For years, the standard advice about enforcing U.S. judgments in China was simple: don’t bother. That advice is now outdated.
It is still not easy or inexpensive to enforce a U.S. court judgment in China. And it is also far from automatic. But Chinese courts have become more willing to recognize and enforce foreign civil and commercial judgments, including U.S. judgments, when the judgment creditor can prove reciprocity, proper service, due process, finality, and no violation of Chinese public policy.
If your defendant has assets in China, a U.S. judgment may be worth pursuing there. But the enforcement case is usually won or lost before anyone files in China. The U.S. litigation record needs to be built with China enforcement in mind.
