Officials are soliciting ideas to build a level playing ground for all businesses, domestic and overseas.

"China should combine foreign investment law with company law, which will give national treatment to overseas companies on the Chinese mainland and pave the way for the country's progress in corporate governance," said Wang Zhile, a senior researcher on foreign investment at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank of the Ministry of Commerce.

The National People's Congress Standing Committee has said it will "speed up" research on a new corporate legal framework and will propose a draft when "conditions are ripe".