diff --git a/composer.json b/php/composer.json.dist
similarity index 90%
rename from composer.json
rename to php/composer.json.dist
index 2c64ad220f7d..825f29da3b40 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/php/composer.json.dist
@@ -6,10 +6,10 @@
   "homepage": "https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/",
   "license": "BSD-3-Clause",
   "require": {
-    "php": ">=5.5.0"
+    "php": ">=7.0.0"
   },
   "require-dev": {
-    "phpunit/phpunit": ">=4.8.0"
+    "phpunit/phpunit": ">=5.0.0"
   },
   "suggest": {
     "ext-bcmath": "Need to support JSON deserialization"
diff --git a/php/release.sh b/php/release.sh
index 9a4b13912652..4ababf1b2550 100755
--- a/php/release.sh
+++ b/php/release.sh
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ popd
 # Copy files
 pushd protobuf-php
 mv ../protobuf/php/src src
-mv ../protobuf/composer.json composer.json
+mv ../protobuf/php/composer.json.dist composer.json
 sed -i 's|php/src|src|g' composer.json
 git add .
 git commit -m "$VERSION"