Blog – STL Law Review – Peking University School of Transnational Law Review Blog

Proactive Strategy for EU Regulatory Investigations: the Nuctech Case

Ling Xujie (凌许婕)

I. Introduction

Multinational corporations operating across borders increasingly find themselves caught in the crossfire of overlapping and contradictory regulatory regimes. While Chinese technology companies entering the European market serve as a prominent example, they are by no means the only foreign entities facing severe compliance bottlenecks under European Union (EU) law; any non-EU enterprise backed by foreign capital or operating across borders faces similar exposure under the EU’s expanding regulatory toolkit. A prime example of this cross-border regulatory conflict is the legal challenge brought by Nuctech—a Chinese security equipment manufacturer—against the European Commission’s unannounced inspections under the newly enacted Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR)^[1].

Nuctech’s lawsuit was not just a procedural matter. It raises a deeper … Read the rest

Chasing Transsion: The Crisis Behind Chinese Companies’ Global Expansion as Africa’s “Smartphone King” Loses Steam

WENG Yukai (翁钰开)

1 Introduction

In May 2024, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) conducted a raid on Transsion’s office in Nairobi, allegedly for evading taxes amounting to as much as 400 billion Kenyan shillings.^[1] It was evident that Transsion’s legal department was caught unprepared, lacking both a rapid litigation response and effective negotiation with local authorities.^[2]

This was the first time people saw the once-invincible Africa’s “Smartphone King” caught off guard. The incident was not a spur-of-the-moment decision by the authorities; in fact, it reflects the fact that China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has entered a new era in which contradictions can no longer be concealed. Taking Transsion as a case study, this post argues that the company’s … Read the rest

A Traffic Jam of Subsidies and a Successful Domestic Market: Will Chinese NEVs drive to an ASCM Wall?

A Traffic Jam of Subsidies and a Successful Domestic Market:

Will Chinese NEVs drive to an ASCM Wall?

Transnational Law Review Seminar

Peking University

School of Transnational Law

Student: Erdal Fere

Student id: 2101213628

Professor Finder

Introduction

“Developing new energy vehicles is the only way to become a powerful country in automobiles,” said Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2014.^[1] Six years later, in 2020 in a speech to the United Nations, he continued by stating that China “will step up support for new energy vehicles, develop charging infrastructure, and promote innovative development of the auto industry“^[2], meaning that the vehicles had become one of his priorities … Read the rest

Piercing the corporate veil of Chinese “husband-and-wife” companies or how do a husband and wife become one flesh?

Zhou Congning (周聪宁), STL 4L student

Limited liability in Chinese corporate law helps the shareholders to reduce the risk of running a company because a company will use its assets to reimburse the debt instead of shareholders’ personal property. However, the shield of the company will be pierced when the shareholder abuses his rights. In 2019, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued two different judgments concerning a special rule – reversing the burden of proof in a one-person limited liability company in Chinese Company Law.

The facts of both cases involve a married couple who set up a limited liability company to operate a business and protect their personal and family property from creditors. In the 2019 appeal case, Wuhan … Read the rest

Absconding husbands, homeless wives and helpless creditors: Safeguarding the interests of stakeholders during enforcement proceedings

Alvin Sia

LLM Candidate, Peking University School of Transnational Law

Women’s property rights were restricted by social norms in imperial China.^[1] Property was passed down through male heirs.^[2] In most cases, wives could not inherit property upon their husband’s death.^[3] Most property brought by a wife into marriage belonged to her husband’s family.^[4] Meanwhile, a wife was beholden to her father before marriage and subordinate to her husband after marriage.^[5] Against this backdrop, there is a Chinese saying that “a wife pays for her husband’s debts”.^[6]

This saying still holds true under existing marriage laws of the People’s Republic of China. Creditors may enforce against property owned jointly by the non-debtor spouse … Read the rest

Climate Migration to the Russian Federation from a Legal Perspective Itself in Continuous Development

Nikita Gonta^[1]

Peking University School of Transnational Law

I. Introduction

With numerous catastrophic effects, climate change threatens to increasingly displace countless people around the world. The impending impacts range from entire states disappearing as a result of rising sea levels to nearly one-third of humanity staying in extremely hot and uninhabitable areas, according to most extreme projections.^[2]At the same time, projections indicate that due to global warming, the climatic conditions in Russia, which as the northernmost nation-state is largely covered with permafrost, should generally improve.^[3] Global warming is already changing the climatic living conditions in Russia: 63 percent of the land was considered unfavorable for living between 1961 and 1990; between 2001 and 2010 … Read the rest

Will the Chinese government tax robots?

By Zhu Zhimeng 朱知萌 Peking University School of Transnational Law

1. Introduction

The digitization and automation of the global economy have the potential to destabilize what is arguably the world’s most important tax tool–personal income taxes. Therefore it has wide-ranging economic and social implications.^[1]

These effects include but are not limited to, an increase in the gap between rich and poor, an increase in unemployment, and a reduction in national tax revenues. After reviewing global literature, I found that the overall international consensus of experts is that it is imperative to tax robots.

In June 2017, Nobel laureate Robert Shiller said that to alleviate the income gap caused by the robot revolution, it is necessary to reconstruct the … Read the rest

The Export of the Chinese Railway “Bill of Lading” System: A Milestone in China’s Global Rule-Making?

Zhang Huiyu 张惠宇 Peking University School of Transnational Law

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT 2

INTRODUCTION 2

SECTION I. Development of the “Railway Bill of Lading” System: from domestic practice to international proposal 5

A. Starting Point: Chongqing Practice and Sichuan Practice constitute the “dual-track” of the Chinese railway “bill of lading” system 5

1. Chongqing Practice: The Innovation of Unimodal Railway Bill of Lading 6

2. From Sichuan Practice to CIFA Bill of lading: The Development of Chinese Unified Railway Forwarder Bill 9

B. Turning point: The domestic legalization of the “railway bill of lading” 11

C. Current Point: The Internationalization of the Chinese railway “bill of lading” System 12

SECTION II. International Impact of the “Dual Track” System 14… Read the rest

Do China’s Antitrust Penalties Adequately Deter?

Shao Yang^[1]

I. Introduction

In recent years, antitrust has become more and more important for China, which is consistent with the global trend. In 2018, China launched the reform of its antitrust authorities. Under that reform, the antitrust law enforcement functions formerly split among the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce were merged into the newly established State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which made good preparation for enhancing antitrust law enforcement. Moreover, the fact that the 2020 Central Economic Work Conference listed antitrust and preventing disorderly capital expansion as one of the eight economic key tasks in 2021^[2] shows that the Central Committee … Read the rest