On September 26, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") issued the Circular on Adjusting the Criteria for the Jurisdiction of Intermediate People's Courts over Civil Cases of First Instance (the "Circular"), effective from October 1, 2021.

The Circular makes clear: (1) in the event that the domiciles of both parties are or are not within the provincial-level jurisdiction where the accepting court is located, the intermediate people's court will have jurisdiction over the first-instance civil cases with the amount of subject matter of action of not less than CNY500 million; (2) in the event that the domicile of either of the parties is not within the provincial-level jurisdiction where the accepting court is located, the intermediate people's court will have jurisdiction over the first-instance civil cases with the amount of subject matter of action of not less than CNY100 million; (3) theaters' military courts and the military court directly under the People's Liberation Army will have jurisdiction over the first-instance civil cases with the amount of subject matter of action of not less than CNY100 million; (4) Cases of new types, complicated cases, or cases with guiding significance in universal application of law may be tried by the people's court at a higher level in accordance with Article 38 of the Civil Procedure Law, or by the people's court at a lower level for upon request and approval.

(Source: Supreme People’s Court)