In the regulatory context, “rules” are a type of administrative law document issued by Chinese government agencies designed to facilitate or control the enforcement of the law. Adding “applicable” before “rules” is frequently done in legal contexts to refer to all rules governing a subject matter.

The Relationship between Applicable Rules and Applicable Law

The concept of “applicable laws” is frequently used in Chinese law in a manner similar to “applicable rules,” and there is often confusion between the two concepts. Within the Chinese legal system, the term “laws” encompasses all legislative documents, including the constitution, statutory laws, and central government regulations, as well as any universally binding regulatory documents enacted by central government agencies. Given that rules are a form of regulatory document, “applicable rules” are considered a subset of “applicable laws,” and are given this distinction to clarify their role in the broader legal framework while emphasizing the integral relationship between rules and the legislative documents they support.

Concept of Applicability

Many legal commentators and lawyers opine that Chinese law has no concept of applicability unlike Western legal systems, and that the law in China is more like a set of guidelines and that individuals and organizations are subject to arbitrary enforcement of local laws so long as the topic of the law is at least somewhat “relevant” to the matter at hand.

The myth of arbitrary Chinese law enforcement arises more from the Opium War where European powers expressed dissatisfaction with the Qing legal process, such as during the Arrow Incident, that led to the establishment of consular European courts of law on Chinese soil. Nonetheless, it is quite outdated, as current translations of China law show very strict concepts of regulatory jurisdiction and applicability in the modern Chinese regulatory state.

Further Reading

See our comprehensive resources on China’s Foreign Investment Law.

Notes on Translation
Confusion among international audiences about the above concepts is further exacerbated by word-for-word translations of the Chinese legal concepts. See the CBL’s translation practice manual sections on the underlying source Chinese terms for applicable rules and applicable law.

See translation guide at: 有关规定