NPC Deputy Ma Yide: accelerating the law-making of foreign state immunity

A proposal firstly made by National People’s Congress deputy Ma Yide during the national legislature’s 2020 annual session to accelerate the formulation of a foreign state immunity law in line with China’s national conditions has drawn great support lately. Meeting head-on with hegemony and power politics, the move aims to counter the malicious accusations brought against China by the US and other foreign countries over COVID-19, and to equally protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals as well as foreign investors.

Deputy Ma pointed out in an interview on May 26 that as China’s legislation regarding foreign state immunity lags far behind actual needs, it is likely for us to be trapped in a disadvantageous position in international communications. The outbreak of the pandemic only highlighted this issue, since some countries, led by the US, constantly seek chances to shift the responsibility of their governments by openly stigmatizing China, while China, though faced with unfair charges overseas, is tied to the principle of absolute immunity of foreign states and unable to sue those governments at domestic courts.

Under the new circumstances, Deputy Ma suggested to re-examine the current foreign state immunity principle adopted by China, and enact a national immunity law that conforms to China’s national conditions. “As globalization deepens and countries’ direct participation in international economic and trade activities gets increasingly frequent, there would only be more cases where countries and governments are accused,” Ma added. The principle of limited immunity has actually been embraced by many countries, like the US, Canada, Britain and European Union countries, which would make it possible not only for China to bring lawsuits against foreign countries in domestic courts to claim rights and interests, but also better ensure the protection of foreign investments and contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative in the long term.

At present, endorsed by 35 deputies from NPC Beijing delegation, the proposal has been accepted by the session and sent to special committees of the national legislature for further study.