The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development announced that China has topped the global foreign direct investment list in H1; CPC stresses on the implementation of advancing law-based governance in all areas; and NPC will revise and draft new laws in a session to be held between October 22 to 26.

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released a five-year plan to incorporate the country's socialist corevalues in handling judicial interpretation. Susan Finder, who has been observing the SPC for thelast 25 years and who was recently appointed as one of the 32 members of the international expertcommittee of the China International Commercial Court (CICC), shares with China Law & Practicethe SPC's approach as to how these socialist values will be incorporated into judicial interpretations.Her remarks are her own and should not be attributed either to the SPC or the CICC

The scope of tax deferral is expanded for foreign investors

Institutional investors are encouraged to participate in corporate governance, business premises may be inspected for cybersecurity purposes and Beijing Municipality prohibits construction of new residential housing

A soil quality investigation is required for a change in land use

Shanghai-London Stock Connect comes closer to launch

Futures companies are now opened to foreign investors

China lowers import tariffs on MFN taxable items; Hainan province launches a blockchain research center in collaboration with the University College Oxford; and the State Council raises export tax rebate rate to stimulate trade.

Shamita Etienne-Cummings, partner at White & Case in Washington, D.C., and Bijal Vakil, partner at the firm in Silicon Valley, discuss the trends and significance of technology patents covering blockchain, fintech and autonomous vehicles sphere in the U.S. and China