At 18:40 p.m. on October 30, 2020, the 32nd Corporate Legal Risk Forum organized by the China Enterprise Legal Risk Management Research Center of Peking University was successfully held in the 420 classroom of the second teaching building of Peking University. The theme of this forum is “governance of public REITs in China: Legal Analysis and overseas experience”. The speaker of the forum is Tang Xiya, doctor of economic law of Peking University and postdoctoral of Applied Economics of China Galaxy Securities. The forum was presided over by Guo Yuan, a 2018 doctoral student in economic law of Peking University Law School. Graduate and doctoral students from the law school actively participated and had a heated discussion in the report process. After a warm welcome from teachers and students and a brief introduction to Dr. Tang, the forum officially began.

The forum was divided into five parts. In the first part, focusing on the recent development of public REITs in China, Dr. Tang summarized the policy of infrastructure REITs in China, explained the definition, characteristics, and transaction structure of REITs, and briefly analyzed the macro and micro background of public REITs launched in China. In the second part, Dr. Tang analyzed the problems of infrastructure REITs in China. She explained the issue from a two-dimensional perspective of the investment side and the financing side. Based on the analysis, she raised a question, “is REITs really ‘good finance’ under the policy push?”. Along with this question, Dr. Tang began to explain the third part of the Forum. In this part, she introduced the influence of REITs governance structure on all parties, and discussed the governance problems arising from different REITs organizational forms and management modes. After summing up these governance issues, Dr. Tang began to explain the fourth part of the forum. In this part, she analyzed the governance mechanism of infrastructure REITs in China from the perspective of law, and put forward suggestions in improving the governance structure of public REITs in China. In the last part, Dr. Tang vividly showed the transaction structure and declaration of public REITs in China by combining with the case of the “Bohai Sea Water Industry to be issued”.

After explaining the main contents of the forum, Dr. Tang summarized the forum and briefly discussed the relationship between law and finance. Law exists not only as an external protection mechanism of the financial system, but also as an endogenous mechanism of the financial system. Law has contributed to the formation and development of the financial system, so the law should create optimal constraints for finance to promote the improvement and optimization of REITs governance mechanism. In the questioning session, Dr. Tang answered the questions raised by the students one by one. Finally, on behalf of the China Enterprise Legal Risk Management Research Center of Peking University, the host presented a certificate of appreciation to Dr. Tang. In the applause of teachers and students, the forum was successfully concluded.

Translated by Wu Qiliang