Collecting a Judgment

The judgments of most of China’s major trading partners, including almost all common law countries as well as most civil law countries, can be enforceable in China.

In 2021, the Superior Court of Washington for King County ruled to recognize a judgment of a Beijing local court, marking the first time for a Washington state court, and the sixth time for a US court, to recognize and enforce Chinese monetary judgments (Yun Zhang v. Rainbow USA Investments LLC, Zhiwen Yang et al., Case No. 20-2-14429-1 SEA).

Most civil and commercial foreign judgments can be enforced in China, except for those relating to intellectual property, unfair competition and anti-monopoly disputes.

In 2022, Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court of China ruled to partially recognize and enforce three EB-5 visa fraud-related judgments rendered respectively by the US District Court for the Central District of California and the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.

You need to understand the threshold and criterion for the enforcement of foreign judgments in China. If your judgment can pass the threshold and meet the criterion, you may consider enforcing your judgments in China to collect your debts.

In 2022, the New South Wales Supreme Court of Australia ruled to recognize two Chinese civil settlement statements, which were considered as ‘foreign judgments’ under Australian law (Bank of China Limited v Chen [2022] NSWSC 749).

In 2019, due to parallel proceedings, Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court of China ruled to dismiss the application for enforcing a New Zealand judgment (Americhip, Inc. v. Dean et al. (2018) Yue 03 Min Chu No. 420 ).

In 2020, Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court of China ruled in Wen v. Huang et al. (2018) to recognize and enforce a US judgment, marking the third time that American monetary judgments have been enforced in China.

In March 2022, with the approval of China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC), a local court in Shanghai ruled to recognize an English monetary judgment.

In 2021, due to lack of jurisdiction, a Chinese court in Liaoning Province ruled to dismiss applications for enforcing three South Korean judgments in KRNC v. CHOO KYU SHIK (2021).

It means enforcing foreign judgments in China will not be much harder than that in other foreign judgments friendly countries.

In 2021, Xiamen Maritime Court of China ruled to recognize a Singaporean insolvency order in In re Xihe Holdings Pte. Ltd. et al. (2020), providing an example of how Chinese courts recognize foreign bankruptcy judgments based on the principle of reciprocity.