CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Jun Gao and Fan Xu, Zhong Lun Law Firm
Shift in International Commercial Arbitration Amid Global Restructuring Core characteristics of the current global economic and political landscape Over the past few years, the underlying dynamics of global business operations have undergone profound changes. The process of economic integration that once characterised the global economy has gradually slowed, with regionalisation and fragmentation emerg - ing as the new dominant trends, and protectionist ten - dencies continuing to intensify across multiple major jurisdictions. At the same time, ongoing geopolitical conflicts have further accelerated the reshaping of the global economic landscape, leaving businesses oper - ating across borders to face an external environment that is more complex and uncertain than ever before. Current landscape of Chinese enterprises’ overseas expansion Against this backdrop, the overseas expansion of Chinese enterprises has entered a new phase of development. The internal demand for economic transformation and upgrading within China is driving an increasing number of companies to extend their business operations into emerging markets and high- risk jurisdictions such as South-East Asia, Africa and Latin America. As the scale of overseas investment and trade continues to expand, Chinese enterprises are encountering not only a substantial rise in the vol - ume of cross-border commercial disputes but also a significant surge in their complexity, with the legal and compliance issues involved becoming ever-more diverse. Fundamental transformation of international commercial arbitration As the preferred method for resolving cross-border commercial disputes, international commercial arbi - tration is also undergoing a profound transformation. It is no longer merely a post-dispute adjudication mechanism used to resolve disputes over contract performance, but has gradually evolved into a com - prehensive governance platform that integrates the application of law, political considerations, anti-cor - ruption compliance, and public policy balancing. This transformation is both a proactive response to the changing landscape of global business risks and an
inevitable result of the arbitration system’s own adap - tation to the times. This article focuses on key developments in the field of international commercial arbitration from 2025 to 2026, with a particular emphasis on analysing the core innovations in the International Chamber of Com - merce (ICC)’s forthcoming anti-corruption umbrella report (“the Report”) and its newly revised arbitration rules. Additionally, the article will explore the industry’s reflections on and efforts to address the trend towards the judicialisation of arbitration. It will also provide a targeted analysis of the challenges faced by Chinese enterprises amid this wave of change, and propose feasible response strategies. Anti-Corruption: From Peripheral Issue to Core Pillar of Arbitration Proceedings Anti-corruption was once merely a marginal issue that occasionally arose in international commercial arbitra - tion; arbitral tribunals typically viewed it as a criminal matter unrelated to contractual disputes and did not examine it in depth. However, in recent years, with the intensification of the global anti-corruption movement and the exposure of a series of major corruption arbi - tration cases, this issue has risen to become a central pillar of arbitration proceedings. The Report marks a significant step forwards for the international arbitra - tion community in combating corruption, providing unified operational guidance to replace the previously fragmented approaches in practice. Shift in arbitral tribunal’s role: from passive neutrality to active discharge of duties Limitations of traditional practice Traditional arbitration practice strictly adheres to the nemo judex sine actore principle, meaning that an arbitral tribunal will only examine relevant issues when a party explicitly raises allegations of corruption. This passive and neutral stance has allowed a vast amount of corruption hidden behind commercial transactions to evade scrutiny – the case of Nigeria v P & ID serves as a sobering example of this. In 2010, the Nigerian government signed a natural gas processing contract without a public tender with P&ID, a shell company based in the British Virgin Islands. After P&ID initiated arbitration in 2012, the proceed -
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