China and Extraterritoriality Through the Lens of Intellectual Property

China's role in contemporary geopolitics has been much mused upon in security scholarship. Less attention has been given to soft (and often hard) power in exercises of extraterritorial legal authority, and to the global mobility this lends a state's legal architecture. Many states the world over exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction for a plethora of reasons: legal obligation, moral obligation and the practical realities of cross-border crime, but also advancing unilateral foreign policy. China is not alone in doing so. However, to understand China's place in geopolitics, we should also understand this important aspect of its legal system. The first part of this article introduces China's approach to extraterritorial jurisdiction. The second part considers the politics of intellectual property rights as an example of expansive extraterritorial jurisdiction.