The Function of the Transnational Chinese Contract

This article focusses on Chinese contractual practice in the energy sector and related sectors – principally in China’s inbound and outbound investments in the petroleum sector as well as in other energy-related financing and infrastructure construction contracts. Its concern is with the drafting of Belt and Road contracts, especially where this may lead to contract ‘internationalisation’. The article also discusses the interplay between Chinese contracts and treaties. It asks if there is Chinese receptiveness to international principles in seeking to protect the rights of Chinese as well as foreign parties. A preliminary finding is that there is an asymmetry between what Chinese upstream oil contracts do in protecting foreign ownership interests, even to the point of evincing Chinese acceptance of the ‘internationalisation’ of contracts, and the intergovernmental work done through negotiated treaty terms to protect Chinese investments abroad.