It is often puzzling and difficult for foreign reinsurers to navigate through Chinese legal frameworks on reinsurance contracts, especially since there are relatively fewer regulations to offer guidance on reinsurance contracts compared to the extensive regulations on direct insurance. Moreover, since the reinsurance business often involves small groups of close acquaintances, it is often the case that the parties neglect the wording of reinsurance contracts. During the past five years, the Chinese courts and arbitration…

                                                                                                                                      Yang Zhan On May 31, 2019, the Ministry…

Zhan Hao  Zhou Yanghui  Liao Lilin On 8 April 2018, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) was formally unveiled in Beijing, marking the official launch of the new regulatory authority into operation. This merger of the former China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) is considered the biggest reform of China’s financial regulatory system in over fifteen years, bringing an end to the “One Bank, Three Commissions” (一行三会)…

ZHOU Yanghui,Yu Dan,Chen Jun The Opening-up of the PRC insurance market has been accelerated during the recent two years. Since the release of the Notice of the State Council on Several Measures for Opening Wider to the Outside World and Making Active Use of Foreign Investment on January 1st, 2017, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CBIRC”, including the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC”)) has issued several provisions and guidance to further attract foreign…

Zhan Hao, Song Ying, Stephanie Wu, Lv Hongjie China’s competition watchdog SAMR made a penalty decision, adopted by its Shanghai branch Shanghai Market Regulation Bureau (“SMRB”), publicized on its official website[1] on April 29, 2019, right before the International Labor Day holiday. This decision is addressed to Eastman (China) Investment Management Co., Ltd. (“Eastman China”), a Chinese subsidiary of the US Chemical firm Eastman Chemical Company, for restricting transactions by abusing its dominant market…

He Jing/Jerry Xia On March 18, 2019, China announced amendments of its joint venture law and the Regulations on Administration of Technology Import and Export (TIER) with immediate effect. The changes in nature took away some of the restrictions around cross border technology transfers, delivering more freedom of contract for future transactions. The announcement has attracted lots of attention from around the world as the rules are directly related to some of the claims in…

Bo Hu, Partner On March 15, 2019, China’s national legislature, the National People’s Congress passed the Foreign Investment Law (the “Law”), a landmark legislation that will provide stronger protection and a better business environment for foreign investors. The Law will take effective on January 1,2020. Upon its effectiveness, the Law will replace China’s current foreign investment regimes, i.e, the existing three laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint venture, the Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture and wholly foreign-owned…