Investing between Canada and China: screening rules, market access and business travel

Where the investment relationship stands in 2026

Canada and China announced a new Strategic Partnership in the joint statement of 2026-01-16. The Prime Minister's Office lists five pillars: energy, economic and trade cooperation, public safety and security, multilateralism, and culture and people-to-people ties. The statement also welcomed the third extension of the currency swap arrangement between the Bank of Canada and the People's Bank of China.

Several economic channels were restored or created. The Economic and Trade Cooperation Roadmap makes the Joint Economic and Trade Commission a mechanism led by the trade ministers that meets at least once a year. On 2026-04-03 the two sides launched a Canada-China Financial Working Group, and China's State Council reports that both sides agreed to hold the Economic and Financial Strategic Dialogue in the second half of 2026.

None of this changed the screening rules on either side. The Investment Canada Act, including national security review, applies in full, and ISED described its minister's June 2026 trip to China as advancing commercial opportunities "with appropriate guardrails". China continues to apply its Negative List. The sections below cover each direction separately, then business travel.

Into Canada: who must file under the Investment Canada Act

The Investment Canada Act (ICA) is administered by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). A non-Canadian that acquires control of a Canadian business, or establishes a new Canadian business, must file either a notification or, if the transaction is above a review threshold, an application for review.

Two points are often missed:

• National security review is separate from the thresholds. It can apply to an investment of any size, including a minority stake.
• The government can review an investment that was not notified for up to five years after it was implemented.

The ICA treats state-owned enterprises differently from private investors, and its definition of a state-owned enterprise includes an entity that is influenced, directly or indirectly, by a foreign government. A company that regards itself as private can therefore still be assessed as state-influenced. The consolidated text of the Act is on the Justice Laws website.

Into Canada: net benefit review thresholds for 2026

An acquisition of control above the applicable threshold needs an application for review, and the Minister must be satisfied that it is of net benefit to Canada. ISED's Thresholds page (dated 2026-01-26) gives these figures for 2026:

• Investors from WTO members that are not state-owned enterprises: CAD 1.452 billion in enterprise value. China is a WTO member, so this is the threshold for private Chinese investors.
• Trade agreement investors (for example under CUSMA, the CPTPP or CETA): CAD 2.179 billion in enterprise value. China does not qualify.
• State-owned enterprise investors from WTO members: CAD 578 million in asset value. This is the threshold for Chinese state-owned enterprises.
• Non-WTO investors, and any acquisition of a cultural business: CAD 5 million in asset value for a direct acquisition and CAD 50 million for an indirect one.

The thresholds are revised every year, so check the page for the year in which the transaction will close. Below the threshold a notification is still required, and national security review still applies.

Into Canada: national security review and the status of Bill C-34

The Guidelines on the National Security Review of Investments were updated in March 2025 to add economic security. The factors listed include defence capabilities, transfer of sensitive technology, critical minerals and critical infrastructure, the supply of critical goods, access to sensitive personal data (health, biometric, financial, geolocation), and the potential for surveillance or espionage. All investments by state-owned or state-influenced investors receive enhanced scrutiny regardless of value.

The guidelines encourage investors to file at least 45 days before closing, or 75 days if a net benefit review also applies.

Bill C-34 amended the ICA. ISED's Modernization page (last updated 2025-08-21) says that since 2024-09-03 the Minister can extend national security reviews, impose interim conditions during a review, accept binding undertakings, and share more information with allies. It says that three changes still await regulations: the pre-implementation filing requirement for investments in prescribed sensitive sectors, higher penalties, and a new net benefit review power for state-owned enterprise investments. This site found no official notice, as of 2026-09-17, that those regulations have been made.

Into Canada: critical minerals and interactive digital media

Two published policies single out sectors in which Chinese investors have been active.

