"The General Provisions represent the first step in putting in place a comprehensive national civil code, which will ultimately supplant the patchwork of laws and regulations that currently comprise China's civil law system. It is an important milestone in the development of China’s legal system. However, likely of greater concrete relevance to international businesses will be the legislative work still to come in completing the full civil code, which official commentary suggests will include chapters addressing matters such as property rights, contracts, infringement of rights, marriage and family, and inheritance. An aggressive legislative schedule has been set, with the various individual chapters to be submitted to the standing committee of the NPC for review and approval by 2018 and the full civil code to be presented to the NPC itself for approval by 2020."

"The release of the 16th batch of guiding cases brought their total number to 87, of which 20 are related to intellectual property or China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law and Anti-Monopoly Law. These guiding cases cover, among others, patents (Nos. 20, 55, and 83-85), trademarks (Nos. 30, 46, 58, 82, and 87), copyrights (Nos. 48-49, 80-81), plant variety rights (No. 86), and antimonopoly disputes (Nos. 78-79). Qihoo v. Tencent, the first internet-related antimonopoly case handled by the SPC was released as No. 78. We expect this case will be widely cited in subsequent cases involving analyses of relevant market and market dominance."

"Taking evidence in Mainland China for use in proceedings outside the Mainland has historically been fraught with difficulties. The conduct of depositions for use in overseas proceedings is prohibited. Much publicised and broadly drafted state secrets laws mean it is risky to take documents out of the Mainland. This new arrangement is therefore to be welcomed and further strengthens Hong Kong's position as the natural venue for the resolution of commercial disputes arising from investments in the Mainland."

"The notice unifies the management of RMB and foreign currency external debt, further standardises the regulations on the cross-border financing of Chinese enterprises and financial institutions, and further relaxes the quota on the cross-border financing of Chinese enterprises."

"The draft revisions to the Anti-unfair competition Law is one of several forthcoming legal reforms in China which will greatly impact the business community. The draft fits in with China's long-term plan to design and implement a more coherent and comprehensive legal system that provides greater confidence and certainty for investors."

"The revised provisions are an encouraging development. They include several changes to encourage MNCs to consider establishing a regional headquarters in Shanghai, including removal of business scope restrictions and the introduction of "quasi-headquarter entities", both of which will allow greater flexibility in structuring centralised support service functions. We should expect to see different district governments in Shanghai competing to encourage relevant MNCs to establish regional headquarters in their respective districts. As with most Chinese regulations, we will need to wait until implementing rules are issued to understand the specific incentives and reward policies."