Chinese Investment Treaties: Policies and Practice

China's success in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last decade is undisputed, and unprecedented. It is currently the second largest FDI recipient in the world, a success partially due to China's efforts to enter into bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and other international investment instruments. The second title to publish in the new Oxford International Arbitration Series is a comprehensive commentary on Chinese BITs.

Chinese investment treaties have typically provided international forums for settling investment disputes such as the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Given the continuous growth of FDI in China, the emergence of state-investor disagreements in China and the dramatic rise of investment treaty based arbitrations world wide in recent years, it is anticipated that there will be an increasing number of investment arbitrations involving the central and local governments of China. This book will provide a detailed review and analysis of China's approach to foreign investment. It will consider the current role of investment treaties in China's foreign economic policy, analyze and interpret the key provisions of the BITs, and discuss the future agenda of China's investment program. It will look at how this investment regime interconnects with the domestic system and consider the implications for a foreign investor in China.

Dr Wenhua Shan is Dean and Professor of Law at Xi'an Jiatong University, China as well as Senior Lecturer in Law at Oxford Brookes University, having lectured or held posts at Xiamen University, University of Cambridge, SOAS, Jinan University and the National University of Singapore. He is Director of the Federation of Chinese Professional Societies in the UK, Founder and Director of the United Kingdom Chinese Law Association, and an Arbitrator on the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission, among several other advisory posts. He has written numerous articles and edited books and journals on Chinese and international economic law. Norah Gallagher is a specialist in international arbitration and public international law with Herbert Smith, and a lecturer on the International Trade and Investment Dispute Settlement course at Queen Mary University, London. Before joining Herbert Smith, she was a Research Fellow of the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, where she worked for several years on international dispute resolution. She has acted in arbitrations under ICC, ICSID and LCIA, advised states and corporations on public international law issues, and has been involved with cases before the International Court of Justice.