A shot of the entrance to the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in east China's Shanghai.

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), the first of its kind in the country, was launched in Shanghai's Pudong New Area in September 2013, marking a trial run for groundbreaking changes to free up cross-border commodity and capital flows in China. It originally consisted of the Waigaoqiao FTZ, the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Logistics Park, the Yangshan Free Trade Port Area and the Pudong Airport FTZ. The State Council, China's cabinet, decided in December 2014 to incorporate the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone (with the Shanghai Expo Park included), the Jinqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Zhangjiang High Tech Park into the Shanghai FTZ, enlarging it from 28.78 square kilometers to 120.72 square kilometers. In August 2019, the new Lingang area of the Shanghai FTZ was officially launched, aiming to match the standard of the most competitive FTZs in the world and become a new engine for China's reform and opening-up.

In the past decade, seven batches of institutional innovations have been formulated in FTZs and then replicated nationwide. Nearly half of them were pioneered by the Shanghai FTZ. So far, upwards of 300 innovative measures initiated by the Shanghai FTZ, including "separating out the business license from certificates required for starting a business" and loosening restrictions on foreign investment, have been rolled out across the country.