Medical and dental services (CPC 9312)

• Foreign service suppliers are permitted to establish joint venture hospitals or clinics with Chinese partners with quantitative limitations in line with China's needs, and foreign majority ownership is permitted.

• Foreign doctors with professional certificates issued by their home country shall be permitted to provide short-term medical services in China after they obtain licences from the Ministry of Public Health. The term of service is six months and may be extended to one year.

• The majority of doctors and medical personnel of joint venture hospitals and clinics shall be of Chinese nationality .

Compared with its attitude towards the opening up of other service sectors such as telecommunications and financial sectors, the Chinese government has been relatively positive in opening up the professional services sector.

As early as 1992, China began to allow foreign legal service providers to operate in the country. By end of 1996, there were already 50 representative offices of foreign laws firms and 23 representative offices of Hong Kong law firms. At the time of writing, the number of representative offices of foreign law firms in China totalled 110. The commitments made in relation to legal services are based on this trial opening programme from the early 1990s. On the strength of these commitments, foreign law firms will face less restrictions than they used to in terms of service area and number of offices, except that the practice of Chinese laws remains a closed area.

In connection with its commitments on the opening of legal services to foreign law firms, China promulgated the Regulatory Rules on the Representative Offices of Foreign Law Firms in China on 27 December 2001. These regulatory rules further establish the details regarding the administration of the operations by the representative offices of foreign law firms. In addition to defining the scope of business, the rules also stipulate penalties for violation.

The opening up of accounting services also began in the early 1990s as an effort to promote the establishment and healthy development of China's certified public accountant system and to narrow the gaps between the Chinese accounting and auditing sector and its international counterpart . Although the opening up policy was on the basis of limited access in terms of commercial presence and qualifications, it resulted in the entry of the world's top six accounting firms (now five as a result of the merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers Lybrand) in the form of joint ventures. Nine joint ventures have now been established and over 20 international accounting firms have established offices in China. Because of the unique position held by foreign accounting operations in China, they have captured about 80 per cent of the country's multinational clients . While their share in terms of the total number of accounting service providers in China is only estimated at about 1 per cent, their total revenue accounts for about 25 per cent of the total industry revenue. A significant number of Chinese companies listed on the stock exchanges overseas have been serviced by foreign accounting service providers.

With regard to the opening up of professional services other than legal and accounting services, China had allowed access of varying degrees before its accession to the WTO. China's commitments in relation to the opening up of those services have little restrictions in terms of service areas and number of operations except in the case of medical and dental services where the government will exercise quantity restrictions judge- mentally. The qualification requirements are largely associated with the qualifications that the foreign service providers have acquired in their home countries , except in the case of medical and dental services, which will require additional endorsement from the Chinese health authority. There are corresponding rules and regulations in China governing the operation of foreign professional service providers in some service areas, while such rules or regulations are absent from other areas, such as taxation services, for which there are no clearly defined qualification requirements. However, some of the existing rules and regulations need to be amended to reflect the new conditions under the WTO regime . It is expected that there will be amended and new rules and regulations in connection with China's commitments to the WTO on the opening of professional services to foreign participants . The promulgation of the Regulatory Rules mentioned above is part of the effort to respond to WTO requirements.