Professional profile
About Charles
Charles Fan is a Guangxi-based lawyer whose professional work is closely connected with maritime and shipping law, foreign-related commercial matters, international trade disputes, and the interface between logistics and intellectual-property risk. Public information from the Guangxi Lawyers Association lists him among lawyers participating in both maritime and foreign-related professional work, placing his practice within two fields that naturally overlap in Guangxi’s outward-facing economy.
That overlap is commercially important. Guangxi is not only a border region with deep ASEAN connections; it is also a major maritime and logistics gateway for western China. Ports in the Beibu Gulf, regional shipping routes, cross-border logistics networks, and China–ASEAN trade corridors create a steady flow of legal issues involving carriage of goods, bills of lading, freight forwarding, cargo insurance, chartering, port operations, customs, and international sale contracts. A lawyer working in this environment needs to understand how the shipping document, sale contract, insurance arrangement, and dispute forum fit together.
Charles’s professional profile is best described through this practical integration. A damaged-cargo case may appear at first to be a simple shipping claim, but the real legal picture can be more complicated. The buyer may have purchased the goods under CIF or FOB terms. The seller may have booked carriage through a freight forwarder. The carrier may have subcontracted part of the transport to an actual carrier. The bill of lading may contain a jurisdiction or arbitration clause. Cargo insurers may be involved through subrogation. The damage may have been caused by poor packaging, inherent vice, negligent stowage, container conditions, delay, or a maritime casualty. Liability depends on identifying the correct legal relationship and the correct period of responsibility.
Public Guangxi Lawyers Association materials describe the region’s maritime professional work as supporting shipping, foreign trade, marine insurance, port development, and the China–ASEAN maritime corridor. Charles’s participation in that professional environment gives his practice a strong regional commercial context. It also means that his work is naturally connected to the legal modernization of China’s maritime sector.
That modernization is especially significant in 2026. China adopted a substantially revised Maritime Law in 2025, and the new law took effect on May 1, 2026. The revision updates multiple areas of maritime regulation, including carriage of goods by sea, electronic transport records, carrier responsibility, passenger carriage, maritime insurance, pollution liability, and foreign-related rules. For shipping and trade clients, this creates a need to revisit standard assumptions, contract language, claims procedures, and risk allocation.
Charles’s maritime focus therefore has immediate practical relevance. Cargo owners, exporters, importers, freight forwarders, logistics companies, ship operators, and insurers all need to understand who bears responsibility when goods are lost, damaged, or delivered late. The legal answer is rarely determined by one document. It depends on the applicable transport contract, the bill of lading, the identity of the contractual carrier and actual carrier, the cause of loss, the condition and packaging of the cargo, notice requirements, limitation provisions, and sometimes the interaction between Chinese law and international conventions.
His practice also fits naturally with international trade disputes. A shipping problem frequently becomes a sale-of-goods dispute. If cargo arrives damaged, the buyer may refuse payment. The seller may claim that risk passed earlier under the agreed Incoterm. The insurer may compensate one party and then pursue the carrier. The freight forwarder may deny that it acted as carrier. A maritime lawyer who also understands commercial trade disputes can help clients avoid treating each claim as a separate problem.
The intellectual-property interface is another relevant part of Charles’s positioning. International shipping and IP law increasingly intersect at customs borders and ports. Goods moving through international trade may be detained because of trademark or copyright complaints. OEM exporters may face questions about whether a foreign brand owner has valid rights in China. Parallel imports and gray-market goods may create disputes. Customs protection of intellectual property can interrupt logistics even when the underlying commercial transaction is otherwise valid. For trading companies, the legal cost of an IP issue is often measured not only in damages but in delayed shipments and disrupted customer relationships.
Charles’s profile is therefore useful for clients whose problems sit between traditional categories. A shipping company may need advice on cargo claims and contract clauses. An exporter may need to understand both bill-of-lading risk and trademark exposure. An insurer may need to pursue subrogated recovery after paying a cargo loss. A freight forwarder may need to determine whether its document and conduct make it liable as a contractual carrier. A buyer may need to preserve evidence immediately after damaged cargo is discharged at a Chinese port.
Dispute strategy is central in these matters. Maritime disputes often involve short timeframes, evidence that can disappear quickly, and assets that move across jurisdictions. Survey reports, container records, temperature logs, photographs, port records, and notices of loss may become decisive. Parties also need to review jurisdiction clauses early because maritime contracts frequently provide for arbitration or litigation in specified forums. The difference between filing in the right forum and the wrong one can be costly.
The “Major Attorney” title used here is intentionally restrained. Charles’s professional profile does not need an elevated management label to communicate expertise. His strength is the combination of maritime law, foreign-related commercial work, international trade dispute awareness, and practical familiarity with the legal issues surrounding ports, shipping, and regional trade.
For clients participating in China–ASEAN maritime commerce, that combination is particularly relevant. Shipping law sits at the point where physical trade meets legal risk. Goods move across borders, but the responsibilities of carriers, shippers, consignees, insurers, and intermediaries are created by contracts and law. Charles Fan’s profile is well aligned with clients that need help understanding and managing those responsibilities before or after a dispute arises.
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