A contractual joint venture established between a Chinese enterprise or organisation and a foreign enterprise, organisation or individual in China under the Sino-Foreign Co-operative Joint Venture Enterprise Law 2017 (2017 CJV Law), which was repealed by China's Foreign Investment Law 2019 from 1 January 2020.

According to the 2017 CJV Law, a CJV could provide for dividends that are not strictly in proportion to the parties' percentage contributions to the registered capital. In a CJV the Chinese company generally provides the labour, land use rights and factory buildings, while the foreign company usually brings in the necessary technology and key equipment, as well as the capital.

Existing CJVs established before 1 January 2020 may retain their corporate governance forms for a period of five years up to 31 December 2024, but should use this grandfathering period to amend their articles and restructure their corporate governance forms to comply with the Chinese corporate and business law regime that currently applies to domestic entities, which largely means the Company Law 2018 and Partnership Enterprise Law 2006. For more information, see Practice note, Chinese foreign investment law: overview: Corporate governance.

From 1 January 2020, no new entities can be formed under the "hat" of a CJV as the 2017 CJV Law has been repealed. However, investors can still achieve similar commercial arrangements in accordance with China's company and business law regime.