On August 20, marking the 8th anniversary of its founding, the Shanghai Financial Court held a press conference and released the Guiding Opinions on Judicial Safeguards for Enhancing the Competitiveness and Influence of the Shanghai International Financial Center (hereinafter referred to as the ¡°Guiding Opinions¡±), together with typical cases of financial disputes involving foreign parties and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan of China. Zhao Hong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and President of the Shanghai Financial Court, briefed attendees on the main contents of the Guiding Opinions. Tian Jun, member of the Party Leadership Group, Director of the Political Department, and spokesperson, presided over the press conference, and Fu Wang, full-time member of the Adjudication Committee, released the typical cases.

¡°The core of the competitiveness and influence of the Shanghai International Financial Center lies in the competitiveness and influence of its rules. Through adjudication, financial justice establishes rules and participates in and guides international financial governance.¡± Zhao Hong pointed out. As the 15th Five-Year Plan incorporates the development of the Shanghai International Financial Center into the national agenda, Shanghai¡¯s role as a hub and gateway for financial opening-up continues to become more prominent. The issuance of the Guiding Opinions is intended to give full play to the functions of financial adjudication, meet the financial market¡¯s judicial needs for stronger compatibility and alignment between domestic and international rules, promote connectivity between the domestic and international markets, further improve the law-based and internationalized business environment, and help enhance the competitiveness and influence of the Shanghai International Financial Center.

The Guiding Opinions contain a total of 18 provisions, divided into two main parts: general requirements and specific measures. With respect to the general requirements, the Guiding Opinions consistently embody the core political requirement of ¡°upholding the Party¡¯s absolute leadership¡± and expressly set out the general principles of helping enhance global competitiveness and influence, balancing financial institutional opening-up with systemic security, providing integrated safeguards for both ¡°going global¡± and ¡°bringing in,¡± and equally protecting the lawful rights and interests of Chinese and foreign parties, thereby establishing a systematic and well-founded framework for judicial safeguards in foreign-related financial matters. In the section on specific measures, the Guiding Opinions focus on substantive legal issues in key areas such as Shanghai¡¯s development of an offshore financial system, the creation of a globally influential innovation hub, a global asset management center, a global allocation center for RMB assets, an international reinsurance center, and stronger interconnectivity of financial infrastructure, while clarifying adjudication rules and judicial positions in financial cases. They also comprehensively enhance the capacity of foreign-related adjudication across jurisdiction, trial, and enforcement, providing Chinese and foreign parties with fair, efficient, convenient, and predictable financial judicial services. At the same time, the Guiding Opinions put forward a series of safeguard measures to provide all-around judicial support for Shanghai¡¯s participation in building a fairer and more reasonable global financial governance system.

The Guiding Opinions have three main features. First, they are aligned with Shanghai¡¯s strategic positioning and fully implement the decisions and plans of the central authorities and the municipal Party committee. They closely integrate various judicial safeguard measures with the strategic direction of Shanghai¡¯s financial opening-up and key areas of development, accurately grasp the essence of institutional opening-up, and foster new advantages for the Shanghai International Financial Center in participating in international cooperation and competition by establishing foreign-related financial judicial rules and adjudication standards. Second, they are problem-oriented and proactively respond to the judicial needs arising from financial opening-up. They directly address new developments and challenges in the building of the Shanghai International Financial Center and respond one by one to cutting-edge legal issues such as offshore financial practice, artificial intelligence applications, cross-border market connectivity, and reinsurance innovation, with the aim of plugging loopholes, regulating order, stabilizing expectations, and guiding development. Third, they emphasize practicality and effectiveness and genuinely strengthen the capacity of judicial safeguards in foreign-related financial matters. Every provision is tied to relevant cases and institutional measures. By strengthening rule-making and institutional innovation, the Guiding Opinions create a series of replicable and scalable judicial practice experiences for global financial governance.

Zhao Hong said, ¡°Through the release and implementation of the Guiding Opinions, we hope to enhance the competitiveness of the Shanghai International Financial Center in setting rules and standards, strengthen the appeal of the financial rule of law environment, and expand the influence of financial risk control.¡± The Guiding Opinions mainly serve three functions. First, they promote the organic alignment of domestic and international rules and help Shanghai improve its role as a source of international rules. Second, they regulate the two-way flow of financial factors and support Shanghai in playing its role as a hub for opening-up. Third, they prevent the cross-border transmission of financial risks and safeguard the security and stability of China¡¯s financial market.

The cases released this time cover representative legal issues in typical cross-border financial scenarios, including independent guarantees, cross-border guarantees, cross-border securities issuance, and cross-border business operations, and they have three main features. First, they accurately apply international treaties and foreign laws and, in accordance with the law, respect and protect party autonomy, demonstrating the internationalized, specialized, and cross-jurisdictional adjudication capabilities of financial judges in the new era. Second, they recognize and enforce foreign legal instruments in accordance with the law, highlighting a judicial stance that is fair, open, and inclusive, which helps strengthen international and interregional judicial assistance and promote judicial reciprocity and mutual trust among jurisdictions. Third, they reflect frequent disputes in foreign-related financial cases, equally protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese and foreign parties, clarify transaction expectations, improve the law-based business environment, and enhance the international credibility and influence of China¡¯s financial justice.

¡°The Shanghai Financial Court will continue to promote the implementation of the Guiding Opinions, improve relevant supporting measures as soon as possible, provide higher-quality judicial safeguards for high-level opening-up in the financial sector, and offer stronger judicial support for enhancing the competitiveness and influence of the Shanghai International Financial Center.¡± Zhao Hong said.

Journalists from national and Shanghai-based media outlets attended the press conference.