Foreign private relations have the potential of choices in the jurisdictions to hear a case and the lex causae to decide the case etc., which is closely related to the level of opening-up. The potential of choices satisfies the security needs of foreign investors and helps to address their investment concerns. As an important component of the business environment, it can be transformed into an attraction for foreign investors and the competitiveness of the opening-up policy of a state. Foreign investors often employ direct investment to establish local legal entities for the convenience of operation and hence lose the foreign-related element of legal subjects. China has set up a series of special zones to promote higher-level opening-up, mainly adopting the standard of the combination of regional restriction and capital restriction, that enables foreign investors to regain the potential of choices under the direct investment mode. The related practice in China’s frontiers of opening-up has gradually undergone three stages of evolution: from the one in which domestic parties with foreign capital can submit arbitration abroad, to one in which domestic parties with Hong Kong capital can submit arbitration in Hong Kong with application of Hong Kong law, and to one in which domestic parties with foreign capital can submit arbitration abroad with the application of foreign law. The positive experience in higher-level opening-up in special zones, which is part of Chinese Modernization, can be replicated and popularized in specific regions in light of actual needs. China can also explore transplanting the governance model of allowing domestic parties with foreign capital to submit arbitration abroad with the application of foreign law from one field to another to realize precise opening-up, and innovate the market access and business access systems for foreign arbitration institutions. The possibility of choices in domestic private relations enables China to adjust in a targeted way the region, industry, fields and other dimensions of opening-up, release the dividend of foreign-related legal governance, attract foreign capital in different fields, and accurately shape the pattern of higher-level opening-up on a larger scale, in a wider field and at a deeper level. |