Foreigners that do business in China can choose to establish foreign-invested partnership enterprises, Sino-foreign joint ventures, Chinese-foreign cooperative enterprise or wholly foreign-owned enterprises, and the last three types of enterprises are also known as the "Three-capital enterprises".
Because foreigners cannot apply for individual businesses in China, the only option for them is to establish foreign-invested partnership enterprises, Sino-foreign joint ventures, Chinese-foreign cooperative enterprise or wholly foreign-owned enterprises. If foreigners want to do business independently in China, the only option for them is to establish wholly foreign-owned enterprises.