Abstract: After the implementation of the new Enterprise Income Tax Law, the paper study the observations of 2010-2012 timeframe Chinese listed companies. From the perspective of the government's macro tax policy, the paper examines the process and path that rent-seeking behavior and tax policy affects private enterprise innovation performance, which is the breakthrough point to understand the microscopic mechanism that China local governments promote the private enterprise innovation under the new Chinese economic normality. Empirical evidence suggests that the rent-seeking behavior can significantly increase the private enterprise innovation performance through the mediating role of the tax burden of the enterprise. When examining diff-erent subsamples, the results show that compared to private enterprises in areas with high extent of marketization, the mediating effect of the tax burden of those enterprises in areas with low extent of marketization is larger. By inference, the innovation of private enterprise and rent-seeking behavior is not only concerned with the higher tax burden, but also by the degree of marketization where the enterprise located.