context: One year after the Private Economy Promotion Law took effect, Beijing is moving from legal foundations to operational levers. Statutory status has not closed the macro-micro gap: private firms dominate new registrations and trade, yet private investment keeps sliding. Major project pipelines long led by state capital are now being floated as the next test, alongside fair-competition enforcement, payment discipline and financing support. The test is whether Beijing can turn legal reassurance into investable opportunities, not leave private capital at the edge of major project pipelines.
Zheng Shanjie 郑栅洁 NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) director used a 20 May 2026 private-firm symposium to tie private-sector support to major national project access.
The meeting, Zheng’s second private-firm symposium in a month, fell on the first anniversary of the law. Zheng pledged to 'improve long-term channels' for private firms to 'take part in major national projects', rectify involution-style competition and expand effective investment.
A cluster of measures sits around the anniversary
- the NDRC’s 19 May 2026 action plan for legal protection of the private economy, targeting market-access barriers, irregular cross-region enforcement and profit-driven enforcement
- the State Administration for Market Regulation’s 34-point 2026 work plan, covering fair-competition rules, anti-monopoly compliance and individual-business protection
- the Ministry of Finance’s C¥500 bn private-investment guarantee scheme
- Zhejiang and Shanxi measures opening more sectors to private capital
Major investment projects long dominated by state capital should open more widely to private firms, with competitive infrastructure segments made fairly accessible to all market entities, argues Luo Zhiheng 罗志恒 Yuekai Securities chief economist. Combined with property-rights protection and fair-competition rules, this could rebuild private capital confidence and channel it into sectors aligned with national strategy, Luo adds.
The lever matters because confidence is split. New private entities made up 96.74 percent of new business registrations to end-February 2026 and private firms held 57.4 percent of foreign trade in January–April, yet private fixed-asset investment fell 5.2 percent year on year. Macro confidence has risen, while micro investment willingness has not, notes Tian Lihui 田利辉 Nankai University Financial Development Research Institute dean. Tian calls for detailed implementing regulations that turn the law into court-actionable rules and reformed bank responsibility systems to channel long-term capital in.