Zhan Hao  Zhou Yanghui  Liao Lilin

On 8 April 2018, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) was formally unveiled in Beijing, marking the official launch of the new regulatory authority into operation. This merger of the former China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) is considered the biggest reform of China’s financial regulatory system in over fifteen years, bringing an end to the “One Bank, Three Commissions” (一行三会) regulation framework, and marking the start of the “One Committee, One Bank, Two Commissions” (一委一行两会) regulation framework (referring to the Financial Stability and Development Committee, PBOC, CBIRC and CSRC). Since then, Chinese insurance market has the new regulator. This huge change has not been completed because it not only brought the reorganization to CBRC and CIRC, but also to the local bureaus (branches) of CBRC and CIRC, and the latter should cost more time.

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Authored by Zhan Hao <zhanhao@anjielaw.com> , Zhou Yanghui <zhouyanghui@anjielaw.com>, Liao Lilin<liaolilin@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

ZHOU Yanghui,Yu Dan,Chen Jun

The Opening-up of the PRC insurance market has been accelerated during the recent two years.

Since the release of the Notice of the State Council on Several Measures for Opening Wider to the Outside World and Making Active Use of Foreign Investment on January 1st, 2017, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CBIRC”, including the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC”)) has issued several provisions and guidance to further attract foreign investors to enter PRC insurance market. Relevant regulations include the Notice of the CBIRC on Liberalizing the Business Scope of Foreign-invested Insurance Brokerage Companies, Notice of the CBIRC on Allowing Overseas Investors to Operate.

Insurance Adjuster Business in China, Notice of the CBIRC on Allowing Overseas Investors to Operate Insurance Agent Business in China, etc.

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Authored by Zhou Yanghui <zhouyanghui@anjielaw.com> , Yu Dan <yudan@anjielaw.com>, Chen Jun <chenjun@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

Zhan Hao, Song Ying, Stephanie Wu, Lv Hongjie

China’s competition watchdog SAMR made a penalty decision, adopted by its Shanghai branch Shanghai Market Regulation Bureau (“SMRB”), publicized on its official website[1] on April 29, 2019, right before the International Labor Day holiday. This decision is addressed to Eastman (China) Investment Management Co., Ltd. (“Eastman China”), a Chinese subsidiary of the US Chemical firm Eastman Chemical Company, for restricting transactions by abusing its dominant market position. The fine amount is equal to 5% of Eastman China’s 2016 sales revenue, roughly USD 3.6 million.

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Authored by Zhan Hao <zhanhao@anjielaw.com> , Song Ying <songying@anjielaw.com>, Wu Yuanyuan <wuyuanyuan@anjielaw.com> , Lv Hongjie <lvhongjie@anjielaw.com>at  AnJie Law Firm

He Jing/Jerry Xia

On March 18, 2019, China announced amendments of its joint venture law and the Regulations on Administration of Technology Import and Export (TIER) with immediate effect. The changes in nature took away some of the restrictions around cross border technology transfers, delivering more freedom of contract for future transactions. The announcement has attracted lots of attention from around the world as the rules are directly related to some of the claims in the US China trade disputes. The changes may turn out to be beneficial to both Chinese and foreign companies in the long run. We highlight the background and key changes below.

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Authored by He Jing <hejing@anjielaw.com> , Jerry Xia <Jerryxia@anjielaw.com>

Bo Hu, Partner

On March 15, 2019, China’s national legislature, the National People’s Congress passed the Foreign Investment Law (the “Law”), a landmark legislation that will provide stronger protection and a better business environment for foreign investors. The Law will take effective on January 1,2020.

Upon its effectiveness, the Law will replace China’s current foreign investment regimes, i.e, the existing three laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint venture, the Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture and wholly foreign-owned enterprises, which were promulgated in the early years after the country started to implement the reform and opening policy.

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Authored by Hu Bo <hubo@anjielaw.com>

Zhan Hao, Song Ying and Wu Yuanyuan

Against the backdrop of China-US trade friction, the event that Qualcomm/NXP deal’s abortion due to the holding of China’s antitrust authority to give the green light, has raised most attention and interest ever from people on China’s merger review practice, particularly on situations when it comes to chips industry. This article is not intended to comment on the potential political influence or industry concerns behind this event, which has been masticated in a bunch of articles and media report. The authors would rather to comb and comment on those major cases of chip industry approved by the former Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the current State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) with imposition of remedies so far, to the end to help readers have a better understanding of the merger review practice in China of this industry.

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Authored by Zhan Hao <zhanhao@anjielaw.com> , Song Ying <songying@anjielaw.com>, Wu Yuanyuan <wuyuanyuan@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

Concurrences in partnership with NYU Stern will hold the fourth annual Global Antitrust Economics Conference on Friday, May 31 2019 from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm at NYU Stern School of Business. The Global Antitrust Economics Conference is organized by Concurrences Review in collaboration with New York University Stern School of Business. So far, the conference has been held for three consecutive sessions. This annual global antitrust economics conference is a one-day conference, which combines the global economic situation and conducts in-depth discussion on the current antitrust hot topics. This conference is composed of four panels, Antitrust in Sports, Telecom Mergers, Pricing Issues in Pharma: Pay-For-Delay, Product Hopping… and In-House Counsel Session: Platforms. This event is for free registration. For information on the agenda, please find details as follows:

