Controls on foreigners’ hydrological acitivities tightened

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The State Council has issued a regulation requiring foreigners in China to receive government approval before conducting any hydrological activities in the country.  As Xinhua reports, the regulation, which will come into effect on June 1, states that, “Foreign organizations and individuals who engage in hydrological activities in China must obtain approval from the central government and obey the country’s laws and regulations.”

While this law is essentially being brought into place to make sure that any hydrological activity along China’s many transnational rivers conforms with the various border treaties China has with its neighbors, it does raise the issue of China’s increasingly complex regulatory landscape.  While major revisions to laws and regulations, such as the new unified corporate income tax and new property law receive significant amounts of press, smaller regulations can fall through the cracks so to speak and create problems for a China business later on down the road.

In this case, organizations and individuals that flout the new law and conduct hydrological activities without authorization will be fined 50,000 to 100,000 yuan (6,500 to 13,000 U.S. dollars), according to the regulation.