The Dream Factory of China

Source :Shenzhen Daily

The Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People's Court recently helped a Japanese litigant to successfully resolve his dispute with a Chinese merchant using the court's multilingual mediation system.

Yamanda is a Japanese merchant engaging in the import and export business in China. He lent 80,000 yuan (US$11,776) to his Chinese partner surnamed Yi but failed to recover the money after the loan expired.

After receiving Yamanda’s litigation request, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center of Qianhai Court designated mediator and lawyer You Wujun, who speaks fluent Japanese and has rich experience in handling civil and commercial cases involving Japanese parties, to help Yamanda settle his dispute with Yi.

Mediator You contacted the two parties in Japan and in Southeast China’s Fujian Province successively, and patiently guided them to register and use the “Shenzhen Mobile Micro Court” WeChat mini-program to conduct an online mediation.

Taking advantage of his language and legal expertise, You helped both parties sort out their disputes and proposed a mediation plan according to the wishes of both parties. In the end, the mediator helped them to reach a mediation agreement online, and thus the dispute was quickly and efficiently resolved.

Liu Zhe, a judge at the court’s Litigation Service Center said: “In dispute resolution, helping foreign parties to eliminate language barriers and letting them use familiar language to resolve disputes reflects the openness and tolerance of the Qianhai Cooperation Zone, which has enhanced people’s confidence in the rule of law and market-oriented business environment of Qianhai.”

Currently, the ADR center of Qianhai Court provides mediation services in eight foreign languages. The mediation service in English, French and Korean does not need to be booked in advance; for the mediation service in Russian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Kazakh, litigants need to apply two working days in advance.