The People’s Republic of China acceded to the New York Convention on April 22nd,1987,declaring it would reserve the rights of "reciprocity reservation" and "commercial reservation"
The "reciprocity reservation" means China will apply the Convention only for the recognition and enforcement of awards.
"The commercial reservation" means China will recognize and enforce arbitral awards concerning disputes arising from contractual and non-contractual commercial legal relationships. According to the Circular of the Supreme People’s Court on the Enforcement of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, "contractual and non-contractual commercial legal relationship" means the economic rights and duties arising from contracts or torts or stipulated in the regulations, such as goods sale, property lease, project contract, processing contract, technique transfer, joint venture, joint business operation, exploration and development of natural resources, insurance, financial credit, personal services, agency, consulting services and marine, air, railway and road transportation of cargo and passengers, product liability, environment pollution, accidents at sea and ownership disputes, except the disputes between the foreign investors and the government in the host country.
With an increasing volume of countries acceding to the New York Convention, the New York Convention wields increasing influence in international commercial arbitration and has been called one of the most successful international conventions in the history of international trade.