A Hong Kong-based dispute-resolution body inaugurated in October 2025 by senior Chinese officials. Chaired by a Chinese vice-foreign minister, it will resolve disputes between governments or between companies using Chinese traditions of dialogue and harmonious co-existence. Kenya, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Venezuela are among its first members.
Chinese officials say the body is well aligned with the Global Governance Initiative, a set of non-Western principles promoted by Xi Jinping. Western diplomats worry that China is using it to promote its preferred vision of governance—ultra-pragmatic, interests-based compromises—in opposition to Western-style litigation on the basis of absolute legal rights. John Lee, Hong Kong's chief executive, has declared it to be on a par with the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague—a comparison that is telling, since the latter court enraged China by ruling against it over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on."