The Politics of China’s Investment Treaty-Making Program

THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW, pp. 162-185, T. Broude, A. Porges, M. Busch, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011

36 Pages Posted: 12 May 2011

See all articles by Axel Berger

Axel Berger

Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) - German Development Institute (DIE)

Date Written: October 31, 2010

Abstract

This article aims at empirically investigating the evolution of China’s BIT policy since the early 1980s and compares it with current developed country approaches. Analysing the development of substantive and procedural investment protection provisions, it argues that China has pro-actively initiated a remarkable change of its formerly restrictive BIT policy towards a liberal approach. Since 1998, Beijing is negotiating BITs that contain comprehensive investor-state dispute settlement provisions. China even abandoned its hostile stance on national treatment of foreign investors. Notwithstanding existing reservations towards unrestricted national treatment, the current Chinese model agreement is comparable to the admission model BIT adopted by European countries. The prospects of the proposed Sino-US BIT, however, are looking rather bleak. This is mainly due to fundamental differences with respect to the parties view on the protection of FDI in the pre-establishment phase and the current political environment in the US that accentuates national security concerns with regard to foreign investors from developed and emerging countries.

Keywords: China, U.S., Bilateral Investment Treaties

JEL Classification: F21, F23, K33

Suggested Citation

Berger, Axel, The Politics of China’s Investment Treaty-Making Program (October 31, 2010). THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW, pp. 162-185, T. Broude, A. Porges, M. Busch, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1838651 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1838651

Axel Berger (Contact Author)

Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) - German Development Institute (DIE) ( email )

Tulpenfeld 6
Bonn, 53113
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.die-gdi.de

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