SINOTALKS® In Brief

Images: Okan Çalışkan, Law and Justice Concept;
Peter Griffin, Money
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The Supreme People’s Court of China’s landmark judgment that ordered an infringer of technological secrets to pay the owner of these secrets nearly RMB 640 million as damages was recently selected as a Guiding Case. However, the guiding principles of this case do not focus on this exceptionally high amount of damages, but primarily concern (1) the circumstances under which an alleged infringer has the burden to prove that the alleged infringement did not occur; and (2) the additional damages an infringer is required to pay if the infringer fails to perform, within the required time period, the obligations imposed by the judgment. This Guiding Case has significant implications for the implementation of China’s new five-year plan on judicial protection of intellectual property rights.Read this article

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President XI Jinping recently issued instructions on the “high-quality development of philosophy and social sciences” to, according to China’s state-run news agency, “break the hegemony of Western discourse” and enhance China’s “cultural soft power”. President Xi’s instructions were rooted in a speech delivered ten years ago, which led to the recent publication of a handbook outlining the “autonomous systems of knowledge” of Chinese legal studies. Featuring how China’s “original theories” explain topics such as national security and human rights, this handbook will likely serve as an example when other “philosophy and social sciences” disciplines in China explore their ways to set up “autonomous systems of knowledge”. These developments, together with China’s growing population of foreign students, suggest that the country’s cultural soft power could grow rapidly and reshape geopolitics.Read this article

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China’s newly revised law on the use of simplified Chinese characters across the country has, among other requirements, new provisions increasing punishments imposed on parties who violate the law. If the Chinese Communist Party is indeed interested in resolving the “Taiwan issue” through peaceful reunification, the language differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should be addressed. This approach would closely align with the “opinions” enumerated by Xi Jinping during his recent meeting with Taiwan’s Kuomintang Chairperson CHENG Li-wun: “foster spiritual harmony through a correct sense of identity […] with […] Chinese culture”. The revised law does make it possible to create exceptions allowing people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao to use traditional Chinese characters deeply rooted in Chinese culture. Yet a better and long-term approach is worth considering.Read this article

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To accelerate the country’s AI growth, China has been implementing the “Data Elements ×” Three-Year Action Plan. While the plan is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026, its “multiplier effect” will, however, continue. This is because China’s newly adopted five-year national economic and social development plan identifies “deepen[ing] the implementation of the ‘Data Elements ×’ Action” as one of the tasks that the country needs to focus on during the period from 2026 to 2030. More importantly, China’s national legislature just passed a new law to render this and other tasks included in the five-year plan—which, despite its significance, is not law—legally binding.Read this article

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China recently took an unprecedented step to issue permits allowing two models of vehicles equipped with “conditional autonomous driving” functions to operate on select roads. This creates a pressing need for unambiguous legal rules to regulate the liability issues that will arise from road safety violations. A new Guiding Case, a new piece of local legislation, and a set of draft national standards currently available for public comments all shed light on this important topic. Chinese automakers and their potential investors should seize the opportunity to provide their comments on the draft national standards, as any failure to comply with these standards, once adopted, will have significant legal implications.Read this article

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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.Read this article

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Since 2020, mainland China has stepped up its legal measures to better tackle the problem concerning fake safety certification documents. Understanding these efforts should reassure those handling a fire in Hong Kong, which killed at least 160 residents of a housing complex, that their commitment to pursue accountability without reservation is matched by a similar commitment on the part of the mainland Chinese authorities.Read this article

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The pioneering guidelines issued by an important arbitration commission in China regarding the use of AI in arbitration will test the commission’s ability to reassure all stakeholders that AI-facilitated arbitration can deliver efficient results without compromising accuracy, confidentiality, and fairness. The test is complicated by the potential for this commission to handle disputes arising from special types of “administrative agreements” signed by private parties and governments. The possibility of having governments participate in AI-facilitated arbitration presents difficult problems.Read this article

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China’s administrative litigation system came into effect in 1990 amidst strong demand for more protection of the legal rights and interests of citizens and private enterprises by enabling them to seek courts’ assistance in reviewing the legality of officials’ decisions. According to China’s Supreme People’s Court, this system has experienced challenges but shown progress over the past ten years. However, more information about a key aspect of the system should be disclosed to strengthen the role of Chinese courts and to align with the goals of a new law.Read this article

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China’s greenlight to allow American ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations helps address concerns that Chinese ownership of this popular platform for short videos could put millions of U.S. users’ personal information at risk. This deal should alert Chinese leaders that other Chinese companies operating overseas could face similar challenges unless the country demonstrates its commitment to the protection of personal information. Two Guiding Cases recently issued by the Supreme People’s Court provide a glimpse of the judicial application of China’s rules on personal information. More importantly, these two de facto binding cases in China are just the beginning, as revealed by the highest court.Read this article

