About

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?
From 2016-2018, Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP for US$47bn attracted attention from the whole semi-conduct industry and even the world. Qualcomm China’s legal team, led by me, played an important role in supporting Qualcomm’s global team to seek the governmental approval by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on this deal. The timely and effective communications with MOFCOM and other competent authorities were made constantly. Although MOFCOM did not grant its clearance in the end due to unforeseeable and uncontrollable reasons, the legal expertise and communication skills presented by my team and myself were widely recognised by the internal stakeholders in Qualcomm and relevant government officials. With the assistance of the external counsel, I led the team to successfully provide strong legal support in establishing a joint venture (JLQ) with a registered capital of around ¥3bn among Qualcomm, Datang and the two other business partners. This joint venture focuses on the competitive 4G/4G+ chipsets solution. In this deal, we produced a transaction structure and legal documents which satisfied not only the business consideration of all parties but also the legal requirements of MOFCOM and other regulators. In the last two years, Qualcomm China’s legal team under my leadership provided legal support to our China venture team (US$150m China Fund) in making Qualcomm venture capital investments in numerous Chinese high-tech start-up enterprises which are important for the Chinese semi-conductor and wireless communication industry. Over the past few years, my team’s recent accomplishments also include providing consistent legal support in a very complicated series of litigations in terms of trademark infringement and unfair-competition claims before the Shanghai High Court, Beijing Intellectual Property Court, Beijing High Court and China Supreme Court to protect our Qualcomm China brand name.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?
It is extremely important for in-house counsel to build a constructive and strong work relationship with business partners. I always encourage my team to have regular dialogues with business leaders, their team members and other peer supporting functions, so that they could better understand the importance of legal compliance and become supportive on legal precaution efforts. However, to achieve the business purpose, in-house lawyers must have a good understanding of the business and the intent of business units, with a solution-based and business-oriented service model.

Have any new laws, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice?
Over the past few years, we have been paying increasing attention to new laws and regulations in the fields of data privacy and cyber security in China. From my point of view, there could be challenges for us in handling legal issues relevant to data privacy and cyber security, in particular in the security assessment on personal information and important business data in the case of cross-border transmission. Meanwhile, we closely follow the anti-monopoly rules adopted by SAMR (State Administration for Market Regulation) which has rapidly increased influence on the investment activities of multi-national companies worldwide.

When selecting a law firm, what criteria do you evaluate the potential firms by?
Qualcomm prefers to develop a long term cooperation with law firms both at a global level and in China. Meanwhile we are willing to pay legal fees that’s commensurate with excellent legal work. Therefore, when selecting a law firm, we incline to choose those having a long term good reputation and recognised expertise in relevant fields, such as IP law, antitrust law and dispute resolution.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?
The semi-conductor is a growing industry in China so it is important to keep learning and improving the evolving industry knowledge. Furthermore, to enhance the business model, in-house counsels with excellent negotiation and problem solving skills under great pressure will be required.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how do you intend to assist with this?
In addition to ongoing litigations to defend the interests of the company, in the next 12 months we will focus on some M&A projects with additional investment in China. Meanwhile, Qualcomm China venture team is an ever-green venture capital investor and therefore it is reasonable to expect more venture capital investments in Chinese start-up entities. I will lead the Qualcomm China legal team to provide consistent legal support to M&A and venture capital investment projects, including due diligence, negotiations and reviewing legal documents.   FOCUS ON… In early June, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued four 5G licences to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Broadcasting Network. MIIT’s minister emphasised that, ‘China welcomes foreign enterprises to participate in China’s 5G market’. An early issuance of the 5G licences will ensure an expedited deployment of 5G infrastructure networks in China, so as to lay a solid foundation for further 5G commercialisation and expansive applications in service sectors and vertical industries. While domestic companies like HW and ZTE are the key beneficiaries, both financially and politically driven by significant national investments, foreign players including Qualcomm will enjoy 5G commercial developments in China with consistent contribution. The telecom operators and Chinese OEMs are eager to see Qualcomm’s X55 readiness as soon as possible. With early deployment of 5G in China, it is very likely China will take a lead in IoT in the world. However, the advance of technology always challenges laws and regulations. The coming IoT era will not be an exception. When people, devices, equipment and other things are further connected by 5G and IoT technologies, cybersecurity and privacy will be increasingly important issues. The unforeseeable scenarios arising from 5G and IoT technologies will push forward amending and even reforming current laws and regulations. Confronting the above technology trend and new legal issues, it is recommended that each legal professional in this industry should keep an eye on new technologies and new business models, while actively following the changes to relevant laws and regulations. Otherwise, it will be difficult for us to work out solutions for our company or our customers when they encounter new problems in the IoT era.