV

Photovoltaic manufacturing and generation: tariffs, subsidies, grid parity.

2017: 02018: 42019: 62020: 02021: 12022: 12023: 22024: 22025: 92026: 2
+3 in 12 months
31 documents · 18 local · 3 roots

New-type energy storage

Battery and other non-pumped storage: deployment targets, market access, manufacturing.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 12022: 32023: 52024: 62025: 62026: 2
+3 in 12 months
23 documents · 17 local · 3 roots

Industrial machine tools (工业母机)

Machine-tool industry support: R&D super-deduction and VAT credits for listed firms, demand matching.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 12024: 72025: 92026: 3
+3 in 12 months
20 documents · 10 local · 2 roots

Semiconductors and software

Integrated-circuit and software industry support, chiefly tax and finance.

2017: 02018: 22019: 12020: 32021: 72022: 62023: 12024: 42025: 22026: 2
+2 in 12 months
48 documents · 28 local · 1 root

New materials

Advanced and frontier materials: industry guides, first-batch application insurance, pilot platforms.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 02024: 32025: 32026: 2
+2 in 12 months
8 documents · 3 local · 3 roots

First-of-kind major equipment (首台套)

Major technical equipment: first-unit insurance compensation, procurement access, guidance catalogues.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 12024: 12025: 22026: 2
+2 in 12 months
7 documents · 2 local · 3 roots

Robotics and embodied AI

Industrial, service and humanoid robots; embodied intelligence.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 12022: 02023: 62024: 22025: 32026: 1
+1 in 12 months
13 documents · 8 local · 2 roots

Future industries

Frontier sectors: biomanufacturing, quantum, 6G, commercial space, brain-computer interfaces.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 02024: 52025: 52026: 0
+1 in 12 months
10 documents · 7 local · 2 roots

Seed industry

Crop and livestock breeding, the seed industry revitalisation drive and seed-market rules.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 12021: 12022: 02023: 02024: 02025: 12026: 0
+0 in 12 months
12 documents · 10 local · 1 root

Biomanufacturing and the bioeconomy

The bioeconomy plan and biomanufacturing pilot platforms.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 12022: 02023: 22024: 02025: 02026: 0
+0 in 12 months
3 documents · 2 local · 1 root

Shipbuilding and marine equipment

Shipbuilding restructuring, green shipbuilding and offshore engineering equipment.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 12024: 02025: 02026: 0
+0 in 12 months
3 documents · 0 local · 2 roots

Civil aircraft and aero-engines

The commercial aircraft and aero-engine industry, chiefly tax support.

2017: 02018: 02019: 02020: 02021: 02022: 02023: 12024: 02025: 02026: 0
+0 in 12 months
1 document · 0 local · 1 root · root only so far

Coming up

Documents gov.cn news says were approved, are being drafted, or were issued, and which the corpus does not yet hold. Full horizon scan →

StageDocumentFirst seen
Approved, due out 《国务院关于修改〈住房公积金管理条例〉的决定(草案)》 2026-07-31
Approved, due out 《国务院关于修改和废止部分行政法规的决定(草案)》 2026-10-16
Approved, due out 《事业单位登记管理条例(草案)》 2026-09-28
Approved, due out 《中医药传统知识保护条例(草案)》 2026-09-18
Approved, due out 《基金会管理条例(修订草案)》 2026-09-11
Approved, due out 《电力安全事故应急处置和调查处理条例(修订草案)》 2026-08-21

Analyses

Findings written up from the corpus. All reports →

Briefing note: China's industrial-policy machine
Five findings in two pages: substitution, trade, Switzerland, transmission, the 15th plan.
NEV subsidies by firm ownership
Claims against approvals in MIIT's settlement rounds, 2016–2019, and why claims were cut.
Local protection under central bans
Hand-reviewed cases where local rules contradict central bans on local protection.
Implementation lag
How long local governments take to cite and act on central policy.
Who may apply: local-registration conditions
Eligibility clauses that admit only locally registered applicants: the screen, its hand check (56/60) and the rates by level.
Do provinces still copy State Council directives?
Share of each directive copied into its provincial restatement, 2013–26 (exploratory): rising to 2018, lower in 2025–26 on few documents.
Compliance screen
Keyword-screen leads: local documents below central bans on local protection.
Policies that name firms
Firm lists in policy documents: who is listed, for what, by ownership.
Horizon scan
Trending terms, tree activity and announced documents from gov.cn news.
Pre-analysis plan: provincial responsiveness
How the responsiveness decline was re-tested: estimands, rival explanations, decision rules, deviations.
Results: provincial responsiveness
The pre-registered test: the decline is not statistically established (0.61, 0.28–1.07).
Documents cited but not held
The crawl frontier: what the corpus cites and does not yet hold.