McDermott Will & Emery (JD Supra China)

The comprehensive establishment of China’s Social Credit System (SCS) has already started. In July 2019, the State Council again issued Guiding Opinions to accelerate the establishment of the SCS and a credit-based new regulation system. The SCS is scheduled to be fundamentally completed in 2020 and ideally fully implemented at the end of 2020, so having an adequate knowledge of SCS becomes more...

MWE China Law Offices and its strategic alliance partner McDermott Will & Emery are proud to co-host our annual Shanghai Life Sciences Forum in partnership with the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference. This program will focus on the opportunities and challenges for Chinese health companies (medical device / pharma / life science companies) and investment funds in outbound...

On 28 May 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released the “Data Security Management Measures (Draft for Comments)” (Draft Measures) (unofficial English translation here), containing detailed rules to expand regulations beyond the Cybersecurity Law 2016, which came into effect on 1 June 2017. The Draft Measures mainly focus on protective measures for personal information and “import

Data compliance in China’s health care industry is multifaceted and highly sensitive, and applies to numerous types of data generated across the continuum of care. Multiple pieces of legislation prescribe complex regulatory requirements governing different types of data, and various supervisory authorities frequently conduct inspections and investigations, paying special attention to health care...

On 15 March 2019, the Second Session of the 13th National People’s Congress approved the Foreign Investment Law of the People’s Republic of China to go into effect on 1 January 2020. With it, China’s legal framework surrounding foreign investment enters a new era. The Foreign Investment Law is positioned as the foundational law in the field of foreign investment, and as such will replace the...

The Draft Amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law was officially released for public comments on June 29, 2018. The legislative body will review the Draft; date of effectiveness will be no earlier than January 1, 2019. This revision of the Individual Income Tax Law is a fundamental revision of China’s existing IIT system.

On July 26, 2018, Qualcomm announced the termination of the acquisition of NXP following its inability to obtain antitrust clearance from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) prior to the transaction’s termination date. Questions have arisen as to whether the current trade tensions between the United States and China contributed to this outcome, and whether transactions...

As Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect, companies around the world are racing to implement compliance measures. In parallel with the GDPR’s development, China’s new data protection framework has emerged over the past year and is in the final stages of implementing the remaining details. With similar and often overlapping obligations, full compliance with the GDPR and...

The Chinese government announced on March 13, 2018 that it will consolidate the duties of three competition agencies into a new government agency to handle all antitrust matters. While it is too early to tell how this reorganization will impact China’s review of transactions and conduct cases, we believe that this change could lead to greater consistency and potentially more experienced attorneys

To promote the growth of foreign investment, the “Notice on Policies concerning Temporarily Not Levying Withholding Tax on Distributed Profit used for Direct Investment by Overseas Investors” was jointly issued on December 21, 2017. The issuance of Circular 88 is in compliance with the purpose of the “Notice of State Council on Several Measures for Promoting the Growth of Foreign Investment.” ...

In the final days of 2017, the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) submitted a report to the Standing Committee of the NPC detailing the Network Security Law enforcement inspection project that began earlier in the year. This inspection had focused on five key points under the government’s overall data protection strategy....

China’s new data protection framework clearly creates a requirement for local storage and conducting a security assessment before personal information or important data is shared with other jurisdictions, but it is currently much less clear what types of entities fall under this requirement.

Following the first enforcement actions by local authorities in Shantou and Chongqing for violations of the new Network Security Law that came into effect this year, authorities in China have recently shown a clear initial focus with several new cases targeting provisions of the law that require monitoring of platform content. As of the start of October 2017, enforcement actions by authorities in

With more and more expatriates working in China, and some even applying for long-term residence permits, complicated applications procedures have been deemed an impediment to attracting more talented expatriates. In later 2015, for the purpose of facilitating the establishment of the “technology innovation center,” Shanghai issued several local policies encouraging more senior level expatriates...

On December 28, 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (the MIIT) released the newly revised Classification Catalogue of Telecommunications Services (2015 Catalogue) and the new Catalogue is due to take effect as of March 1st, 2016. This round of revision to the catalogue has long been awaited since its last amendment in 2003 (2003 Catalogue).

