Guangdong adopts targeted approach to advance foreign-related talent cultivation

In recent years, the Justice Department of Guangdong Province has aligned its efforts with the new requirements of high-level opening-up and the strategic positioning of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) as a pivotal hub in the new development paradigm, a demonstration zone of high-quality development and a pioneer of Chinese modernization.

Guided by the principle of promoting talent development for "specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative" enterprises, the department has dedicated significant efforts to cultivating high-caliber foreign-related legal professionals, laying a solid foundation for building a world-class legal talent pool to advance the province's foreign-related rule of law.

Strengthening government-university collaboration for talent cultivation

The Justice Department of Guangdong has actively collaborated with relevant provincial departments to support universities such as Sun Yat-sen University, Jinan University, and Shenzhen University in building national-level collaborative training bases for foreign-related legal professionals. Together with Sun Yat-sen University and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, the department co-founded the Guangdong Foreign-Related Legal Talent Training Base.

Senior officials experienced in legislative and foreign-related legal practice have been recommended as practice mentors to universities, integrating their professional expertise into legal education.

Multifaceted enrichment of the talent pool

To diversify and strengthen its talent pool, Guangdong has launched a specialized program to support foreign-related legal practitioners who excel in teaching, research, and innovation to assume leading roles. The province established both a provincial foreign-related legal talent pool and and a youth talent pool, enlisting 123 professionals in their first batches.

From 2022 to August 2025, Guangdong deepened training programs for foreign-related lawyers, organizing 30 provincial-level training sessions with about 3,300 participants. Among them, over 1,800 lawyers have been included in the foreign-related talent pools of the Guangdong Lawyers Association.

In addition, the province has introduced foreign arbitrators as well as arbitrators from the country's Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions (SARs) and Taiwan region to institutions such as the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, enhancing the opening-up level of Guangdong's arbitration workforce. Talent development has also been reinforced in key fields including international trade, cross-border investment and financing, intellectual property rights, and international commercial dispute resolution.

Building a legal talent hub in the GBA

Leveraging its proximity to Hong Kong and Macao, Guangdong has established partnerships with the two SARs to build the GBA into a legal talent hub. Through pilot programs for joint-venture law firms and policies enabling Hong Kong and Macao lawyers to practice in the GBA, the province has attracted high-quality legal professionals from both regions. By October 2025, more than 620 Hong Kong and Macao lawyers had obtained practice certification in the GBA.

The Justice Department of Guangdong has also formalized partnerships with the justice departments of Hong Kong and Macao through cooperation agreements signed in July 2024 and January 2025, respectively, enhancing collaboration and mutual learning in foreign-related legal talent development. By December 2025, seven joint meetings focusing on collaborative talent cultivation had been held among legal departments across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.

Joint training sessions have also been held across the three regions to deepen legal cooperation in areas such as resource-sharing, internships, course arrangements, talent exchanges, and collaborative research.

Aligning talent cultivation with practical needs

To better align talent cultivation with real-world demand, the Justice Department of Guangdong has organized activities focused on foreign-related legal services and commercial legal services in collaboration with the provincial Department of Commerce. The province has formed dedicated lawyer teams to provide legal services for foreign-related economic and trade activities as well as local private enterprises. Notable achievements include Guangdong lawyers successfully handling the country's first lawsuit under the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law.

The province has also explored establishing mechanisms for foreign-related lawyers to regularly participate in high-profile economic and trade events, such as the China Import and Export Fair, the GBA Fair for Trade in Services, and the "Cantonese Businesses Go Global" Expo, where specialized legal teams provide on-site support.

Technology integration has been enhanced through the Guangdong Foreign-Related Legal Services Platform, which aggregates high-quality legal resources to enable precise matching of legal service supply and demand.

Experienced foreign-related legal professionals with global perspectives have been recommended to expert bodies and dispute resolution institutions under international economic and trade organizations. By the end of 2024, dozens of Guangdong legal experts had taken up prominent roles in international institutions such as the International Union of Notaries.