As the result of a recently completed trade barriers investigation, Beijing announced that it would suspend tariff concessions to Taiwan under the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). The scope of the suspension is very limited, although it may serve as an early warning for further restrictions down the road.

In a request for information pursuant to Article 63.3 of the TRIPS Agreement, the EU has asked that China provide the text of a recent domestic court decision that set the worldwide rates for standard essential patents of Nokia relating to 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G mobile telecommunications technology.

Last Friday, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) issued the final ruling in the trade barrier investigation against Taiwan, and unsurprisingly found that Taiwan's trade restrictive measures constitute trade barriers. MOFCOM did not, however, discuss what the next steps might be.

Last week, the Chinese market regulator conditionally approved Broadcom's US$69 billion acquisition of software vendor VMware. The reasoning and conditions are summarized below.

Earlier this month, China's market regulator approved U.S. semiconductor firm Micron's acquisition of a packaging and testing firm in China, part of the company's plan to expand investment in China.

Chinese corporate data provider Qichacha has become the first of its kind to pass the security review by the government cyber watchdog in order to launch an overseas platform. This is the most recent sign of Beijing relaxing controls over data exports.

As part of the U.S.-China Phase One agreement, China agreed to lower the threshold for trade secret infringement as one of the prerequisites for criminal cases. A review of recent legislative amendments and court rulings shows how China is implementing the commitment.