On January 12, China Business Law Journal released its 2025-26 A-List: The Growth Drivers. Tian Yuan Partners Chai Jie, Chen Zhuo, Li Yixing, and Xu Tao were honored on the list for their superb professional skills and outstanding client reputation.

 

The A-List: The Growth drivers

Chai Jie

M&A

Energy and natural resources

since graduation, Mr. Chai Jie has been active on the front lines of international legal practice, specializing in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, greenfield development, M&A financing, and project financing. She provides comprehensive legal services to companies expanding overseas, EPC international projects, and domestic and international regulatory matters, possessing extensive international negotiation experience and outstanding cross-cultural communication skills. She also serves as the Vice Chairman of the Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions and Investment Law Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, is selected for the national pool of 1,000 international lawyers, and is a founding member of the Belt and Road Lawyers Alliance. She has received the "Outstanding Returned Overseas Lawyer of Beijing" award. In recent years, Attorney Chai has successfully completed several major transactions with global impact, including the bidding for the acquisition of Peruvian power distribution assets by Sempra Energy in the United States, the Three Gorges Group's Karot large-scale hydropower BOOT project in Pakistan , and the mandatory tender offer launched by Yangtze Power through its overseas subsidiary for the Peruvian listed company Luz del Sur. For over ten consecutive years, he has received the Outstanding Transaction Award from internationally renowned media outlets. Several of his projects have been selected as outstanding legal service cases under the "Belt and Road" initiative by the Legal Daily, and he won the 2022 Thomson Reuters ALB Energy and Resources Transaction Award and the inaugural Outstanding Transaction Award for Chinese Enterprises Going Global (Latin America) by Commercial Law. He specializes in designing transaction structures and investment pathways for large and complex projects, possessing extensive experience in investment, M&A, development, and construction in large-scale power, new energy, mining, natural resources, infrastructure, manufacturing, semiconductor, biomedicine, R&D centers, mining, social media, and other industries. He provides legal services to enterprises and financial institutions conducting overseas investment and financing under the "Belt and Road" Initiative, with projects spanning over thirty countries and regions in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East. It assists Chinese companies in dealing with and resolving cross-border compliance issues , overseas anti-monopoly investigations, US and EU national security reviews, export controls, and unilateral sanctions, effectively safeguarding the overseas interests of Chinese companies.

 

Chen Zhuo

Domestic Dispute Resolution

Chen Zhuo is a partner in the Dispute Resolution Department of Tian Yuan Law Firm. She graduated from Peking University Law School in 2007 and joined Beijing Tian Yuan Law Firm that same year, becoming a partner in 2015. Attorney Chen focuses on civil and commercial litigation and arbitration, with particular expertise in financial asset management, real estate, investment and M&A, state-owned property transactions, government and compliance disputes, and has over 18 years of experience.

Chen Zhuo possesses extensive experience representing clients in major, complex, and difficult cases at the Supreme People's Court, provincial high people's courts, and renowned domestic arbitration institutions such as the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission and the Beijing Arbitration Commission. He has also served as a Chinese law expert witness on numerous occasions, providing opinions on Chinese law in cases heard by the High Court of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, with the total amount involved in these cases reaching hundreds of billions of yuan. Chen Zhuo's main clients include government ministries, large state-owned enterprises, listed companies, and high-net-worth entrepreneurs and executives.

 

Li Yixing

M&A

Li Yixing graduated from Peking University Law School in 2003 with a Bachelor of Laws degree and a Bachelor of Economics degree. For over 20 years, Attorney Li has focused on capital markets and securities, mergers and acquisitions, private equity investment, and corporate compliance, becoming an expert lawyer in these fields. She also possesses extensive practical experience in asset management and family wealth succession.

"Cherishing every entrustment from clients" is a professional principle that Li Yixing has long adhered to. With a deeply ingrained client-first philosophy, Attorney Li consistently strives to maximize clients' interests through a rigorous attitude, superb professional skills, and tireless efforts. In the eyes of her clients, Attorney Li is not only an excellent lawyer but also a trustworthy friend. Client testimonials: "Attorney Li has cultivated deep expertise in the capital markets for many years, possessing extremely comprehensive and practical professional knowledge. He excels at 'tailor-making' highly practical and reasonable legal advice for clients. Attorney Li possesses the insight unique to senior lawyers; faced with complex legal issues, she can always quickly grasp the core of the problem and propose precise and effective legal strategies. Furthermore, Attorney Li's dedication and efficiency are also impressive; for clients' urgent business needs, she can always quickly overcome difficulties and resolve them promptly, providing clients with solid legal protection."

 

Xu Tao

M&A

Xu Tao is a partner at Tian Yuan Law Firm. His main practice areas are capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, equity investment, and general corporate matters. Xu Tao is considered one of the most outstanding new generation lawyers in China's capital markets and M&A field. He has successfully provided legal services for dozens of domestic companies' securities issuance and M&A restructuring projects, and is particularly skilled in handling complex equity changes and M&A restructurings involving listed companies. Furthermore, Xu Tao is a top expert in corporate control battles, having provided legal services for control battles, acquisitions, and anti-takeover efforts for more than a dozen A-share listed companies.

Xu Tao has been nominated as "Young Lawyer of the Year" by ALB, named one of Asia's "40 Under 40 Legal Elites" by LexisNexis, and consistently ranked among "The A-List Growth Drivers" by CBLJ for several years. He is also one of the few Chinese commercial lawyers to be recommended by authoritative domestic and international legal rating agencies such as Chambers, The Legal 500, asialaw Profiles, and LegalOne for many consecutive years. Furthermore, in 2024, Xu Tao was awarded the title of "M&A Lawyer of the Year" by the All-China Federation of M&A Associations.