In a Lujiazui Forum speech, the China Securities Regulatory Commission set out a package of capital market reform and opening-up measures aimed at improving how the capital markets support technology innovation and the integration of technology and industrial innovation. The centrepiece is a further deepening of reforms on the Shanghai STAR Market and the Shenzhen ChiNext Board, alongside initiatives spanning sci-tech bonds, REITs and measures to develop longer-term “patient” capital. On the STAR Market, the CSRC said it will launch a “1+6” reform package, with the “1” being the creation of a sci-tech growth tier and a restart of unprofitable issuers listing under the STAR Market’s fifth set of listing standards, with dedicated arrangements for enhanced disclosure, risk warnings and investor suitability management. The six pilots include introducing a seasoned professional institutional investor regime for fifth-standard issuers, an IPO pre-review mechanism for high-quality tech firms, expanding the fifth standard to more frontier sectors including artificial intelligence, commercial space and the low-altitude economy, allowing unprofitable tech firms under review to undertake capital increases with existing shareholders, refining refinancing rules and strategic investor identification criteria, and expanding STAR Market investment products and risk management tools. It also said the ChiNext Board will formally activate its third set of listing standards to support high-quality unprofitable innovative firms, while strengthening equity–bond linkage through development of science and technology innovation bonds, a sci-tech bond ETF, and more equity-linked debt instruments such as exchangeable and convertible bonds. The CSRC further announced it will approve the registration of China’s first two data centre REITs and continue supporting asset securitisation and REIT financing backed by newer asset types including intellectual property and data assets, while seeking to ease bottlenecks across private funds’ fundraising, investment, management and exit cycle and broaden participation by social security funds, insurers and industrial capital. Looking ahead, the regulator said it will accelerate implementation of a 2025 capital market opening-up package, including publishing an optimised Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor framework, expanding the range of products accessible to foreign investors and increasing QFII-eligible futures and options products to 100, while jointly studying the introduction of renminbi foreign exchange futures with the People’s Bank of China and supporting the launch of products such as liquefied natural gas futures and options. It also flagged follow-through work on M&A and restructuring rules and tighter enforcement against misconduct such as insider trading and market manipulation, and noted plans to support Shanghai initiatives including establishing a dedicated technology company and a new asset management service platform.

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