Welcome to the third issue of Focus on China Compliance for 2015. According to the FCPA Blog’s October 2015 Corporate Investigations List, China leads the countries reported to be involved in FCPA investigations with 29 mentions. This statistic may well increase in the next 12 months as the long arm of FCPA enforcement has extended to cover individual employees more aggressively, including those...

“Massive terminations” occur in China when an employer terminates more than 20 employees or more than 10 percent of its total employees at one time. Even though there are no official statistics on massive terminations of employees in China, recent news reports indicates an increase based on overseas investment leaving China. This article provides an overview of some of the common characteristics...

In This Issue: - Increased Scrutiny by Chinese Securities Regulators Will Have Global Implications - Effective Employee Suspension Agreements to Facilitate Compliance Investigations - Protecting Against Counterfeit Fapiaos - Preventing International E-mail Fraud - Data Breaches in China: A Roadmap to Successful Mitigation - Excerpt from Increased Scrutiny by Chinese...

Recently, the General Office of the State Council published the Guiding Opinions on Pilot Comprehensive Reform of Urban Public Hospitals, which took effect on 6 May 2015. The Guiding Opinions give directions for the ongoing reform of public hospitals, an effort that aims to replace the current profit-driven model, reduce patients’ medical expenditures, improve the current management system to...

Chinese consumers have long complained about high drug prices. To address this problem, in 2000 the Chinese government adopted a price ceiling system for drugs. At that time, the medical insurance system and the drug bidding and procurement system were not sufficiently sophisticated to set drug prices through market forces alone. A government-controlled pricing system thus appeared to be a...

Welcome to the first issue of Focus on China Compliance for 2015. In this issue, we start with an overview of China’s anticorruption laws, to which all companies operating in China must pay close attention in 2015. We then take a more in-depth look at two specific compliance concerns that we expect to impact multinational companies significantly this year. We first review the risks inherent in...

Effective March 15, 2015, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) will implement the new Measures for Penalties for Infringing upon the Rights and Interests of Consumers (Measures). The Measures clarify obligations with respect to corporate handling of personal data, define for the first time what constitutes personal consumer information and demonstrate China’s continued...

On February 6, 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) imposed sanctions against four China-based accounting firms for their refusal to surrender documents in conjunction with an investigation of potential accounting fraud and corruption in China. These sanctions highlight the intensifying challenges multinational companies face when asked to participate in U.S. discovery of data

The Opinions on Encouragement and Regulation of Multi-Sited Practices of Physicians demonstrate the Chinese government’s continued efforts to develop Chinese physicians’ ability to practise at multiple sites, and will provide more opportunities for private hospitals (including foreign-invested hospitals) to access valuable local physician resources.

On 24 November 2014, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) of China jointly issued the Announcement Encouraging Foreign Investors to Establish For-Profit Senior Care Institutions to Engage in Senior Care Services in China. Through this Announcement, the Chinese government encourages more foreign investors (including those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) to...

In This Issue: - Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Navigating Disclosures to U.S. Regulators Within the Framework of China’s State Secrets Law - Internal Investigations in China: Collecting and Reviewing Digital Evidence - Using Internal Controls to Mitigate FCPA/Corruption Risks in China - Government Investigations in China: How to Navigate a Complex Network -...

In recent years, China’s central government has made substantial investments to support the development of telemedicine. According to statistics from the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), there were 2,057 medical institutions providing telemedicine services in China in 2013.

On 28 August 2014, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the National Health and Family Planning Commission (HFPC) jointly released the Notice of the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Commerce Regarding Launching a Pilot Scheme of Establishing Wholly Foreign Owned Hospitals (Notice). According to the Notice, which took effect 25 July 2014, foreign investors are...

On July 24, 2014, the district court in Animal Sci. Prod., Inc. et al. v. China Nat’l Metals & Minerals Imp. and Exp. Corp. et al., Case No. 2:05-cv-04376 (D.N.J.), dismissed direct purchaser plaintiff’s Amended Complaint without prejudice in favor of magnesite producers accused of engaging in a price fixing scheme for magnesite and magnesite products sold in the United States.

The Chinese foreign exchange control authority recently adopted material changes to the regulatory framework on overseas financing and investment via special purpose vehicles undertaken by Chinese domestic residents and the corresponding round-trip investments that will facilitate the foreign exchange registration procedures for Chinese outbound financing and investment transactions.