Technology transfer compulsory practices are the most important issue in US-China trade disputes. This paper analyzes how the Foreign Investment Law, which will be enacted from 2020, can improve China’s technology transfer practices.
First of all, the Foreign Investment Law replaces the 3 Foreign Capital Laws, which were the legal basis for the technology transfer compulsory practice, and core laws such as the Catalogue of Industries for Guiding Foreign Investment are also being improved. This shows that China is pushing for meaningful improvements, at least on the institutional basis.
Nevertheless, even after the abolition of the 3 Foreign Capital Laws, technology transfer using a joint venture can be maintained. Despite the quantitative improvement of the Catalogue of Industries for Guiding Foreign Investment, there are questions about the qualitative improvement; which the concerns exist over the possibility of exploitation of the new national safety review system. This will be depending on the will of the Chinese government; which means that there is a possibility that no improvement will be made at all.
In the end, the possibility of correcting China’s technology transfer compulsion is a positive and negative outlook.