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Slightly more than a month after creating “K” visas for “foreign young scientific and technological talents”, China’s State Council released a new AI plan. The timing is not coincidental. It reflects gradual steps taken by China to mobilize foreign young talents to help advance the development of AI in the country and the Global South, which is of strategic importance to China.Read this article

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China’s revised Mineral Resources Law became effective on July 1, 2025, approximately eight months after the country’s legislature approved the adoption of a new regulatory system that recognizes the geopolitical significance of minerals and avoids irreversible damage to natural ecosystems. These and other regulatory changes will likely bring more domestic and foreign investment to Tibet to help solve a big puzzle: can Tibet better utilize its abundant mineral resources without compromising its natural beauty? If Tibet succeeds, the accomplishment will inspire China’s neighboring nations facing similar challenges and, as many in China hope, will also strengthen international cooperation in this area.Read this article

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The recent celebration of the 120th birthday of the late Chinese leader CHEN Yun, one of the most prominent early members of the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”), has coincided with the occurrence of two medical scandals that have led to public outcry. The scandals have triggered widespread concerns about unqualified and unethical doctors and a medical system that seems to have allowed unfair practices. Were Chen Yun still alive, how would he handle this situation to restore public confidence?Read this article

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The need to mitigate risks associated with uncertainty in the international market has forced Chinese businesses to increasingly focus on their domestic market to reach 1.4 billion potential consumers. However, protectionist practices by various municipal, county-level, and other regional jurisdictions in China favoring local businesses have presented challenges to non-local businesses. To solve the problem, the Chinese national leadership has stepped up its effort to establish a “unified national market”. A six-month campaign recently launched by national authorities is expected to produce results that will also benefit foreign businesses seeking to overcome market access barriers in China.Read this article

Images: Mohamed Hassan, Handcuffed to a Dollar;
Linnaea Mallette, Spring Flowers Lightbulb Art
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A well-known Chinese business leader recently stated openly that her company does not hire any Chinese graduates or professionals returning from overseas to avoid potential infiltration by spies working for foreign entities. This remark has been widely criticized. While the business leader’s recruitment approach is quite extreme, her underlying concerns about potential loss of trade secrets are noteworthy. A new set of rules issued by Chinese authorities helps address these concerns by elucidating how individuals stealing trade secrets for foreign entities can be subject to severe criminal punishments.Read this article

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China stood out in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s latest report on generative artificial intelligence (“GenAI”) as, compared with other countries, China invented the largest number of GenAI technologies from 2014 to 2023. This momentum of innovation should be welcomed by Chinese leaders but should also prompt them to ponder a key question: how can they help to maintain and grow this momentum and ensure that China’s “new quality productive forces” will continue to drive the country’s long-term development? A case recently decided by the Supreme People’s Court shows that China is developing robust legal solutions to these challenges, among other tools.Read this article

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Chinese President XI Jinping’s mid-February meeting with founders of China’s innovative companies showcases the country’s “new quality productive forces”—a term coined by the president in 2023 to emphasize the role of innovation in driving the country’s long-term development. Despite the apparent collaboration prevailing in the meeting room, behind the scenes there is fierce competition among these and other innovative companies on many fronts, including the use of data, a valuable property in the era of artificial intelligence. China is acutely aware of the need to regulate the use of data, but the challenge is how to do so properly. Incremental steps taken by the judiciary and the executive in China provide a glimpse of the country’s exploratory approach to such regulation.Read this article

Images: Andrea Stöckel, Vintage Art Music Cats;
Karen Arnold, Do Not Copy Stamp (Publicdomainpictures.net)

An appellate court in Beijing just delivered a victory to a Belgian artist in a five-year-long legal battle, upholding an earlier ruling of the Beijing Intellectual Property Court that his paintings have been plagiarized for years by a Chinese artist. A key step towards this victory was the Belgian artist’s success in keeping the case in the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. Artists around the world seeking to protect their copyrights should understand both the positive actions this court took in this case and the confusion that remains as a result of the court’s decision, as well as why they should leverage platforms such as Rednote to avoid ordeals like the one experienced by the Belgian artist.Read this article

Image: George Hodan, Judge Gavel
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The coming into effect of China’s Foreign State Immunity Law at the beginning of 2024 has sparked concerns about how the Chinese judiciary will subject foreign states to the Chinese legal system because the law represents China’s transition from affording foreign states “absolute immunity” in Chinese courts to restricting the immunity to certain types of lawsuits. Amidst these concerns, the Supreme People’s Court just released a Guiding Case to illustrate its new, proactive approach to recognizing and enforcing foreign judgments. This approach not only evokes more optimism about the Chinese judiciary, but also increases the capacity of Chinese courts to help China revive its economy in 2025 and beyond by increasing the confidence of foreign parties in China’s willingness to recognize and enforce foreign judgments.Read this article

Image: Gerd Altmann, One Humanity (Publicdomainpictures.net)

