China legal update: NCP outbreak: Special Epidemic Preventive Measures on Overseas Travelers (V)

Legal News

I. Temporary suspension on entry of foreigners

As people see continued rise in imported cases of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (“NCP”), on March 26, 2020, the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced suspension policy on entry of foreigners from March 28, 2020. We hereby summarized the content of policy in the below chart.

II. Quarantine requirements on inbound travelers

In order to further curb the spread of NCP from importation, local governments have rolled out a series of policies tightening the quarantine requirements on inbound travelers and flight adjustment. We hereby summarized the most updated information in the below chart:

The quarantine requirements and flight adjustments are evolving quickly. For obtaining the real-time information for your city or flight, we recommend you to contact with the airport authority, airlines and other relevant authorities.

III. Crime of disturbing frontier health and quarantine

As our previous legal update mentioned, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice and the General Administration of Customs have announced a guideline which lists several misbehaviors that could constitute the crime of disturbing frontier health and quarantine (the “Crime”), targeting inbound travelers who spread or risk spreading NCP and curbing the spread of NCP from customs.⁷ On March 24, the PRC Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate specified that the subject of the Crime includes individual and unit, and the individual includes Chinese citizen, foreign citizen, and stateless persons.⁸ We hereby summarized the updated polices to date in the below chart:

As the epidemic continues to progress worldwide, China may gradually update the quarantine rules. Travelers with plans to visit China are advised to pay close attention to the notice issued by relevant government departments. As always, Asiallians remains at your services and our teams are currently mobilized in all our offices in China, but also in Hong Kong, Taipei.

On March 20, 2020, Shanghai government rolled out a series of subsidy policies to certain enterprises to relieve the difficulty of operation and promote the production of enterprise.⁹ We hereby provide you the most updated information on local policies that have been released in Shanghai.

Enterprises are kindly advised to pay close attention to local preferential polices regarding social insurance. Should you need to have more details of the policy in your city, please feel free to contact us at asiallians@asiallians.com.

As the precautionary measures, including recommending or requiring people to work at home, have been put in place to curb the spread of NCP in China for months, human resource department of companies raised the question whether it is possible to legally sign labor contract by electronic signature. On March 4, 2020, PRC Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced that the employer and employee may conclude a labor contract in electronic form, and the electronic signature (the “e-signature”) shall meet the requirements¹¹ under the PRC laws.¹²

The concerns of costs and time consumed in conducting e-signature make e-signature platforms emerge at a fast rate. Currently, nearly 100 e-signature platforms¹³ have risen in China. These e-signature platforms offer service to simplify and speed up electronic execution arrangements. Further, certain e-signature platforms may establish a complete evidence chain (for future potential dispute) through the technology of customer identity authentication, digital signature and time stamp.

How an employer/employee sign on e-signature platforms:

1. The signatory registers on the platform and establishes service relationship by reaching registration agreements, privacy policies and other agreements related to the services with the platform.

2. The platform authenticates the identity of signatory.

3. The signatory opens a link sent by email and types his/her name to sign the contract.

4. The platform generates signature of each party to the electronic contract and creates a fully signed PDF version of signed contract.

5. The platform produces a digital certificate recording the whole process of signing, this is for enhancing the credibility of the signed contract.¹⁴

6. Finally, the platform digitally seals the executed PDF contract and evidences any tampering with the contract after signing.

Please bear in mind that not all e-signature platforms have the appropriate functionality and qualification to ease the process, we advise to check with the e-signature platform proposed to use with the assistance of legal profession. Should you need any help on e-signature, please contact asiallians@asiallians.com.

1. See: http://whlyj.beijing.gov.cn/xwzx/xwyl/202003
/t20200325_1732354.html

2. See: http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw2/nw2314
/nw2315/nw4411/u21aw1435986.html
Please bear in mind that for diplomatic personnel entering China and personnel engaged in important economic, trade, scientific research and technical cooperation, if there are other provisions, they shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions. We will keep a close eye on the relevant provisions.

3. See: http://www.gd.gov.cn/gdywdt/bmdt/content/post_2952990.html
It is worthy to note that as of March 25, all non-Hong Kong residents will not be able to enter Hong Kong after arriving at Hong Kong International Airport by air from overseas countries or regions.

4. See: http://www.sz.gov.cn/cn/xxgk/zfxxgj/zwdt
/content/post_7050170.html

5. See: http://wb.jiangsu.gov.cn/art/2020/3/23/art_76960_9020704.html

6. See: http://www.tj.gov.cn/xw/bdyw/202003/t20200318_3671004.html

7. See: https://asiallians.com/zh-hans/china-legal-update
-ncp-outbreak-special-epidemic-preventive
-measures-overseas-travelers-Ⅳ/

8. See: https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/xwfbh/wsfbt
/202003/t20200324_457171.shtml

9. See: http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw2/nw2314/nw2315
/nw18454/u21aw1434176.html

10. Each qualified enterprise may apply for subsidy at the Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security at the district where the social insurance collection relation is located.

11. Article 13 of PRC Electronic Signatures Law stipulates the following requirements for e-signature: 1) the date is owned exclusively by the signatory; 2) the data is controlled by the signatory at the time of signing; 3) any alternation to the e-signature after signing can be detected; 4) any alternation to the electronic contract after signing can be detected.

12. See: http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/gkml/zcfg/gfxwj
/202003/t20200310_362037.html

13. The common e-signature platforms include: e-signature（e签宝）; Fadada（法大大）; Bestsing （上上签）; Wenqian （云签）; Wosign （我签文件）; Anxinsign（安心签）DocuSign

14. Some platforms provide derivate services, such as technical reports, judicial expertise, notarial certificates, etc.

Feel free to contact asiallians@asiallians.com for more information.