Critical minerals. The Policy Regarding Foreign Investments from State-Owned Enterprises in Critical Minerals of 2022-10-28 says that an acquisition of control of a Canadian critical minerals business by a state-owned enterprise will be approved as being of net benefit only on an exceptional basis. It also says that any investment in the sector by a state-owned enterprise, of any size, supports reasonable grounds for a national security review. Five days later, on 2022-11-02, three Chinese investors were ordered to divest from Canadian lithium companies (see the next section).

Interactive digital media. Canadian Heritage's policy statement of 2024-03-15 covers foreign investment in video games and similar businesses. It focuses on keeping Canadian-owned intellectual property and adds scrutiny of investors under foreign state influence. Undertakings on creative independence and reporting may be required.

Both policies are applied together with the national security guidelines in the previous section, whose factors also cover sensitive technology and personal data.

Into Canada: published national security orders and the latest statistics

ISED publishes final orders on its National security decisions page. Entries involving Chinese investors include:

• 2022-11-02: Sinomine (Hong Kong) Rare Metals Resources ordered to divest from Power Metals Corp.; Chengze Lithium International from Lithium Chile Inc.; Zangge Mining Investment (Chengdu) from Ultra Lithium Inc.
• 2024-05-24: Bluvec Technologies Inc. and Pegauni Technology Inc. ordered dissolved and to cease Canadian operations.
• 2024-11-06: wind-up of TikTok Technology Canada, Inc. ordered. The app itself was not banned.
• 2025-06-27: wind-up of Hikvision Canada, Inc. ordered.
• 2026-03-09: after a further review, TikTok Technology Canada's investment was allowed to proceed subject to new legally binding undertakings, including data security gateways, independent third-party auditing of data access, protections for minors and a physical presence in Canada.

The ICA annual report for fiscal 2024-25 (published 2026-02-16) records 1,138 filings worth CAD 132.5 billion. Thirty investments went to extended national security review, up from 26. Outcomes: 14 no further action, 9 withdrawn, 6 cleared on undertakings, 1 wind-up or divestiture. China including Hong Kong accounted for 44 filings (3.9%) and CAD 2.231 billion in asset value, and for 12 of the 30 extended reviews (5 undertakings, 5 withdrawals, 2 no further action).

Into China: the Foreign Investment Law, the Negative List and the Encouraged Catalogue

Foreign investment in China is governed by the Foreign Investment Law and its Implementing Regulations. The Chinese texts are on the MOFCOM and State Council websites listed below.

Market access is defined by a negative list. The current national list is the Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2024 Edition), issued as Order No. 23 of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). It was published on 2024-09-06, took effect on 2024-11-01 and replaced the 2021 edition. Searches by this site on 2026-09-17 found no 2025 or 2026 national edition, so a Canadian investor checking whether a sector is prohibited or restricted should read the 2024 text.

NDRC and MOFCOM have also issued a 2025 Edition of the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment. This site confirmed that the order is published at the links below, but did not confirm its effective date, item counts or the incentives attached to it from the order text, so those details are not stated here.

All three documents are in Chinese only. No official English version was confirmed.

Into China: the 2025 and 2026 action plans on foreign investment

Two recent policy documents describe where China says it intends to open further. They state policy direction; whether a given pilot is open to a particular Canadian investor in a particular city has to be checked against the implementing rules.

2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment (State Council General Office, Guobanhan [2025] No. 16, dated 2025-02-17). It supports pilots that open value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, promises to expand the telecommunications and medical pilots and to plan the opening of education and culture, commits to implementing the removal of restrictions in manufacturing, and eases the rules on foreign strategic investment and mergers and acquisitions.

Action Plan for Stabilizing and Improving the Use of Foreign Investment (MOFCOM, NDRC and the Ministry of Finance, Shangzifa [2026] No. 97, dated 2026-06-16). It steadily expands pilots in vocational training, higher education and medical fields, offers tax incentives to foreign investors that reinvest distributed profits, provides for national treatment in government procurement and bidding, introduces pilot negative lists for cross-border data flows, and supports foreign-funded research and development centres.

