Published by ChinaMNC · Lingchuan

China’s Sports Events Push: What Foreign Founders Need to Know

A practical guide for foreign founders on China’s new policy to develop sports events, stimulate consumption, and open opportunities in event operations, tourism, technology, and services.

China’s New Sports Events Policy: A Practical Guide for Foreign Founders

The State Council General Office has issued an opinion on developing sports events and stimulating consumption. For foreign founders building or registering a company in China, the document signals where regulators see growth: branded, market-oriented sports events that connect with tourism, commerce, technology, and consumer services. The policy is a framework rather than a set of automatic entitlements, but it identifies sectors where local governments, state bodies, and private firms are expected to cooperate.

What the Policy Aims to Achieve

The opinion sets a goal for 2030: a modern events system with Chinese characteristics, a group of globally influential sports events, stronger industry coordination, and more consumption driven by events. It calls for events to become more branded, integrated, and market-driven, with a richer supply of quality events. The stated purpose is to meet diverse public needs, expand domestic demand, and support high-quality economic growth.

Professional and Amateur Events

Professional leagues and high-level events

The policy calls for a tiered professional events system with clear standards, links between professional and amateur events, and smoother talent mobility. It names football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, ice hockey, baseball, and Go as professional leagues to develop. It also supports high-level professional events in tennis, sailing, boxing, billiards, motorsport, motorcycle racing, and cycling. Domestic and foreign quality capital is encouraged to invest in professional events at various levels, and to create new events in accordance with laws and regulations. Related business areas include talent training, agency services, and market development.

Amateur and grassroots events

Local areas with suitable conditions are encouraged to draw on regional culture and resources, involve social forces, and build well-known amateur events with broad participation. The policy promotes traditional sports events and orderly development of emerging and trend-driven sports. It also calls for a stronger youth events system and a larger participant base across sports.

International Cooperation and Inbound Participation

The opinion encourages communication and cooperation with international sports organizations, coordinated introduction of high-level international events, and orderly hosting by qualified localities. It calls for greater convenience for foreigners coming to China to compete or watch events and for sports equipment entering and leaving the country, including dedicated immigration channels. Domestic branded events are encouraged to go global, expand overseas commercial sponsorship, and develop media rights markets. For foreign founders, this points to opportunities in event services, travel, equipment, broadcasting, and cross-border support services.

Tourism, Commerce, and Consumer Scenes

The policy promotes integration between events and culture and tourism. It encourages event hosts to use landmarks and creative districts to create immersive city experiences, and qualified areas to showcase rural scenery, local culture, and traditions through events. Cultural products such as films, short dramas, short videos, and music about sports events are encouraged. Branded activities such as traveling to follow events and combining events with Chinese food are also supported.

On the commercial side, the policy supports major international events in international consumption center cities and in pilot cities for sports consumption and the events economy. It encourages event-plus-expo formats, licensed co-branded and merchandise products, events in commercial complexes and shopping districts, and merchant discounts tied to event tickets to stimulate repeat spending. It also seeks to expand trade in event-related services, including event tourism, sponsorship, and copyright transactions.

Technology and Equipment

Enterprises are encouraged to innovate event services and products, including ice and snow equipment, smart wearable devices, and high-performance sports flooring. The policy calls for more application scenarios for technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and satellite navigation in event organization, with the aim of improving the viewing experience.

Consumption Scenarios and Experience

The opinion expands pilot programs for sports consumption and the events economy, supports pilot cities for new consumption formats and scenes, and calls for integrated commercial, tourism, cultural, sports, and health consumption scenes. Localities are guided to create secondary viewing venues and event-themed accommodation and dining. Enterprises and social organizations are encouraged to build combined offerings that include cultural promotion, tourism, souvenirs, and viewing services.

Qualified localities may introduce consumer-benefit measures around events. Existing public service platforms can integrate schedules, venues, transport, and weather information into one-stop services. Companies are encouraged to tailor products and services to individual preferences. The policy also calls for multilingual signage, guidance, and consultation, and better payment services for overseas spectators.

Business Operators, Venues, and Talent

The policy aims to cultivate competitive, specialized event operators. Companies in media, fitness and leisure, equipment manufacturing, and technology are encouraged to take part in hosting and operating events. It calls for protecting event broadcasting copyrights and for copyright holders to cooperate with mainstream media and commercial platforms to earn legitimate revenue from broadcasting rights and sponsorship. Qualified localities may study incentive policies for event-driven traffic, scene innovation, and employment, subject to national rules.

On venues, the policy supports public fitness facilities, high-quality outdoor sports destinations, and events in ice and snow, mountain, aviation, and water sports. It encourages integrated venue design, construction, operation, and management, technology and digital upgrades, accessibility and family-friendly facilities, and participation by social forces in venue operations.

For talent, universities with suitable conditions are encouraged to offer programs or research directions in sports economics and management, event management, and sports tourism. The policy promotes new occupations such as sports data analysts and venue safety officers, and calls for stronger training and management systems for coaches, referees, and sports managers. It supports training for sports agents, standardized agency services, and the introduction of foreign international event operations and management talent. Volunteer training and event volunteer systems are also to be improved.

Standards, Monitoring, and Service Management

The opinion calls for standards for event organization and participation guidance, and for standards covering operations, venues, facilities, and equipment. It encourages participation in standard-setting and the conversion of proven group and industry standards into national standards. It also calls for pilot monitoring of event-driven consumption, data sharing among sports, commerce, culture and tourism, customs, tax, and statistics departments, and a unified monitoring method. Event evaluation systems are to be advanced.

On service management, the policy calls for opening public resources such as forests, mountains, and roads to sports events in an orderly way and exploring a negative-list approach. It seeks more efficient event approval services, expanded parallel approval, classified venue safety capacity, and market-based security services. It mentions structural monetary policy tools, including service consumption and elderly care relending, to guide financial institutions to support qualified event organizers and develop event-related financial products. Insurers are encouraged to offer accident and liability products for events.

Governance and Safety

Localities hosting events should assess conditions, adapt to local circumstances, act within their means, and pursue green, simple events. The policy strengthens management of high-risk sports events, including requirements for personnel qualifications, venues, and safeguards. It calls for healthier fan culture and better event conduct. Safety requirements include emergency response systems, weather, traffic, and geological hazard warnings, a circuit-breaker mechanism for events, clear responsibilities among organizers, hosts, and co-organizers, fire safety, and special security arrangements for very large crowds, including pre-event risk assessment, crowd capacity limits, zoning, and tiered flow control.

What This Means for Foreign Founders

The policy does not create automatic market access or guarantees. It does, however, identify areas where foreign-invested companies may find commercial partners and local government interest: event operations, sports tourism, licensed merchandise, media and broadcasting services, event technology, equipment, venue services, insurance, and multilingual visitor services. Founders should check sector-specific foreign investment rules, local pilot policies, and licensing requirements before committing. The policy also emphasizes coordination among central and local departments, with the General Administration of Sport tasked with overall planning and implementation.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Foreign founders can contact ChinaMNC on WhatsApp / WeChat at +86 153 1898 8535 for help registering and operating a company in China.