It is often the first thing said in an early conversation about China. A brand owner or export manager explains they are interested in the market, then almost immediately adds a caveat: "but we don't have a local partner." The sentence is usually offered as a reason the conversation cannot go much further, as if the absence of a partner is a gate that has to be passed before anything else is worth discussing.
It is worth unpacking that assumption properly, because it is doing more work than it should. For most New Zealand and Australian businesses looking at China, not having a partner yet is not a blocker. It is simply where every business starts.
Where the assumption comes from
The idea that China cannot be entered without a local partner has a real history behind it, which is part of why it persists. For decades, foreign investment into China in many industries was only permitted through a joint venture with a Chinese company. A foreign business that wanted a manufacturing presence, a retail footprint, or a licence to operate in a regulated sector often had no legal choice but to bring in a local partner, because wholly foreign-owned operations were restricted or prohibited outright.
That regime has changed substantially. China's Foreign Investment Law took effect on 1 January 2020 and introduced a "negative list": a specific, published list of sectors where foreign investment is restricted or prohibited. Outside that list, foreign investors can set up a wholly foreign-owned enterprise on the same terms as a domestic one. Most sectors relevant to New Zealand and Australian exporters, including food and beverage, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics, sit outside the restricted list.
The practical effect is that for the large majority of NZ and AU businesses looking to sell into China, there is no legal requirement to have a Chinese joint venture partner at all. The old joint-venture rule that many exporters are half-remembering applied to a narrower set of regulated sectors, and only to one mode of entry: setting up a local operating entity. It was never a universal rule for exporting into the market.
What "partner" actually means depends on the route in
The reason the objection persists is that "local partner" is being used to describe several very different things, and conflating them creates confusion about what is actually missing.
Exporting through a distributor or importer This is the most common route for NZ and AU brands, and it requires no local legal entity and no joint venture. A Chinese importer or distributor buys the product, or takes it on consignment, and handles import compliance, warehousing, and resale into their own channels. The "partner" here is a commercial relationship, not a legal structure, and it is something a business finds during market entry, not something it needs to have secured before market entry can be considered.
Selling through cross-border e-commerce Platforms such as Tmall Global and JD Worldwide, along with the cross-border e-commerce retail import channel more broadly, were specifically designed to let overseas brands sell into China without a local entity, without a joint venture, and in many cases without a single exclusive distributor. A brand can list products, ship from bonded warehouses or directly from origin, and build a presence in the market this way. Local operators are typically involved in running the storefront or managing logistics, but this is a service relationship, not a partnership in the sense the objection usually implies. It is worth noting that the major platforms tightened their brand verification requirements in 2026, asking for clearer proof of authenticity and supply chain history. This makes the paperwork more involved than it once was, but it does not change the underlying point: no local partner or entity is required to use this route.
Exhibiting at trade events Participation in events such as CIIE does not require a distributor to already be in place. In practice, the event is very often where that relationship starts. Exhibiting without a confirmed local partner is normal, not premature.
Setting up a local operating entity This is the one route where the legacy joint venture question can still apply, and only in specific restricted sectors identified on the negative list. For most consumer categories, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise is permitted, meaning even this route does not inherently require a Chinese partner.
Once the routes are separated out like this, the original objection usually turns out to be describing a single, specific gap: a distributor or buyer relationship has not yet been found. That is a real gap, but it is a search-and-evaluation task, not a precondition that stops the process from starting.
Not having a partner yet is the default position, not a red flag
It is worth saying plainly: almost no exporter has a Chinese distribution relationship before they begin looking for one. The sequence that feels intuitive - "get a partner, then enter the market" - has it backwards for most categories. In practice, the sequence is closer to: understand which entry route and channel mix suit the product and category, build the case that makes the brand attractive to work with, and then use that groundwork, along with direct outreach and trade event participation, to identify and evaluate the right kind of partner.
Treating "no partner" as a stop condition tends to have one of two effects. Either it delays market entry indefinitely, because the business is waiting for something to appear on its own rather than pursuing it. Or it pushes a business toward the opposite mistake, discussed below, of accepting the first available option in order to remove the caveat as quickly as possible.
The bigger risk sits on the other side of the problem
Businesses that treat "we don't have a partner" as the central obstacle sometimes solve it too quickly, by signing with the first distributor, agent, or platform operator who shows interest, often after a single trade show meeting. This is where the real risk in China market entry tends to sit, and it is a different risk to the one the original objection describes.
A distributor relationship in China frequently comes with exclusivity terms, minimum order commitments, and long-term category or regional rights. A poorly evaluated partner can lock a brand into an underperforming relationship that is genuinely difficult to unwind, sometimes for years. An export manager who feels behind because they lack a partner is more, not less, exposed to this outcome, because urgency is a poor basis for due diligence.
The more useful frame is that finding a partner is not the first step in China market entry. It is one part of a sequence that also includes understanding regulatory requirements for the specific product category, working out which channels actually reach the intended consumer, and being realistic about price positioning and competitive context before a single conversation with a prospective partner takes place. A business that has done that groundwork is in a materially stronger position to assess a potential distributor, because it knows what it is looking for and what a good fit looks like, rather than evaluating an offer in isolation.
What a considered partner search actually looks like
Businesses that get this right tend to treat the search for a Chinese partner as a structured process rather than a single event. It usually starts with narrowing down which entry route the product is best suited to. A distributor conversation looks very different depending on the product: some need cold-chain logistics, some fall under a regulated category such as food or health products, and some are straightforward enough to move through cross-border e-commerce with fewer constraints.
From there, the useful groundwork includes understanding what regulatory approvals or registrations the category requires regardless of who the eventual partner is, having a clear and realistic view of price positioning once China-specific costs are factored in, and being able to explain what makes the brand a good commercial opportunity for a distributor, rather than only what the brand needs from them. Chinese distributors are evaluating exporters just as carefully as exporters are evaluating them, and a business that can answer these questions clearly is a more credible prospect to work with.
Trade events, government trade agencies such as NZTE and Austrade, and industry-specific introductions all serve the same underlying purpose at this stage: they create opportunities to meet and assess several potential partners against a clear set of criteria, rather than accepting the first option that appears. A search conducted this way takes longer than signing an agreement after one meeting, but it is the difference between a distribution relationship built on an informed match and one built on relief at having found someone.
What this means in practice
For a New Zealand or Australian business at the "we don't have a local partner" stage, a few things are usually true at the same time:
- The absence of a partner is not, on its own, a reason market entry cannot be discussed or planned.
- The right question is not "do we have a partner" but "do we know which entry route fits our product, and do we understand what we are looking for in a partner for that route."
- Cross-border e-commerce and trade event participation are both legitimate ways to build presence and visibility in the market before a distributor relationship exists, and are often how that relationship gets found in the first place.
- Speed is not the objective. A partner found and vetted properly after the groundwork is done tends to outperform, and is far less risky than, a partner found quickly to answer the objection.
Reframed this way, "we don't have a local partner" stops being a statement about readiness and becomes what it actually is: a normal, expected position at the start of the process, and a reasonable prompt to ask a better set of questions before the search for the right partner begins in earnest.