The Intermediate People's Court of Xicheng has now enforced the judgment of the San Mateo Court (which became final in 2019), marking the first time that a Chinese court has enforced a US judgment based on the principle of reciprocity.

In the July 2016 ruling in the JingAo v. Chint case (Case No. 502381), the Superior Court of San Mateo County, California, ordered the defendant to compensate the plaintiff $73 million (approximately RMB 520 million). The Chinese defendant was ordered to pay the amount in the form of a deposit or guarantee to avoid any uncertainty in the event of the plaintiff's victory.

After appeals in both California and China, the Intermediate People's Court of Wuxi ruled in August 2017 that, pursuant to the provisions of China's Civil Procedure Law (which requires foreign judgments to be final and binding to be recognized), the U.S. judgment could not be enforced.

In this enforcement proceeding, the Wuxi court clarified that actual precedents are sufficient to meet the reciprocity requirement, significantly lowering the threshold for enforcing judgments from jurisdictions such as the United States that do not have bilateral treaties with China.

The court also narrowed its interpretation of “public interest”: although the defendant argued that the U.S. ruling violated China's regulatory standards, the Wuxi court held that it would not refuse to enforce a foreign judgment due to differences in legal systems or economic rules. The court also rejected the defendant's fraud defense, emphasizing that it would not re-evaluate the facts and evidence of a case already adjudicated abroad.

Notably, this ruling may influence future UPC decisions on security deposits. Last month, the First Chamber of the UPC Court of Appeal (CoA) overturned a lower court's decision to deny security in the JingAo v. Chint Solar Cell patent dispute case. This ruling stemmed from concerns about the actual enforceability of UPC litigation cost orders in China. The ruling noted that enforcing judgments against parties located outside the European Economic Area (EEA) may be difficult, while EU law guarantees the recognition and enforcement of judgments among EU/EEA member states.