Professional profile
About David
David Shen is a Senior Partner and Head of the Cross-Border Legal Practice Group at the regional headquarters of a top-tier national law firm in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, at the core of China's Maritime Silk Road industrial zone. He is recognized as a leading authority on outbound direct investment (ODI), foreign direct investment (FDI) and international maritime trade, and serves as the primary legal strategist for export-oriented manufacturing conglomerates, greenfield developers and cross-border supply chain enterprises.
In outbound direct investment and greenfield expansion, Mr. Shen advises Chinese manufacturing enterprises on corporate structuring, regulatory approvals before the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), and overseas facility development across Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia) and the Middle East (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia).
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In cross-border mergers and acquisitions, he leads M&A transactions, legal due diligence, joint venture agreements and tax treaty optimization through offshore intermediate holding vehicles.
In international trade and maritime disputes, he represents import-export enterprises and shipping lines in international sale of goods contract disputes under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), letters of credit transactions under the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP600), bills of lading liabilities and admiralty litigation.
Quanzhou, the historical starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, remains one of China's most active manufacturing and trading cities, with major clusters in footwear, textiles, apparel, stone and building materials. A growing number of regional groups are relocating production to Vietnam and Indonesia and expanding into Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Mr. Shen's regional practice reflects this economy: he advises on ODI structuring and registration, Singapore holding company architecture, Vietnam land use rights and Indonesian labor compliance, and represents regional exporters in international sale of goods and documentary credit disputes. He is the lead author and chief reviewing counsel for municipal Outbound Investment Compliance Handbooks and Southeast Asian Greenfield Project Risk Manuals used to educate local enterprises.
Mr. Shen's representative work includes advising a multi-billion-RMB footwear and apparel manufacturing group on establishing a USD 120 million greenfield manufacturing base in Vietnam and Indonesia, including Singapore HoldCo DTA structuring, ODI registrations and LURC land acquisition; structuring an offshore cash-pooling and supply chain holding network in Singapore for a leading textile and building materials group, optimizing dividend withholding tax rates from 10% to 5%; and representing a regional building materials exporter in a USD 15 million international bill of lading and letter of credit fraud dispute before international arbitral tribunals, achieving full asset recovery.
Mr. Shen holds an LL.M. in International Commercial Law and an LL.B., and is admitted to the Bar of the People's Republic of China. He is fully bilingual in Mandarin and English and conducts negotiations directly in English. He is available to advise Chinese enterprises expanding overseas and foreign investors entering China.
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