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- The Chinese province of Hainan has announced an esports development fund, providing details on talent development, tax rates, international visa applications, tournaments, and esports streaming.
- Hainan’s government plans to use ¥1B RMB ($145.6M USD) for esports development in the province, including support for esports companies and Hainan-located esports tournaments, with a maximum ¥10M ($1.46M) for top tier international level events.
- The future Tencent Global Esports Arena (TGA) Winter Championship, League of Legends Annual Summit, and Tencent Digital Culture Festival will also take place in Hainan.
On June 20, Tencent Holdings 
and the Hainan government held the Tencent Global Esports Annual Summit in the Hainan Boao Asia International Conference Center. Multiple Chinese and Western leaders from esports teams, tournament organizers, and Tencent itself took part in the event and discussed future plans for the Chinese esports industry.
Sun Yin, director of Hainan Tourism, Culture, Radio, Film, and Sports, announced a series of governmental policies exclusively aimed at esports, which she says are expected to turn Hainan into a “global esports harbor.” The policies include an esports development fund, esports talent project, tax rates beneficial to businesses, international visa applications, and the esports tournament approval process:
- The Hainan government plans to allocate ¥1B RMB ($145.6M) for building an esports ecosystem in the city, including support for developing esports companies and allowances for Hainan-located esports tournaments—with a maximum of ¥10M ($1.46M) at the top tier international level.
- For esports talent, the Hainan government unveiled its “Hainan Esports Thousands Talent” project. For high-performance esports players, the government will provide benefits on purchasing houses, higher educational programs, etc.
- For its tax rate, Hainan would become China’s 12th free trade zone. The Hainan government will approve a zero tariff and low tax rate policy for companies and sectors, including the esports industry.
- For international visa applications, Hainan plans to expand the province’s visa-free visit program for international esports professional players. This will include 59 nationalities, such as the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Korea, with more countries to be added in the future.
- For esports tournaments, the government said it will simplify the approval process and improve the efficiency of hosting international esports tournaments in the region.
Credit: Tencent Holdings
At the end of Sun’s speech, the Hainan government, Tencent Esports, and Hainan ECO-Software Park Group signed a partnership deal with eleven esports relevant companies, including esports agencies Goose Culture and Keahoarl, production company Versus Programming Network (VSPN), esports teams Royal Never Give-Up (RNG) and QG , livestreaming platform Douyu , apparel brand Li-Ning, and esports companies SuperGen, Wanjia Esports, Elephant Entertainment, and Yesee Tech.
“Developing an esports industry in Hainan is an important step to reinforce Hainan as a major position [as a destination point] of international tourism,” said Sun at the Summit. “The Hainan Esports Harbor will combine esports and tourism to build a new “Tourism + Esports” consumption model.”
Hou Miao, managing director of Tencent Esports, also unveiled a “Tencent Esports Country Development 2.0” program, featuring five sectors: tournaments, education, industry, regulation, and culture. Hainan will be the first Chinese province to host the Tencent Global Esports Arena (TGA) Winter Championship, the League of Legends Annual Summit, and the Tencent Digital Culture Festival. Specific dates for these events were not disclosed at the time of writing.
