China will let the state seize private property outright under a rewritten mobilization law taking effect October 1 — bad news for Chinese citizens, private companies, and foreign investors, especially Taiwanese businesses.

• The law gets its first full rewrite in 16 years, taking effect at the start of October.
• The key change: the state moves from "requisitioning" private assets to "taking ownership" of them, so property rights no longer hold when Beijing decides it needs something.
• Data, AI, and supply chains are now covered too, with the government promising supply-chain security reviews to guard against cutoffs.
• The rewrite names Communist Party leadership and Xi Jinping's military thinking as the guiding political principle, and adds protecting "development" interests to the law's purpose.
• Taiwanese security officials read it as a sign of anxiety, not strength — Beijing is tightening its legal grip while facing US rivalry abroad and a slowing economy at home.

Outlook: Taiwanese firms operating in China have been warned their investments could be seized with no way to get the money back, which is likely to speed up the move of factories and capital out of the mainland.