John Liebeskind attended the China Arbitration Week /A.KA. China Arbitration Summit 2026 & China High-level Dialogue on Maritime and Commercial Arbitration) in Beijing from 14 to 18 September 2026. Deserves a special mention the Tang Houzhi Lecture under the auspices of CIETAC on 17 September 2026.
The Tang Houzhi Lecture, named after TANG Houzhi (1925-2020), the prominent founder and pioneer of China’s arbitration cause, aims to publicize the concept of arbitration, promote cultural exchanges in international arbitration community and encourage the development of international arbitration. Tang devoted his life to enhancing the internationalization of arbitration in China, actively promoting China’s accession to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, advocating the oriental experience of combining arbitration and mediation, and widely publicizing China’s arbitration to the international community. He also took part in the formulation of China’s Arbitration Law. Tang played an important role in the establishment and improvement of the legal system of arbitration in China and his contributions to domestic and international arbitration have always inspired the practitioners from home and abroad.
On the occasion of the inaugural year of the newly revised Arbitration Law of the People’s Republic of China and the 70th anniversary of CIETAC, this year’s Lecture was themed “70 years of Arbitration in China.” From the multidimensional perspectives of historical evolution, institutional development, practical progress, and international dialogue, the Lecture comprehensively reviewed and summarized the journey of China’s arbitration over the past seventy years, drawing upon its valuable experience, and will explore the direction for the professionalization and internationalization of China’s arbitration in the new era. The panel included, among distinguished arbitration practitioners, LONG Chuanhong, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of CIETAC, Bjoern Etgen, a well-know German arbitrator with extensive experience of Chinese arbitration, and TAO Jingzhou, a well known and early promoter of Chinese arbitration, also avocat à la cour in France.
John Liebeskind was introduced to TANG Houzhi by the late Prof. Pierre Lalive, John Liebeskind’s then mentor, the first time he visited to China in 2002. Tang consistently supported John’s inroads in Chinese arbitration ever since.