China has made significant strides in developing its foreign-related legal systems over the past year, enhancing its legislative tools for international affairs and optimizing services to support enterprises expanding globally, according to a report.

The report, issued by the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, highlights that in 2025, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee enacted six laws, four of which contained foreign-related provisions, and amended 15 laws, including three specifically focused on foreign affairs.

For example, key revisions were made to the Foreign Trade Law and the Maritime Law to align with high-standard international economic and business rules, while the Arbitration Law and the Commercial Mediation Regulations were improved to enhance the international commercial dispute resolution mechanism, the report says.

Last year, Chinese courts notably increased the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, with Chinese judicial decisions gaining wider acceptance internationally, it notes, adding that the Belt and Road Legal Service Alliance has bolstered foreign-related legal services, with the team of international lawyers expanding to 12,000 to effectively support global business ventures.

The report also shows advancements in combating transnational crime, with strengthened bilateral and multilateral law enforcement cooperation. It says that China has collaborated with countries such as Spain, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, resulting in the repatriation of 68,000 overseas fraud-related criminal suspects.

It advocates for further improvements in the legal framework concerning foreign affairs and emerging technologies, suggesting drafting a law to protect the rights of overseas Chinese, conducting research on intelligent connected vehicles, and enhancing judicial services to position China as a preferred venue for resolving international disputes.

According to the report, over the past year, various regions in China have actively explored digital justice. For instance, internet courts in cities like Beijing and Shanghai handled numerous new types of cases involving data, virtual assets, and artificial intelligence. Through their rulings, these courts have established guidelines to lead and standardize the healthy development of the industries.

Furthermore, in response to pressing issues such as online harassment and "fanquan", a term for highly organized groups of celebrity worshippers, cyberspace regulators have also taken strong measures to address these concerns, and conducted stringent crackdowns on illegal activities and violations of personal information and those who used artificial intelligence face-swapping to defraud others, it notes.