The Study On The Problems And Improvement Of China’s Foreign Investment Legal System From RCEP

Foreign investment serves as a major window of understanding China’s macro-economic situation,and foreign direct investment plays an important role in boosting the development of China’s macro-economy.What has been achieved since China’s opening up through economic reforms has proved that foreign-invested enterprises have fueled China’s foreign trade development,contributed a large amount of tax revenue,provided diversified products and services and solved the problems of insufficient financial resources,particularly shortages of foreign exchange and material supplies.All this has promoted China to integrate into the international division of labor.At present,the world is faced with multiple challenges such as food crisis and energy crunch.Some developed countries continue to pursue interest hikes,globalization is confronted with headwinds,trade protectionism and unilateralism are on the rise,and international trade frictions keep cropping up.International trade order has been hard hit,coupled with the adverse impact of COVID-19 pandemic.All this has led to signs of various degrees of recession in many countries.Despite this situation,it is gratifying to see that the RCEP agreement was signed on November 15,2020 under the auspices of China and thanks to the concerted efforts of all parties concerned.And the RCEP agreement officially entered into force on January 1,2022.RCEP will make major contributions to the growth of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI)in the region by its member states and other economies in the region.With the singing of RCEP agreement,multinational companies are stepping up their investment,and taking on the development opportunities of regional economic integration to enhance the efficiency of capital flow and rake in greater profits in the fierce market competition.Against this backdrop,countries are facing more fierce competition in attracting foreign investment.In the meantime,it is more urgent for China to attract and utilize foreign investment.Foreign investors generally need consider the following aspects before they invest in the host country: whether they will be treated equally and impartially from investment to operation;whether their investment in the host country will be expropriated or requisitioned,if necessary for public interests,how to compensate for such expropriation or requisition;whether the profits earned in the host country can by transferred in a fast and convenient manner;whether the host country can be determined to forcefully protect the IPR;whether the host country has enacted the investment protection law and dispute settlement mechanism at the legal level.The paper,based on the RCEP background and proceeding from the focal issues foreign investors are concerned about when they plan to invest in China and their immediate interests,makes a research into the issues in five aspects.The first part of the paper summarizes the legal system of foreign investment under the framework of RCEP,compares the definition of investment under RCEP with the definition of foreign investment in Chinese law,expounds the general legal framework of foreign investment,and analyzes the provisions of RCEP and China on the encouragement and restriction of foreign investment.The second part of the paper focuses on the analysis of the existing problems in China’s foreign investment legal system,conducts research from five aspects,analyzes the stipulations of China’s existing legal system and the requirements of RCEP,and evaluates the differences or conflicts between the two.The five aspects embodies the following content: first,the equal and impartial treatment provisions are not detailed enough;second,the method of compensation payment of the scope of expropriation and requisition are not clear enough;third,the operability of investment transfer is not strong enough;fourth,the scope of the IPR protection is not broad enough;fifth,the flexibility of dispute settlement is is not flexible enough.The third part of the paper proposes path to improve the aforementioned five aspects,so as to not just provide better and more convenient legal environment for utilizing foreign investment under the new circumstances,but also provide some legal theoretic support for further improving China’s foreign investment legal system.