Mainland China

In Hong Kong SAR and in Mainland China, we have observed an increase in the relative bargaining power of office tenants to negotiate their leases. A variety of factors, including a stronger supply of new office buildings and more negative economic sentiment among office tenants, have contributed to the evolution of landlord-tenant dynamics.

Given Hong Kong’s status as a special administration region of China, there are in place special arrangements for the mutual service of judicial documents between the two jurisdictions. The Arrangement for Mutual Service of Judicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Proceedings between the Mainland and Hong Kong Courts (the “Arrangement”) provides a formal mechanism governing service in Hong Kong of any process in connection with civil and commercial proceedings in a court or tribunal in Mainland China, and vice versa. However, there is no mention of substituted service in the Arrangement. So, is substituted service a possibility? In Su Xin and Another v Qian Xiaochun ([2021] HKDC 1056, DCCJ 5882/2019, 3 September 2021), the HK District Court granted leave to the Plaintiffs to make substituted service on the Defendant in Mainland China by way of public announcement (公告送達) to be done through proper procedures under the Arrangement.

China’s new legislationon personal information protection (“PIPL”) will come into force on 1 November 2021. Mr Yang Heqing, an official from the responsible law making commission, has given some helpful explanatory comments and an “authoritative interpretation” of the PIPL.Yang’s comments and interpretation provide a useful starting point for the public to understand which aspects of the law are the most significant and which might be expected to attract the most attention from the perspective of the law maker.

China recently has passed its Personal Information Protection Law. The law will take effect on 1 November 2021.The law is expected to have a significant impact on businesses which have or are planning to have some presence in China. The full text of the new law was released at the same time that it was passed. Businesses have just over two months to prepare themselves for it. This article sets out how the final version of the PIPL differs from what we knew from the earlier drafts of the law which had been made available to the public.