CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 13

SAREN ABGARYAN
2. regional and global drivers of change (Chinese integration into
the Asia Pacific as an important player; in a global context, Chinese
negotiations with the USA, the EU, and TPP; accession to the WTO,
3. Experience in international relations as a driving force
(accumulating the experience of China as a treaty-maker). Those changes
were also supported by changes inside the national economy of China, by
creating a more stable and open legal and economic system that foreign
investors consider safe. 35
In the next section, we analyze the treatment standards included in
the Armenia-China BIT (1992) focusing on its substantive treatment
standards and the investor-state dispute settlement clause. We break
through legal matters, placing them in the context of Chinese BIT-making
policy and suggest an updated BIT, which will provide a higher level of
protection to investors originating from those countries. The existing BIT
is restrictive and provides a very low level of protection to foreign
investors and has a limited investor-state dispute settlement clause.
The National Treatment Standard in the Armenia-China BIT
The National Treatment (NT) standard guarantees a level playing
field among domestic and foreign investors, obliging the host states to
provide foreign investors with treatment that is “not less favourable” or
treatment “the same as” its own (domestic) investors. It creates
competitive equality among foreign and domestic investors. 36 This
standard has been qualified as the single most important standard of
treatment contained in investment treaties which conveys how crucial this
standard is. 37 NT is a relative standard of treatment that sets the minimum
standard of treatment the same as its domestic investors, with the
presumption that foreign investors can receive morefavorable treatment,
and not vice versa.
The NT standard in the context of the Chinese investment treaty
has seen considerable discussion. 38 It has been established that the earlier

845-890; Huan, Guocang. "China's Open-Door Policy, 1978-1984." Journal of International
Affairs (1986): 1-18.
35 Wenhua Shan, "Law and Foreign Investment in China: General Role of Law and
Substantive Issues-Part One," Manchester J. Int'l Econ. L. 2 (2005): 41.
36 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). "National Treatment"
UNCTAD/ITE/IIT/11 (Vol. IV), (1999): 1; Zhou, Jian. "National treatment in foreign
investment law: a comparative study from a Chinese perspective." Touro Int'l L. Rev. 10
(2000): 10, 39.
37 Ibid, 2.
38 For example, Wei Wang, "Historical Evolution of National Treatment in China," Int'l
Law. 39 (2005): 759; Wenhua Shan, Norah Gallagher, and Sheng Zhang, "National
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