On September 5, 2023, China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) held a press conference in Beijing, at which Wang Chengjie, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of CIETAC, released the new version of the CIETAC Arbitration Rules (hereinafter referred to as "the new Arbitration Rules") and the Annual Report on International Commercial Arbitration in China (2022-2023) (hereinafter referred to as "the Annual Report (2022-2023)"). Gu Yan, Vice President of CIETAC Arbitration Court, presided over the press conference.

First of all, Secretary General Wang Chengjie released the new Arbitration Rules. He introduced that in order to meet the needs of domestic and foreign parties for dispute resolution services, and to further enhance the attractiveness, competitiveness and influence of CIETAC’s arbitration, CIETAC had been steadily carrying out the work of revising the Arbitration Rules over a period of two years. CIETAC has continuously summarized its own arbitration practice experience, absorbed and learnt from the advanced concepts of international arbitration, improved the procedural design, taken into account the system innovation, and finally formed the new Arbitration Rules after in-depth research, extensive consultation and repeated deliberations and argumentation. The revision of the new Arbitration Rules involves more than 30 items, including, inter alia, promoting the extensive application of digitization and intelligence in arbitration proceedings, clarifying that the priority could be given to the use of electronic service of arbitration documents, and that the arbitral tribunal has the right to decide whether or not to adopt the method of online hearings, the validity of the electronic signatures of arbitrators, and the service of electronic copies of awards, so as to respond positively to the needs of the digital era; clarifying that, after the formation of the arbitral tribunal, the decision on jurisdiction is in general authorized to be made by the arbitral tribunal in accordance with the Arbitration Rules, thus giving the arbitral tribunal clearer procedural rights; stipulating that the pre-procedures such as negotiation and mediation in the arbitration agreement shall not affect the parties to file applications for arbitration, so as to effectively solve the problems existing in practice; further expanding the circumstances under which multiple contracts can be consolidated into a single arbitration case, and permitting the claimant to add additional contracts during the arbitration proceedings, so as to further improve the efficiency and reduce costs; explicitly providing that CIETAC may transmit the parties' application for conservatory and interim measures to the relevant overseas courts designated by the parties, so as to provide a clear rule basis for the parties to apply for overseas conservatory and interim measures; regulating the abuse of procedural rights by the parties by stipulating that, after the formation of the arbitral tribunal, in the event of a conflict of interest arising from the change or addition of an arbitration agent by the parties, CIETAC may take necessary measures, including the exclusion of the new arbitration agent from participating in the arbitration proceedings, so as to safeguard the legitimacy of arbitration proceedings; and fully respecting and empowering the parties to choose arbitrators in a fair and equitable manner, and providing for a variety of ways for the parties to jointly choose the presiding arbitrator, fully reflecting and vesting the parties of rights to choose arbitrators; stipulating that if the manner of nominating arbitrators agreed between the parties was obviously unfair and unjust, or if the parties abused their rights to delay the arbitration proceedings, the chairman of CIETAC may determine the manner of forming the tribunal or appointing the arbitrators according to the principle of fairness, so as to reflect the fairness of the arbitration proceedings; clarifying the application of CIETAC‘s Guidelines on Evidence in arbitration proceedings, so as to guide the arbitration tribunal and the parties to apply the rules of evidence in a more effective and standardized manner; stipulating that the parties shall disclose to the arbitral tribunal in a timely manner about the information of third-party funding on its financing, which could help the arbitral tribunal to determine whether there is a conflict of interest, thus enhancing the transparency and impartiality of the arbitration process; stipulating the early dismissal procedure, making it clear that early dismissal mainly applied to cases involving the application for early dismissal of the arbitration claim or counterclaim that is manifestly lacking in legal grounds or outside the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, which will enhance procedural flexibility and efficiency; clarifying the cap on arbitration fees for disputed amounts exceeding RMB3 billion yuan and the provisions and standards for the hourly remuneration of Chinese and foreign arbitrators, lowering the standards of arbitration fee rates for domestic cases, so as to further alleviate the cost of arbitration for the parties.Overall, the new Arbitration Rules takes into account institutional innovation while improving the procedural design, and continuously enhances the autonomy, flexibility, fairness, efficiency and transparency of the arbitration process, and endeavored to provide high-level institutional safeguards for the high-quality development of CIETAC.

Next, Secretary General Wang Chengjie released the Annual Report (2022-2023). The Annual Report (2022-2023) is the ninth annual report of CIETAC since it decided to carry out a series of research projects on the annual reports on China's international commercial arbitration in 2014, and it is also the leading achievement of the annual summaries on the development of international commercial arbitration in China. Secretary General Wang Chengjie said that, arbitration, as an internationally accepted way of settling economic, trade and investment disputes, played an indispensable role in handling international commercial disputes, optimizing the business environment and promoting the construction of the international rule of law. As a main method of international commercial dispute resolution, arbitration is an important means for countries to optimize the business environment and enhance the soft power of the rule of law. In this context, it is of great significance to enhance the international credibility and influence of China's arbitration, assist in the construction of the foreign-related legal system, push forward the rule of law in international relations, and contribute China's wisdom and solutions to global governance by carrying out research on special topics, publishing annual report on international commercial arbitration every year to truly reflect the development status of China's international commercial arbitration. CIETAC entrusted Renmin University of China to form a research group to compile the Annual Report (2022-2023). The main members of the research group include experts and practitioners from the Supreme People’s Court, the Ministry of Justice, universities, enterprises and law firms. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the data on international commercial arbitration cases in China in 2022 and the development of the rule of law practice in China from 2022 to June 2023, the Annual Report (2022-2023) synchronously keeps track of the dynamics of domestic and international commercial arbitration theories and researches, continuously explores the legal issues involved in judicial review of China's international commercial arbitration, analyzes and condense the development trend of international commercial arbitration rules recent years. The Annual Report (2022-2023) reflects on the criteria for identifying and reviewing repetitve arbitration, compares and summarizes case practice, analyzes the specific reasons for identifying repetitive arbitration, accurately grasps the measure of identifying repetitive arbitration, and provides a path for self-correction of arbitration and judicial review of repetitive arbitration by courts; examines the trend of development and change of influential international commercial arbitration rules in the past five years, and explores the motives behind their evolution, so as to provide reference for the development of China's arbitration. It also conducts research on the arbitration practice of legal disputes in the automobile industry from the perspective of the whole process, and examines in particular the procedural and substantive legal issues in the typical arbitration cases in the automobile industry, so as to fully illustrate the advantages of arbitration in resolving legal disputes in the automobile industry; reviews and analyzes the cases of judicial review of international commercial arbitration by China's courts, and gives an evaluation on the legal issues involved.

Nearly 30 news media, including CCTV, China Daily, Global Times, China News Service, China Youth Daily, Legal Daily, People's Daily, China Trade News, and Economic Information Daily, attended the press conference. Qu Zhujun, former Head of the Commission Working Department, and Arbitrator Zhao Jian, Senior Counsel of Zhong Lun Law Firm, answered questions from the media on the new Arbitration Rules and the development trend of the arbitration rules. The main members of the research group of the Annual Report (2022-2023) including Prof. Du Huanfang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice Dean of the Law School of Renmin University of China, Arbitrator Liu Jing, Senior Partner of Beijing Chang An Law Firm, and Arbitrator Sun Yanchen, Senior Consultant of Hong Kong Hylands Law Firm, gave a professional presentation on the Annual Report (2022-2023) and answered questions from the media.