China

Highlights: A framework for reviewing foreign M&A transactions which may contain a national security component has been established under several pieces of legislation. The legislation contains a relatively high-level outline of the filing procedure, application documents, as well as a timeline of the review process. The Chinese authorities maintain broad discretion to conduct national security … Continued

Highlights:  To address issues of sufficient protection for farmers’ property rights, tensions and conflicts arising from land rights, and monopolies on land supply that cause systematic corruption, China’s Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) approved Beijing and Shanghai to start a pilot program on building and leasing residential properties on rural land. The pilot policy … Continued

Highlights: The Draft Amendment contains substantial changes to the Civil Procedural Law, with an aim to solve many practical problems in civil trials from small claims to enforcement. One of the fundamental legislative purposes of the current amendment is to provide more rights to Chinese citizens in civil trials, and to make the country’s civil … Continued

Contributed by: Fang He, Jun He Law Offices (Beijing) [stextbox id=”custom”]Editors’ Note:  This article is authored by Ms. Fang He and Ms. Qiushuang Zou of Jun He Law Offices.  Ms. He, a partner at Jun He, has more than 10 years of experience practicing PRC law, specializing in FDI, M&A and IP.  Ms. Zou, an … Continued

Highlights: The new Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue encourages foreign investment in more areas by removing several restrictions and adding several encouraged industries.  Caps on foreign equity are lifted in some industries. The New Catalogue promotes investment in energy-saving, environmental protection, new-generation information technology, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, and new energy … Continued

Highlights:  The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) conditionally approved Seagate’s acquisition of Samsung’s hard disk drive business, making it the 4th conditional approval of this year and the 10th conditional approval by MOFCOM since China’s Anti-Monopoly Law went into effect. While MOFCOM still relies heavily on market share and market structure, it also takes in … Continued

Executive Summary/Highlights: Under China State Council’s recent Notice, the National Security Review regime will only apply to foreign domestic deals where (a) the target domestic business is involved in a business that concerns national defense security; or; (b) the target domestic business is involved in a business that concerns national economic security, and the foreign … Continued

Highlights: Dr. Qin argues that 2010 marked a major turning point for the Chinese economy, reflecting the end of 30 years of high speed growth.   China’s aging population and decelerating urbanization and the impending global rebalancing will require China to shift gears from an export dependent model to a more internally focused economy.  The theme … Continued

Executive Summary/Highlights:  MOFCOM conditionally cleared the acquisition of Savio Macchine Tessili S.p.A ofItaly by Alpha Private Equity Fund V, a European private equity firm, subject to certain disposition conditions. This is the first conditional decision relating to a private equity investor that grants conditional approval.  Historically, PE firms have believed that their transactions were very … Continued

Executive Summary/Highlights: Reuters reported on Sept. 18, 2011 that CSRC, the Chinese securities market regulatory watchdog, submitted a report urging the State Council to “clamp down” on  the VIE structures employed in thousands of investments by foreigners into domestic Chinese companies. The VIE structure was adopted to gain access to the sectors where China had … Continued