Change in direction

The top court set up the economic division in the late 1980s. In 2000, it built a division that specializes in handling foreign-related marine and commercial disputes, said senior judge Gao from the Supreme People's Court.

"Specifying the division was a judicial move to face the globally diversified economic exchanges and to join the World Trade Organization," she said. "Besides, it showed our hearing of foreign-related cases had became professional."

In the 1980s, foreign-related cases heard by Chinese courts focused on contracts, purchases and joint ventures.

Gao said the disputes now emerging are caused by overseas construction projects and equipment purchases. "They are the major problems of Chinese companies going global after the Belt and Road Initiative was pushed forward," she said.

The initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, covers the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, with the aim of creating a trade and infrastructure network to connect Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.

The top court said Chinese courts resolved about 15,000 foreign-related civil disputes from 2013 to 2017, with BRI-related cases a major component. It also said Chinese courts have always highlighted the equal protection of litigants as a guiding principle, no matter where they were from.

Improved services

As the equal protection has attracted more foreign litigants to solve their international disputes in China, local courts have also taken measures to improve their legal services.

In June 2018, the top court set up international commercial courts in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

The two courts integrate three different methods - resolution-mediation, arbitration and litigation - into one platform, aiming to more effectively help litigants settle BRI-related cases.

So far, the two courts have accepted 13 international commercial disputes from countries including Japan, Italy and Thailand mainly relating to shareholder verification and earnings distributions, the top court's latest statistics show.

In November 2018, Luo Dongchuan, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, ordered all judges who handle foreign-related disputes to improve the quality of trials and provide quicker and more convenient legal services for litigants.

Rules on serving foreign litigants did not appear until 1982 in the Chinese Civil Procedure Law. Before that, foreigners were limited in litigations in China, the top court said.

Tongzhou District People's Court in Beijing, for example, has set up a special reception window for foreign litigants, dispatches judges who can speak English to help the litigants understand the court procedures, and also has a room for financial institutions, corporations and individual foreign litigants to file cases.

Some courts in Shanghai, such as the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and Shanghai Maritime Court, have English-language websites so foreign litigants can follow their cases.

Retired judge Fei said China's hearings of foreign-related cases were now of a leading international standard.

"The better we resolve foreign-related disputes, the more effective it is for us to improve the global credibility of the judiciary," he added.