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By Wu Qing King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory group

Reporting and auditing

1. Do regulators keep public registers of environmental information? What is the procedure for a third party to search those registers?

（1）Public registers

Environmental administration departments must disclose environmental information in accordance with the law. The information disclosed by the MEP, Provincial Environmental Protection Offices and Municipal Environmental Protection Bureaus are different.
Continue Reading Q&A | Reporting and auditing & Environmental insurance

By Wu Qing  King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory groupKing & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) is the exclusive partner firm of Thomson Reuters in PRC for its environmental law section. KWM has been a contributor to the “Environmental law and practice in China: overview” (the “Q&A Guide”) for three consecutive years (2016/17/18). The Q&A Guide is a specialized guide to China’s environmental law. It provides a high level overview of environmental law in China and looks at key practical issues including emissions to air and water, environmental impact assessments, solid and hazardous waste, contaminated land, and environmental issues in transactions. KWM provides updated insights for the Q&A Guide every year based on the latest environmental law and regulatory trends. The most recent edition of Q&A Guide 2017/2018 will be forwarded on “KWM Institute”(KWM_China), KWM’s official WeChat account, periodically as special session, providing companies with a complete guide to the legal system and practice of environmental law in China.

Continue Reading Q&A | Environmental liability and asset/share transfers

By Wu Qing  King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory groupKing & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) is the exclusive partner firm of Thomson Reuters in PRC for its environmental law section. KWM has been a contributor to the “Environmental law and practice in China: overview” (the “Q&A Guide”) for three consecutive years (2016/17/18). The Q&A Guide is a specialized guide to China’s environmental law. It provides a high level overview of environmental law in China and looks at key practical issues including emissions to air and water, environmental impact assessments, solid and hazardous waste, contaminated land, and environmental issues in transactions. KWM provides updated insights for the Q&A Guide every year based on the latest environmental law and regulatory trends. The most recent edition of Q&A Guide 2017/2018 will be forwarded on “KWM Institute”(KWM_China), KWM’s official WeChat account, periodically as special session, providing companies with a complete guide to the legal system and practice of environmental law in China.

Continue Reading Q&A | Hydraulic fracturing

By Wu Qing King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory group

King & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) is the exclusive partner firm of Thomson Reuters in PRC for its environmental law section. KWM has been a contributor to the “Environmental law and practice in China: overview” (the “Q&A Guide”) for three consecutive years (2016/17/18). The Q&A Guide is a specialized guide to China’s environmental law. It provides a high level overview of environmental law in China and looks at key practical issues including emissions to air and water, environmental impact assessments, solid and hazardous waste, contaminated land, and environmental issues in transactions. KWM provides updated insights for the Q&A Guide every year based on the latest environmental law and regulatory trends. The most recent edition of Q&A Guide 2017/2018 will be forwarded on “KWM Institute”(KWM_China), KWM’s official WeChat account, periodically as special session, providing companies with a complete guide to the legal system and practice of environmental law in China. 
Continue Reading Q&A | Contaminated land

By Yuan Min King & Wood Mallesons’ Finance & Securities group

On 11th April 2018, the Governor of the People’s Bank of China (“PBoC”), Yi Gang, introduced specific measures to further open up China’s financial market at the Boao Forum for Asia (“BFA”).  The measures and who they impact include:
Continue Reading China to further open its insurance market to foreign investors

By Wu Qing King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory group

King & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) is the exclusive partner firm of Thomson Reuters in PRC for its environmental law section. KWM has been a contributor to the “Environmental law and practice in China: overview” (the “Q&A Guide”) for three consecutive years (2016/17/18). The Q&A Guide is a specialized guide to China’s environmental law. It provides a high level overview of environmental law in China and looks at key practical issues including emissions to air and water, environmental impact assessments, solid and hazardous waste, contaminated land, and environmental issues in transactions. KWM provides updated insights for the Q&A Guide every year based on the latest
Continue Reading Q&A | Asbestos

By Armstrong Chen King & Wood Mallesons’ Dispute Resolution group

This year, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the People’s Bank of China (PBC) have continued their efforts to open up the banking sector. The Report of the Nineteenth National Congress provides an explicit requirement to “make new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts, significantly ease market access, and further open the service sector”. It was stressed at the National Financial Work Conference that further opening up of the financial industry is a significant part of China’s overall opening-up policy. The Notice of the State Council on Several Measures for Promoting Foreign Investment Growth (Guo Fa [2017] No. 39) rolled out 22 measures to reduce access
Continue Reading Future of China’s Financial Industry

By Mark Schaub Atticus Zhao King & Wood Mallesons’ Corporate group

On 11 April 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and Ministry of Transport (MOT) jointly issued the Administrative Rules on Intelligent and Connected Vehicle Road Testing (Trial) (the “National Rules”). 

The National Rules have been issued subsequent to local regulations on self-driving car road testing being issued in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing in recent months (“Local Regulations”), and will take effect 1 May 2018. 

The National Rules are based on both best practices in other jurisdictions as well as some of the initiatives pioneered in the Local Regulations. The National Rules stress safety which is no doubt a response the Uber accident fatality in Arizona.      

The key requirements of the National Rules are as follows:Continue Reading China Issues Self-driving Car Road Testing Regulations

BY Wu Qing King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory group
King & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) is the exclusive partner firm of Thomson Reuters in PRC for its environmental law section. KWM has been a contributor to the “Environmental law and practice in China: overview” (the “Q&A Guide”) for three consecutive years (2016/17/18). The Q&A Guide is a specialized guide to China’s environmental law. It provides a high level overview of environmental law in China and looks at key practical issues including emissions to air and water, environmental impact assessments, solid and hazardous waste, contaminated land, and environmental issues in transactions. KWM provides updated insights for the Q&A Guide every year based on the latest environmental law and regulatory trends. The most recent edition of Q&A Guide 2017/2018 will be forwarded on “KWM Institute”(KWM_China), KWM’s official WeChat account, periodically as special session, providing companies with a complete guide to the legal system and practice of environmental law in China. 

Continue Reading Q&A：Waste

BY Duan Tao (Daisy) Cao Linlin King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory group
This article was firstly published by China Law and Practice, Q1 2018.
On December 21, 2017, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation (SAT), the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued tax circular Cai Shui [2017] No. 88, Circular on Policy Issues Concerning Provisionally Not Levying Withholding Income Tax on Direct Investments by Foreign Investors Made Using Distributed Profits (关于境外投资者以分配利润直接投资暂不征收预提所得税政策问题的通知, Circular 88), which provides a temporary waiver of enterprise income tax (EIT, usually at 10%, unless a preferential tax rate applies under a double tax treaty or arrangement) for non-tax-resident enterprises (i.e. overseas investors) that make direct investments in an encouraged industry with profits distributed by a tax-resident enterprise in the PRC (Tax Deferral), if certain conditions are met. Subsequently, on January 2, 2018, the SAT issued the SAT Announcement [2018] No.3, Announcement on Issues Relevant to the Implementation of the Policy of Provisionally Not Levying Withholding Income Tax on Direct Investments Made by Foreign Investors Using Distributed Profits (关于境外投资者以分配利润直接投资暂不征收预提所得税政策有关执行问题的公告, Announcement 3) in order to provide further guidance in this regard.Both Circular 88 and Announcement 3 have a retrospective effect from January 1, 2017, which means that the Tax Deferral applies to dividends or profit distributions derived by overseas investors from their equity investments in the PRC on and after January 1, 2017. 

Continue Reading New tax incentive for overseas investors investing in the PRC