On October 27, Fangda Partners (“Fangda” or “we”) received the Decision on Non-Support of Supervision Application issued by a provincial People’s Procuratorate. With this, our client, a renowned multinational corporation (the “Client”), achieved a final victory in what has been the most challenging dispute in its recent history (the “Case”).
The Client is a global leader in its industry and one of the first multinational corporations to enter China after the reform and opening-up. Its core business model in mainland China, developed over more than four decades, was put to the test in this Case — which is precisely why the victory is both a milestone and a decisive moment for the Client.
The Case involved the application of law and dispute resolution across multiple jurisdictions, including mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore. The PRC court proceedings centered on the question of whether a non-signatory is bound by an arbitration agreement — i.e., the extension of arbitration agreements’ effect — and also touched upon cutting-edge issues such as the characterization of legal issues, the ascertainment of foreign law, and the application of foreign-law principles in PRC court proceedings. The jurisdiction challenge alone lasted over four years, proceeding through the first instance, appeal, and retrial review by the Intermediate People’s Court, the Higher People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Court, followed by the procuratorate’s review of the application for procuratorial supervision. In parallel, the Singapore international commercial arbitration was commenced in 2023 and involved both jurisdictional and substantive disputes across 197 individual arbitration cases (consolidated for hearing), with a final award rendered in May 2026.
Fangda represented the Client in both the PRC court proceedings and the Singapore arbitration. We also acted as lead counsel, coordinating several top-tier law firms in Hong Kong SAR and Singapore, as well as Senior Counsel, as co-counsel and expert witnesses on foreign law, to provide the Client with One-Stop, Full-Service support.
The Client’s head of business, legal, and government affairs for Greater China commented:
“We have worked with Fangda for nearly a decade. This Case is one of the rarest and most significant disputes in our group’s history — a bet-the-farm lawsuit concerning our fundamental interests, where failure was not an option. The Fangda team provided us with a precise, practical, and predictable full-package solution for cross-border parallel proceedings, covering framework strategy, structural design, procedural scheduling, outcome assessment, and cost forecasting, all executed consistently to the highest standards of quality and process control — ultimately delivering a complete victory.
Based on the deep trust we have developed with Fangda over the years, our global and China legal teams—relying on the Fangda lawyers’ strong recommendation and working under considerable pressure—pursued the jurisdiction challenge in the PRC proceedings all the way to the end, rather than giving up prematurely. This outcome was hard-won, and we are grateful for the team’s hard work and wholehearted dedication.
It is fair to say that in the most significant transactions and disputes in mainland China, Fangda is one of the first external legal counsel teams I turn to.”
The Client’s comprehensive victory in this Case is attributable both to Fangda’s professional expertise and to the Client’s full trust and unwavering support, including that of its China and global legal teams. This Case stands as a model of how mutual trust and collaboration between client and counsel can achieve the best achievable outcome as anticipated. We are sincerely grateful for that trust.
The Fangda team was led by Alvin Xiao, a partner in our Dispute Resolution Group, with support from counsel Yaxiang Sun, associate Elaine Jiang, and a number of other colleagues from the Dispute Resolution Group. We also thank Chuying Li, who left the firm in 2023, for her contributions to the Case.
