Forward motion

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China’s economic progression is confronted with a typical synchronisation of old and new issues as a developing country, an example being the incompleteness of a basic market exit mechanism, even as the fresh impacts arising from a digital era compel companies to adapt quickly.

Prologue-2111Although the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law was enacted 15 years ago, practice has shown that a sound and mature exit mechanism is missing. The more commonly seen pre-reorganisation system is lacking the support of a higher-level law, and the personal insolvency regime is still in its infancy.

It is worth noting that in recent years, a number of enterprises have successfully swung back via the judicial reorganisation process, setting positive examples for the market to build confidence in the bankruptcy system. Not only the small and medium-sized private firms less able to fend off risks, but the troubled state-owned enterprises once assumed to be too big to fail have chosen to enter bankruptcy with the aim of being reborn.

While the pandemic accelerates the trajectory of companies restructuring their bad debts, this issue’s cover story, Refining the rescue, takes stock of the challenges prevalent in the restructuring and insolvency practice. We explore the reforms and initiatives aimed at addressing social problems arising from the process, and analyse potential opportunities in the special assets market.

Companies whose business involves cross-border scenarios are challenged with a more complex compliance environment. In the face of data requests from law enforcement agencies, conflicting legal requirements from the home country and foreign jurisdictions are putting multinational tech companies in an unprecedented dilemma. How should they respond? In Between rocks and hard places, Pan Cong, general counsel of SHAREit Group, shares her perspectives of classic cases and international legislation practice, and offers a set of practical reaction principles for multinational tech companies.

Zooming into a hot frontier investment sector, we are witnessing staggering growth of non-fungible token (NFT) transactions, which reached USD2.5 trillion in 2020. But this growth has also promoted unsettled legal issues regarding ownership and IP. In NFTs and the IP conundrum, Patrick Tan, CEO and general counsel at digital asset management firm Novum Alpha in Singapore, examines the positioning of such transactions under the current legal framework, and the challenges for them to secure legal protection.

Lawyers, as the watchmen helping companies navigate hardships, have had a remarkable year in 2021. In recognition of their outstanding performance, and to provide our corporate readers with essential reference when seeking legal assistance, China Business Law Journal presents our annual A-List of top private practice lawyers for the China market, after extensive editorial and unprecedented market feedback from corporate management, in-house counsel and senior practitioners.

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