Arbitration and China’s Global Business

Image: Linnaea Mallette, Shipping Port (Publicdomainpictures.net)

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 more

Key Talks in 1992, Court Cases in 2024, and “New Quality Productive Forces”

Image: Mikhail Denishchenko, Production Technology (Publicdomainpictures.net)

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 more

China’s Third Plenary Session: Implications for Strengthening Deterrence of Accounting Violations

Image: Axelle B, Euros Handshake (Publicdomainpictures.net)

“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 more