Regulations on the Administration of Enterprise Legal Persons Registration (2020) was promulgated in 1988 and amended in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019 respectively. The latest revision entered into force on March 2, 2019.

There are 38 articles in total and the key points are as follows:

1.The following enterprises shall register as legal persons in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations:

(1) enterprises owned by the whole people;

(2) enterprises under collective ownership;

(3) joint ventures;

(4) Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, Chinese-foreign contractual joint ventures and foreign-funded enterprises established within the territory of China;

(5) private enterprises;

(6) other enterprises that need to be registered as a legal person in accordance with the law.( Article 2)

2.The competent authorities for the registration of corporate legal persons are the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Local Market Supervision Bureau.( Article 4)