In 2018, the Supreme People's Court established its first and second international commercial courts in Shenzhen and Xi'an, as its permanent judicial body for handling international commercial disputes. Since then, the Supreme People's Court has been pushing forward the establishment of local international commercial courts in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese and foreign parties and build a stable, fair, transparent and convenient business environment.
The Beijing No 4 Intermediate People's Court currently accepts foreign-related commercial cases and arbitration judicial review cases with a claim of less than 5 billion yuan. It has done well in handling foreign-related commercial cases. So far, it has handled more than 6,000 foreign-related cases involving over 60 countries and regions. In November 2020, Wang Shumei, chief judge of the Fourth Civil Division of the Supreme People's Court, suggested that the Beijing court should set up a foreign-related commercial justice court and a "one-stop" diversified international commercial dispute resolution center based on Beijing's "two zones" plan and the actual situation of Beijing foreign-related commercial trials. Later, under the guidance of the Supreme People's Court and the Beijing Higher People's Court, the Beijing No 4 Intermediate People's Court submitted the application for the establishment of the Beijing International Commercial Court to the Beijing Higher People's Court. In January 2021, the Beijing Court's "one-stop" diversified international commercial dispute resolution center was founded in the Beijing No 4 Intermediate People's Court as a special organization for resolving foreign-related commercial disputes. Later, the Beijing International Commercial Court was established with approval from the Supreme People's Court.
The Beijing International Commercial Court is the second local international commercial court established in China. It will optimize and improve the jurisdiction of cases and further enhance specialization in foreign commercial trials to provide judicial support for the construction of Beijing's "two zones" and the capital's market-orientated, internationalized and law-based business environment.