China’s ongoing effort to amend its “mini-criminal law” has drawn praises because the latest draft amendment reflects the authorities’ positive responses to public comments. If key provisions that have aroused widespread concerns can be ultimately improved with clarity, China will be able to gain more support from the United Nations, which just completed its fourth-cycle Universal Periodic Review of China’s human rights record. Strong support from the United Nations—through which China has increased its influence with other member states in the past decade—is crucial to China’s development of its global leadership in an increasingly contentious world.Read this article

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China is seeking public comments on a draft law aimed at promoting the development of the country’s private enterprises. The draft law requires Chinese authorities to timely update a private enterprise’s records publicized on official “credit information platforms” after the enterprise no longer has irregularities undermining its credibility. Having clean records on these platforms is important as private enterprises’ business partners and clients are increasingly relying on these platforms to assess where these enterprises stand. However, these platforms have limitations, which, if not addressed properly, could compromise the development of Chinese private enterprises and, thereby, the country’s private economy.Read this article

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The growing importance of global business to China makes it crucial for the country to show its commitment to recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards. Since 1987, China has been a contracting state of the New York Convention, which requires each contracting state to ensure that its judiciary recognizes and enforces an arbitral award made in another contracting state, unless such recognition or enforcement would be contrary to the contracting state’s “public policy”, among other exceptions. The convention does not interpret the “public policy” exception. How the Chinese judiciary interprets it directly influences foreign parties’ level of confidence in doing business with China. A recent court case in China sheds light on the interpretation of this exception.Read this article

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Coined by President XI Jinping in 2023, the term “new quality productive forces” is of great significance because related reforms, with reference to various types of investment, have been identified by the Chinese leadership. Key talks given in 1992 by the late reformist leader DENG Xiaoping and select court cases recently released by China help illuminate the meaning of the term. Actions taken by the courts in these cases to support the development of “new quality productive forces” allow investors to better assess related opportunities.Read this article

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“Strengthening the regulation of listed companies” and “improving the mechanism for protecting investors” are among the many reform tasks identified in the widely anticipated decision adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on July 18, 2024. While China’s newly amended Accounting Law may help accomplish these goals, a case decided by the Supreme People’s Court suggests that additional measures are required.Read this article

Images: George Hodan, Judge Gavel;
Maliz Ong, Black and White Brick Wall (Publicdomainpictures.net)

In 2018, I co-authored an article titled Propagation of a Case Culture in China and Potentially Beyond.  Based on an analysis of how 96 Guiding Cases, de facto binding cases released by China’s Supreme People’s Court available at the time, had been referenced in 1,281 subsequent cases decided by courts across the country, my co-authors and I drew this conclusion: “the preliminary success of [Guiding Cases] seems to have provided fertile ground for the propagation of a case culture in China and, given the country’s eagerness to increase its presence around the world, this culture may have a chance to be propagated elsewhere.”  Just such an opportunity for China to propagate a culture of applying case-based legal reasoning in the BRICS arose in mid-June.Read this article

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In mid-May, the Lin-Gang Area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (“FTZ”) issued trial measures to allow eligible companies in the area—criteria used suggest that Tesla is eligible—to export certain data without going through China’s complicated approval system. Similar measures were adopted by Tianjin’s FTZ in early May, while other FTZs in China are expected to follow suit. These measures can benefit foreign investors in China significantly. Yet, the fundamental goal of their issuance is not a mere increase in domestic foreign investment, but rather the implementation of China’s plan to develop its digital economy globally.Read this article

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The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating whether the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) is “empowered to ensure meaningful oversight of auditors of [China]-based firms”. The Committee should welcome a document recently released by China’s State Council that aims at improving the country’s capital markets by strengthening information disclosure, among other measures. Interestingly, the Supreme People’s Court of China has taken steps that, if followed consistently by all courts in the country, can empower this document.Read this article

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A little-known Q&A tool used within China’s court system since 2023 was recently brought to the spotlight. With its promising performance, the tool allows China’s highest court to “free several birds with one key”. The far-reaching impact of the tool also lays a solid foundation for China to develop AI-assisted adjudication.Read this article

Image: Gerd Altmann, Judge Gavel (Publicdomainpictures.net)

China’s enactment of the Foreign State Immunity Law marks the country’s formal transition from affording foreign states “absolute immunity” in Chinese courts to restricting the immunity to certain types of lawsuits. This transition is in line with the approach used in the United States, as codified in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”). However, a comparison between China’s Foreign State Immunity Law and the FSIA and related U.S. jurisprudence——as discussed by Circuit Judge John M. Walker Jr. in an article published by SINOTALKS®——reveals key differences between the two countries’ approaches.Read this article

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China’s reduction of the reserve requirement ratio for all banks beginning from February 5 is expected to help revive the economy by injecting more cash into the banking system. Another measure that is likely to help improve China’s economy but seems to have drawn little attention outside the legal community is the release of a set of revised rules to implement China’s Patent Law. If applied effectively, these revised rules have the potential to strengthen China’s patent protection mechanism, making the country more appealing to foreign investors.Read this article