Reforming China's Corporate Bankruptcy Laws

China’s corporate insolvency law regime has been in a state of transition for a relatively long period of time, with the major, but temporary, body of legislation dealing specifically with enterprise bankruptcy having been\ud passed in 19861 (for trial implementation). China’s existing insolvency law is inadequate; this has become especially clear since China’s accession to the\ud World Trade Organization (WTO) and the imminent opening up of its markets to permit foreign banks to conduct businesses directly with domestic customers from 2006. A new draft of China’s Bankruptcy Law was considered by the 10th session of Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on 21 June 2004.2 Given the recent passage of\ud amendments to the PRC Company Law and Securities Law, it is anticipated that the passage of the much-debated new PRC Bankruptcy Law is imminent. This paper highlights some of the inadequacies of China’s existing insolvency law regime and examines whether the new draft law will assist\ud China in dealing with these issues and help to facilitate China’s becoming a more developed market economy