Chinese Law Research Guide

Examining the twenty years since China acceded to the World Trade Organization, this collection provides an original, systematic assessment of the opportunities and challenges that China has presented to the WTO. Offering in-depth analyses of the 'two-way' relationship between China and the WTO, the contributions explore a range of key issues from the varied effects of WTO membership for China and the global economy to the responses of the WTO members to China's rapid economic growth. It presents diverse perspectives of leading scholars from multiple disciplines, including law, economics, political science, and international relations, as well as practical insights from senior policymakers from both China and the United States. This is an invaluable contribution to ongoing debates about the implications of the rise of China for global economic governance and enriches discussions of the wide-ranging implications of China's growing integration into the multilateral trading system, both now and in the future.

Contents
Special thanks / Henry Gao -- Preface / Johannes M.M. Chan -- General introduction / Shi Guangsheung -- 1. China's participation in the Doha negotiations and implementation of its accession commitments / Shi Miaomiao -- 2. Multilateralism v regionalism : China's participation in WTO agriculture negotiations / Huang Rengang -- I. Trade barriers and trade remedies. 3. Need for coherence among WTO's escape clauses / Patrick Messerlin -- 4. Critical review on the WTO safeguard system : to safeguard the safeguard system / Dukgeun Ahn -- 5. The legal effectiveness and appropriateness of transitional product-specific safeguard mechanism against China / Zeng Lingliang -- 6. Legal interpretation of paragraph 242 of the report of the working party on the accession of China under the WTO legal framework / Dongli Huang -- 7. China's anti-dumping regime : progress and problems / Patrick Norton -- II. Market access, trade in services. 8. Pre-establishment of national treatment of foreign investments and China's countermeasures / Yu Jinsong -- 9. A macroeconomic perspective on China's liberalization of trade in services / Carsten Fink -- 10. Changing the regulatory landscape : China's banking system after the WTO accession / Yixin Chen -- 11. An analysis of performance conditions in China's banking service market and the competitive situation and development strategies of foreign banks in the wake of China's WTO accession / Huang Jinlao -- III. TRIPS. 12. TRIPs and amendment of unfair competition law in China / Zheng Chengsi -- 13. The enforcement of intellectual property rights in China / Chiang Ling Li -- IV. Dispute settlement. 14. WTO dispute settlement : past, present, and future / Valerie Hughes -- 15. Interests of developing countries in the WTO dispute settlement / Mitsuo Matshushita -- 16. The negotiations on improvements and clarifications of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) / Lohar Ehring -- 17. WTO dispute settlement mechanism and China's participation / Liyong Jiang -- 18. Aggressive legalism : the East Asian experience and lessons for China / Henry Gao.

Why, and how, do states obey international law? This engaging book tackles this very question head on via its examination of the conflicting and conciliating processes of the Chinese approach to litigation and the Western approach to legal orientation in the field of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. The authors examine the normative framework of WTO rule implementation in a globalised international economic order. They further explore the notion of the rule of law in China's Confucian system, and how it interacts with a rule-based world trading system. Topics discussed include theorising the WTO implementation regime, the Chinese approach to law, China and the WTO dispute settlement system, and Chinese Confucianism and compliance. With its focus on international economic law and political science, this book will be accessible to students, policy makers, practitioners and academics looking to understand China and the rule of law in a global context.

Amid the ongoing crisis surrounding the WTO, China's role and behaviour in the multilateral trading system has attracted overwhelming attention. This timely monograph provides the first comprehensive and systemic analysis of China's compliance with the rulings of the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism (DSM). It covers all the disputes in which China has been a respondent during its 17-year WTO membership and offers a detailed discussion of China's implementation of adverse WTO rulings, its approaches to settling WTO disputes, the possible explanations for such approaches, and post-compliance issues. The book shows how China has utilised the limitations and flexibilities of WTO rulings to ensure that its implementation of the rulings not only delivers adequate compliance but also maintains its own interests. Overall, this book argues that the issues relating to the quality of China's compliance and post-compliance practices concern the loopholes within the DSM itself which may be utilised by all WTO Members. However, despite the loopholes, China's record of compliance suggests that the DSM has been largely effective in inducing compliance and influencing domestic policy-making. It is therefore in the interest of all WTO Members and other stakeholders to protect the DSM as the 'crown jewel' of the multilateral trading system.

An examination of China's participation in the World Trade Organization, the conflicts it has caused, and how WTO reforms could ease them. China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 was rightly hailed as a huge step forward in international cooperation. However, China's participation in the WTO has been anything but smooth, with China alienating some of its trading partners, particularly the United States. The mismatch between the WTO framework and China's economic model has undermined the WTO's ability to mitigate tensions arising from China's size and rapid growth. What has to change? China and the WTO demonstrates that unilateral pressure, by the United States and others, is not the answer. Instead, Petros Mavroidis and André Sapir show that if the WTO enacts judicious reforms, it could induce China's cooperation, leading to a renewed confidence in the WTO system. The WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, are predicated on liberal domestic policies. They managed the previous accessions of socialist countries and big trading nations, but none were as large or powerful as China. Mavroidis and Sapir contend that for the WTO to function smoothly and accommodate China's unique geopolitical position, it needs to translate some of its implicit principles into explicit treaty language. To make their point, they focus on two core complaints - that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) benefit from unfair trade advantages, and that domestic companies, private as well as SOEs, impose forced technology transfer on foreign companies as a condition for accessing the Chinese market - and they lay out specific proposals for WTO reforms. In an age of global trade disputes, China and the WTO offers a timely exploration of unprecedented challenges to the current multilateral system and fresh ideas for lasting solutions.

The last few years have been "anni horribiles" for in International Economic Law in general and in particular for the World Trade Organization, since its inception in 1995 the guarantor of the world multilateral trade system. The increasing trade tensions, a high level of US security tariffs on steel and aluminium, the US boycott of the WTO Appellate Body, the US-China "trade war" and the reasons underlining it, only aggravated a disastrous world-wide economic situation at a time of tremendous global health and societal emergency, due to the persistent devastating spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book critically discusses the most salient past US administration’s unilateralist and protectionist practices. At the same time investigating the new Biden Administration’s trade approaches in order to assess whether the precedent trade trajectory is likely to continue, or there is hope of reviving the US commitment to the rule-based multilateral trading system. The book’s goal consists in distilling from current legal events the reasoning that might help the next generations in obtaining what the world needs most. These are a conscious and voluntary return to multilateralism, the search of new forms of effective global cooperation, better trade policies, a more equitable globalization, sound legal arguments, and solid economic reasons to combat rising nationalisms. If enacted, these elements hopefully would contribute to defeat new risks of political conflicts and long-lasting "trade wars". The book will be helpful to students and scholars in international and trade law, political science, and also professionals working in international and EU institutions.