The long-standing practice to adopt the principle of absolute foreign state immunity by the People’s Republic of China (the PRC) and Hong Kong is coming to an end as the PRC’s Foreign State Immunity Law (the FSIL) is coming into effect on 1 January 2024.

Introducing commercial exceptions to and allowing express advance waiver of foreign state immunity, the FSIL broadens the circumstances in which foreign states may be sued, and expands the scope to enforce arbitral awards and court judgements against foreign states’ assets in the PRC and Hong Kong.