Addressing Sustainable Development Concerns through IIAs

The international communities are confronted with profound sustainable development challenges. International investment law, especially international investment agreements (IIAs), appears insufficiently effective in addressing such challenges associated with transnational investment activities. Recently, many governmental bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international organizations have gone knee-deep into projecting and promoting sustainable development-compatible (inclusive) IIAs. From the standpoint of China, although China hosts a large amount of IIAs and has a clear awareness of promoting sustainable investment, its IIAs appear inadequately compatible with sustainable development. Against the backdrop of the Chinese sustainable development challenges, this chapter examines the sustainable development provisions contained in Chinese IIAs, assesses their usefulness and insufficiencies, and observes that China needs to make further efforts in making sustainable development-compatible IIAs.