CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Tim Yimin Liu, Sybil Xueting Yuan and Cassie Wenjing Li, Global Law Office
8.3 Powers of Compulsion Court Assistance to Order the Production of Documents The arbitral tribunal may collect evidence on its own if it considers it necessary. It also has limited power to investigate and collect evidence on its own initiative. (See Article 43 of the PRC Arbitration Law.) In practice, Chinese arbitral tribunals mainly adopt two approaches to evidence collection in commercial arbitration proceedings. • The tribunal may issue a letter of assistance for evidence collection at the request of a party. The requesting party then presents the letter to the entity in possession of the evidence. • The tribunal (or the arbitration institution on its behalf) may directly issue such a letter to the entity or assign staff to deliver it in person. However, these letters cannot compel compliance. To address this limitation, several local jurisdictions – such as Shanghai and Guangdong – have introduced local legislative or judicial measures allowing arbitral institutions to apply to the courts for investigation orders. For example, the Regulations on Optimizing the Busi - ness Environment of Shanghai (2023) provide a local statutory basis for such compulsion. On 19 June 2025, the Guangdong High People’s Court issued and implemented the Measures for Issuing Investi - gation Orders to Assist Commercial Arbitral Institu - tions in Evidence Collection. Courts in cities such as Shanghai and Zhuhai have already supported arbitral institutions in issuing compulsory investigation orders in practice. Compulsion of Witness Attendance Regarding witness attendance, the PRC Arbitration Law does not explicitly authorise the tribunal to com - pel witnesses to appear. Witness testimony in arbi - tration is generally voluntary, and tribunals cannot enforce witness attendance.
Unlike the discovery procedures common in some common law jurisdictions, there is no mandatory, comprehensive evidence disclosure regime under the PRC Arbitration Law. Parties are required to submit evidence – including documentary, physical, audio - visual, electronic data and witness testimony – within deadlines prescribed by the arbitral tribunal. Evidence submitted after the deadline may be rejected or given no probative value at the tribunal’s discretion (see, eg, Article 41 of the current CIETAC Arbitration Rules). The tribunal may collect evidence on its own initiative. For technical matters, expert opinions may be submitted by parties or directed and collected by the tribunal. During arbitration proceedings, all evidence present - ed by one party is subjected to examination by the other party. Parties have the right to challenge the authenticity, legality and relevance of evidence and to examine witnesses and experts, which in practice functions similarly to cross-examination in common law jurisdictions. There are also specific procedural rules regarding evi - dence collection. For instance, parties may apply for preservation of evidence when such evidence is at risk of loss or is difficult to obtain due to its possession by the other party. In such cases, the arbitration institu - tion submits the preservation request to the court for enforcement. (See Article 46 of the PRC Arbitration Law.) 8.2 Rules of Evidence For arbitration conducted in China, the primary rules of evidence can be found in the PRC Arbitration Law, the PRC Civil Procedure Law, and the rules of major arbitration institutions. Parties may agree to adopt specific evidentiary rules – such as guidelines mod - elled on the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration. Notably, CIETAC has devel - oped its own Evidence Guidelines with reference to the IBA Rules. An arbitral tribunal may apply the CIETAC Evidence Guidelines if agreed by the parties. In general, the evidentiary rules applicable to inter - national arbitration proceedings seated in China are largely the same as those applied in domestic arbitra - tion, unless the parties agree otherwise or the institu - tional rules provide for specific differences.
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