Introduction

Since the beginning of the 1980s, when the People's Republic of China (China) concluded its first bilateral investment treaty (BIT), China has demonstrated a significant shift from a relatively protectionist policy on foreign investment to a gradually more liberal view. Such development is reflected, inter alia, in the great number of investment treaties concluded by China in recent years. By June 2010, China had concluded 128 BITs.[1] China has also modernized many of its older BITs. This development of the Chinese policy on investment protection is frequently described as the shift ...