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This issue of China Business Law Journal includes our annual review of China¡¯s legal services market and key legal issues in the past 12 months. This year the review will include a series of five features, each with a different perspective.

Grand design focuses on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), which China has envisaged as a new world-class city cluster that features economic prosperity and technological innovation. The ambitious plan will certainly bring many opportunities for investors and law firms. However, the GBA is also bound to face challenges since it is unprecedented in nature ¨C connecting three jurisdictions under one nation. The success of the GBA lies in the integration of people, capital and goods, and the effective flow of such elements lies in the wise design of ways to connect the different legal and economic systems.

But China¡¯s development, in general, is being challenged by a complicated and severe global environment. The gameplan points out that the biggest challenge is the trade war with the US, which is not only affecting foreign investment into China but also Chinese investment into overseas countries.

The US has enhanced the power of its Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), and some major European countries have followed the US practice. The increasing difficulties in investing in the US and Europe have driven Chinese funds to other regions such as countries along the Belt and Road.