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Image: Kai Stachowiak, Handshaking
(Publicdomainpictures.net)

During an important meeting held last week, President XI Jinping identified key challenges facing China such as “new changes” related to the “international situation” and emphasized the need to make domestic demand “the main driving force of economic development”. Various legal measures that China has introduced since May 2025 should help private enterprises—important contributors to China’s domestic economy—withstand these challenges. For example, in certain cases where private enterprises cannot pay counterparties compensation in accordance with court rulings, the courts are authorized to take flexible approaches to help these enterprises address their financial issues. Counterparties dealing with such enterprises should understand these approaches to better protect their own legal rights and interests.

Image: Lynn Greyling, Korea War Display
(Publicdomainpictures.net)

Amidst growing uncertainty in the West after the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife as well as increasing Sino-Japanese tension over Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s comments on Taiwan, Chinese President XI Jinping warmly welcomed South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s state visit to seek support from an important neighbor. The visit was concluded with signed documents highlighting the two countries’ economic cooperation. Such economic cooperation may benefit from the seeds of mutual respect planted by the two countries’ judiciaries years ago. Yet there are two uncertainties: Will South Korea be able to sell computer chips to China, in defiance of external pressure? And will China be able to win the hearts of South Koreans, whose votes will influence President Lee’s decision?

Image: Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan, Installment, Car, Bank, Percentage
(Publicomainpictures.net)

Judicial protection of intellectual property (“IP”) rights in China has been perceived to be limited because, among other problems, the amounts of damages awarded by Chinese courts in IP infringement cases have historically been small. However, this state of affairs may be changing, as China’s Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) rendered a landmark judgment in a case involving large-scale infringement of trade secrets, allowing the victims to receive an amount equivalent to almost USD 90 million as compensation. As analyzed by Nathan Harpainter and David Zhao, Co-Managing Editors of SINOTALKS®, the innovative approach taken by the SPC to calculate the damages in the landmark case is essentially based on the concept of “unjust enrichment”. The steps followed by the SPC to do the calculation are helpful but inadequate. To help China develop its jurisprudence in this important area, the two co-authors discuss related U.S. experiences.

Image: Petr Kratochvil, American Flag And City Buildings (Publicdomainpictures.net)

On March 6, 2025, Dr. Mei Gechlik, Founder & CEO of SINOTALKS^® gave a talk about China’s Guiding Cases and related topics to a group of attorneys at the U.S. Department of Commerce to deepen their understanding of China’s court system and latest developments.