Zhejiang's Yiwu engages foreigners in mediating foreign-related disputes

Foreign mediators participate in a legal publicity campaign.

The parties reach a settlement and exchange a handshake after dispute mediation.

Mediators from the Yiwu Foreign-Related Dispute People's Mediation Committee pose for a group photo.

Lawyers and foreign mediators jointly resolve a dispute between merchants.

Foreign mediators provide legal consultations during their duty shifts to international parties.

Located within the bustling International Trade Market in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, the International Trade Market Justice Office under the Yiwu Municipal Justice Bureau is uniquely positioned to serve the market's dynamic environment. Established directly within the market, the justice office offers targeted legal services, including dispute resolution and legal publicity, to market merchants.

Yiwu, known as a global hub of small commodities, engages in trade with more than 230 countries and regions across the globe. Its highly globalized economy, however, has led to a growing number of foreign-related disputes, which are often complex, diverse, specialized, and wide-ranging.

In response, the justice office set up the Yiwu Foreign-Related Dispute People's Mediation Committee in May 2013, the first of its kind in China. Operating under the justice office's coordination and management, the committee has pioneered innovative mediation methods, including inviting foreign businesspeople living in Yiwu to help resolve disputes. This approach, featuring the engagement of foreigners in mediating foreign-related disputes, has become a distinctive feature of the city's conflict resolution mechanism, allowing international trade disputes to be settled efficiently within the market and resolved at an early stage.

The justice office has incorporated the traditional Chinese concept of "harmony" into resolving foreign-related commercial disputes. By leveraging the linguistic advantages of international merchants and appointing them as "International Mediation Elders," the process has gained greater trust and fostered a more amicable mediation environment. Today, a team of 20 foreign mediators from 15 countries has been formed, ensuring comprehensive language support in Chinese, English, German, French, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Romanian, and more.

To improve the standardization, legal validity, and enforceability of mediation outcomes, the Foreign-Related Dispute Mediation Committee has established a multi-agency collaboration mechanism with various judicial bodies. The committee has set up mediation-litigation coordination centers at both the Yiwu People's Court and the Ningbo Maritime Court, while also signing a cooperation agreement with the latter. Through the active implementation of the judicial confirmation mechanism, parties in successfully mediated cases that cannot be immediately fulfilled are guided to obtain judicial confirmation -- a step that significantly enhances both the credibility and enforceability of mediation outcomes.

To overcome geographical and time constraints in foreign-related mediation, the justice office has collaborated with local courts to pioneer innovative remote mediation approaches. These include integrated models such as the "Mediation on WeChat + Shared Courtrooms" and the "Online Cloud Mediation + Offline Face-to-Face" sessions, which have substantially shortened the resolution time for cross-border disputes. The justice office now features dedicated facilities for remote video mediation and related services, offering real-time online guidance from judges and accessible local resources to help parties resolve disputes efficiently.

To maximize convenience for local dispute resolution, the justice office has partnered with the Yiwu Municipal Immigration Services Center to optimize the distribution of mediation sites, creating an extensive and coordinated mediation network. A group of international mediation facilities have been established in neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreign residents, covering all major towns and sub-districts of Yiwu.

Integrated into the community grid management system, these facilities collaborate with local authorities to provide on-site services beyond mediation, such as legal education and consultation, achieving "zero-distance" access to foreign-related legal services. To date, the Foreign-Related Dispute Mediation Committee has handled 1,535 cross-border cases with a 96.3 percent success rate.