On November 26, a press conference titled “Promoting the Construction of a Legalized Business Environment to Support High-Quality Economic Development in the Capital” was held in Beijing. It was revealed at the conference that since 2018, Beijing courts have established a bankruptcy trial mechanism with Beijing characteristics to support supply-side structural reform, improve market selection mechanisms, and assist corporate restructuring and revival. Taking the Beijing Bankruptcy Court as an example, over six years, it has successfully rescued 126 struggling enterprises through judicial reorganization procedures, attracted over 158 billion yuan in investment, and resolved more than 840 billion yuan in debt.
Promoting Characteristic Government-Court Coordination Mechanisms
“‘Handling bankruptcy’ is an important indicator in the World Bank’s business environment assessment and a key reform area led by courts under ‘Beijing Services’,” stated a representative at the conference.
It was reported that in strengthening bankruptcy system supply and improving bankruptcy trial quality, Beijing courts actively promoted the establishment of a government-court coordination framework. This includes effectively addressing bottlenecks and challenges in information queries, asset disposal, and credit restoration through the “Municipal Enterprise Bankruptcy and Market Exit Joint Conference” mechanism. Under the leadership of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the Beijing High Court jointly issued “Several Measures to Deepen Bankruptcy System Reform” with 21 departments, formulating 45 policy measures across nine areas including asset disposal and credit restoration.
Meanwhile, Beijing courts focused on improving the bankruptcy administrator system, including developing documents such as the bankruptcy administrator roster compilation and grading management measures, and several measures to strengthen integrity risk prevention in bankruptcy trials, further refining bankruptcy handling standards. They conducted bankruptcy administrator assessments for two consecutive years, selecting 20 outstanding bankruptcy administrators to incentivize and supervise their diligent performance. Beijing courts also promoted the differentiation of complex and simple bankruptcy cases, applying fast-track procedures comprehensively to cases with clear creditor-debtor relationships and straightforward asset disposal, enabling efficient and orderly market exit. In the first three quarters, Beijing courts concluded 2,575 various bankruptcy cases.
It was emphasized that the government-court coordination mechanism is a crucial tool and distinctive feature of Beijing courts in advancing the construction of a legalized business environment under unified municipal leadership. “It can be said that every achievement in optimizing the legalized business environment is inseparable from the ‘Beijing Model’ of government-court coordination. In the future, we will continue to deepen this mechanism to build stronger governance synergy.”
Implementing Market-Based Precision Rescue
Regarding strengthening corporate distress relief and revitalizing corporate regeneration, it was stated that Beijing courts improved diversified rescue mechanisms such as pre-reorganization, rapid reorganization for small and micro enterprises, and substantive consolidation reorganization of affiliated enterprises, successfully concluding reorganization cases for series like Xinhuolian Group and listed companies such as Wintop Capital and Oriental Landscape.
Taking the Beijing Bankruptcy Court as an example, it was explained that over six years, the court successfully rescued 126 struggling enterprises through judicial reorganization procedures, attracted over 158 billion yuan in investment, resolved more than 840 billion yuan in debt, maintained continuous operations for over 1,000 enterprises within corporate groups, and stabilized nearly 120,000 employees’ jobs.
It was noted that the Beijing Bankruptcy Court was established based on the original specialized trial division for liquidation and bankruptcy cases. Over six years, the court newly accepted 12,603 cases and concluded 11,010 cases.
It was stated that by implementing market-based precision rescue, the Beijing Bankruptcy Court explored and established diversified reorganization models for large enterprise groups. For instance, in reorganization cases for well-known enterprise groups like Peking University Founder Group, the court built mechanisms to holistically advance major bankruptcy case trials. Simultaneously, it explored establishing rapid rescue mechanisms for listed companies, quickly facilitating the “de-hatting and star removal” of 8 listed companies through reorganization procedures, safeguarding investment returns for over 300,000 small and medium investors. Additionally, it explored specialized judicial rescue mechanisms for small and micro enterprises, issuing the nation’s first “Small and Micro Enterprise Rapid Reorganization Work Measures” and jointly holding a “Empowering Small and Micro Enterprises for Upgrade” seminar with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Regarding advancing “enforcement-bankruptcy integration” reform to effectively revitalize corporate assets according to law, it was stated that courts citywide strengthened close collaboration between enforcement and bankruptcy trials, promptly transferring long-term unenforceable cases into bankruptcy procedures to facilitate the rapid market-based and legal exit of “zombie enterprises”.
Furthermore, it was explained that the Beijing Bankruptcy Court established full-chain judicial supply, including front-end prevention “treating pre-disease” by publishing the “Enterprise Full-Process Legal Risk Prevention Guide”, providing comprehensive rule guidance from startup and growth to termination stages. Since its establishment,