Into China: set-up, intellectual property and where the operating rules are published

This site could not confirm, on an official page that it opened, a step-by-step procedure for setting up a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, the deadline for paying in capital, or the conditions for remitting profits out of China. Those points are therefore not stated here. The authorities that publish the rules, in Chinese, are the State Administration for Market Regulation, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the State Taxation Administration and MOFCOM's Department of Foreign Investment Administration, linked below.

Two points are confirmed by Canadian official sources. First, the Trade Commissioner Service lists four offices in mainland China (Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shanghai), with Hong Kong and Macao served from the Consulate General in Hong Kong. Second, China is a first-to-file jurisdiction for trademarks: a Canadian registration gives no rights in China, and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office advises applying early and registering a Chinese-language version of the mark separately.

Canadian companies operating in China are also subject to China's export control, data, anti-sanctions and counter-espionage laws. Those are covered in the guide on security, defence and dual-use trade.

Both directions: the investment protection agreement and the tax treaty

Investment protection. The Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) was signed in 2012 and has been in force since 2014. It has an initial term of 15 years, after which either party can terminate it on one year's notice, with protection continuing for 15 years for investments that already exist. It provides national treatment after establishment, most-favoured-nation treatment, fair and equitable treatment, protection against expropriation, and investor-state arbitration under the ICSID, ICSID Additional Facility or UNCITRAL rules. Decisions under the Investment Canada Act on whether to permit an investment are excluded from dispute settlement, so the agreement mainly protects established investments, not market entry.

Tax. The Canada-China tax agreement was signed on 1986-05-12 and came into force on 1986-12-29. It caps withholding tax on dividends at 10% where the beneficial owner is a company holding at least 10% of the voting stock and at 15% otherwise, and on interest and royalties at 10%. The Department of Finance lists China among the treaties under negotiation or renegotiation, so check the status list before relying on these rates for a long-term structure.

Business travel to China: visa-free entry until 2026-12-31 and the travel advisory

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on 2026-02-15 that, from 2026-02-17 to 2026-12-31, holders of ordinary Canadian passports may enter China without a visa for up to 30 days for business, tourism, visits to family or friends, exchanges and transit. The Chinese-language notice is on the ministry's consular site. Anyone outside those conditions, including longer stays, work, study, journalism and holders of other types of passport, still needs a visa. There is no official word yet on whether the policy will continue after 2026-12-31. The website of the China Visa Application Service Center is listed below for travellers who need a visa.

Canada's travel advice for China (last updated 2026-09-17) is "Exercise a high degree of caution", with regional advisories. It confirms the visa-free arrangement, says passports must be valid for six months on entry, and warns of arbitrary enforcement of local laws, exit bans on people involved in civil or criminal matters, broad national security laws, and detention of up to 37 days without formal charge in criminal investigations. Companies sending staff to China can use the advisory as the official Canadian statement of personal risk.

Business travel to Canada: visitor visas, CAN+, biometrics and flights

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sets the rules for Chinese business travellers.

• Visitor visa. A visitor visa can be single or multiple entry. The visa officer decides which, and for how long it is valid. The maximum is 10 years, or until the passport or biometrics expire, whichever comes first. Ten years is a ceiling, not a standard.
• Business visitors need an invitation letter from the Canadian host and must not enter the Canadian labour market.
• CAN+. IRCC's Help Centre (dated 2026-09-01) says an application is processed faster under CAN+ if the applicant held a Canadian visa in the last 10 years or holds a valid United States non-immigrant visa. It is automatic, with no separate form.
• Biometrics. Fingerprints and a photo cost CAD 85 per person (CAD 170 per family), are valid for 10 years, and are given at a visa application centre. IRCC lists 11 centres in mainland China (Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jinan, Kunming, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Wuhan) and one in Hong Kong.

On 2026-04-20 Transport Canada announced an incremental increase in passenger flights between the two countries and up to 20 all-cargo flights a week. The release does not give passenger flight numbers.