Conference Agenda

8:30 am Registration & Breakfast

8:45 am WELCOME REMARKS

Luis CABRAL | Chair, Department of Economics, NYU Stern, New York

Lawrence WHITE | Professor, Department of Economics, NYU Stern, New York

9:00 am OPENING KEYNOTE SPEECH

Noah Joshua PHILLIPS | Commissioner, US Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC

9:30 am ANTITRUST IN SPORTS

Roger NOLL | Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Stanford University, Stanford

Andrew ZIMBALIST | Professor of Economics, Smith College, Northampton

Brad HUMPHREYS | Professor of Economics, West Virginia University, Morgantown

Rodney FORT | Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Michael HAUSFELD | Partner, Hausfeld, Washington, DC

Moderator: Lawrence WHITE | Professor, Department of Economics, NYU Stern, New York

10:45 am Break

11:00 am TELECOM MERGERS

Gail LEVINE | Deputy Director, Bureau of Competition, US Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC

Tim BRENNAN | Professor of Public Policy & Economics, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Gregory ROSSTON | Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University

Dennis CARLTON | Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

John HARKRIDER | Partner, Axinn, New York

Moderator: Katja SEIM | Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

12:15 pm Lunch

1:45 pm PRICING ISSUES IN PHARMA: PAY-FOR-DELAY, PRODUCT HOPPING…

Paul CSISZÁR | Director, DG COMP, Brussels

David GILO | Professor of Law, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv

Damien NEVEN | Professor of Economics, The Graduate Institute, Geneva

George ROZANSKI | Partner, Bates White, Washington, DC

Ingrid VANDENBORRE | Partner, Skadden Arps, Brussels

Mark GIDLEY | Partner, White & Case, Washington DC

Moderator: Robert WILLIG | Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Emeritus, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

3:00 pm Break

3:15 pm IN-HOUSE COUNSEL SESSION: PLATFORMS

Samantha KNOX | Associate General Counsel, Facebook, San Francisco

Rosie LIPSCOMB | Senior Competition Counsel, Google, San Francisco

Alvaro RAMOS | Head, Global Antitrust, Qualcomm, San Diego

David HIGBEE | Partner, Shearman & Sterling, Washington, DC

Boris BERSHTEYN | Partner, Skadden Arps, New York

Moderator: Harry FIRST | Professor, NYU School of Law, New York

4:30 pm CLOSING KEYNOTE SPEECH

Hal VARIAN | Chief Economist, Google, San Francisco

5:00 pm Drinks

 

Speaker to be confirmed

 

SPONSORS

Axinn

Bates White

Hausfeld

Qualcomm

Shearman & Sterling

Skadden

White & Case

 

MEDIA SPONSOR

MLex

 

To register, please click: http://globalantitrusteconomics.eventbrite.com

 

Bo Hu

On March 15, 2019, China’s national legislature, the National People’s Congress passed the Foreign Investment Law (the “Law”), a landmark legislation that will provide stronger protection and a better business environment for foreign investors. The Law will take effective on January 1, 2020. Upon its effectiveness, the Law will replace China’s current foreign investment regimes, i.e, the existing three laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint venture, the Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture and wholly foreign-owned enterprises, which were promulgated in the early years after the country started to implement the reform and opening policy.

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Authored by Bo Hu <hubo@anjielaw.com> , at AnJie Law Firm

Ren Gulong and Yang Anshu

With the further opening-up of China’s financial market and the continuous progress of the internationalization of Renminbi in recent years, more and more foreign entities choose to issue renminbi-dominated bonds in mainland China (for the purpose of this article, excluding Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao). In accordance with international practice, renminbi-denominated bonds issued in China by foreign organizations was named as “Panda Bonds”.

China’s onshore bond markets comprises the interbank bond market and exchange bond market. Interbank bond market is regulated by People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”) and exchange bond market is regulated by China Securities Regulatory Commission (“CSRC”). While there are no specific rules for issuing Panda Bonds in exchange bond markets, new rule has been issued by PBOC regulating the issuance of Panda Bonds in interbank bond market by foreign organizations including governmental agencies, international development institutions, foreign financial institutions and non-financial enterprises.

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Authored by Ren Gulong <rengulong@anjielaw.com> ,  Yang Anshu <yanganshu@anjielaw.com>  at AnJie Law Firm

Ren Gulong and Zhang Jiaqi

In mid-February, the European Commission adopted its new list of 23 high-risk countries for money laundering. As a result of the listing, banks and other entities covered by the European Union anti-money laundering rules will be required to apply increased checks on financial operations involving customers and financial institutions from these countries. China, as a member of FATF, has also devoted to fight against money laundering. One of the recent developments in this regard is the issuance of Interpretation on Several Issues concerning the Application of Laws in the Handling of Criminal Cases Involving Illegal Fund Payment and Settlement Business and Illegal Foreign Exchange Trading (the “Interpretation”) by Chinese Supreme People’s Court and Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate to combat criminal activities involving underground banks which in nature have largely facilitated money laundering.

Due to changes of economic situation in China, some people are trying to transfer their funds out of China illegally. This is a severe threaten to financial stability and national security. The Interpretation was released to fight against illegal money transfer and other money laundering activities. It addresses several issues concerning the application of laws in handling criminal cases involving illegal fund payment and settlement business (“Illegal Settlement”) and illegal foreign exchange trading (“Illegal Trading of FX”).

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Authored by Ren Gulong <rengulong@anjielaw.com> ,  Zhang Jiaqi <zhangjiaqi@anjielaw.com>  at AnJie Law Firm