Foreign law firms can provide legal services only in the form of representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Haikou, Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo, Yantai, Tianjin, Suzhou, Xiamen, Zhuhai,Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenyang and Kunming only.
Representative offices can engage in profit-making activities. Representative offices in China shall be no less than the number established upon the date of accession. A foreign law firm can only establish one representative office in China. The above-mentioned geographic and quantitative limitations will be eliminated within one year after China's accession to the WTO. Business scope of foreign representative offices is only as follows:
（a） to provide clients with consultancy on the legislation of the country/region where the lawyers of the law firm are permitted to engage in lawyer's professional work, and on international conventions and practices;
（b） to handle, when entrusted by clients or Chinese law firms, legal affairs of the country/region where the lawyers of the law firm are permitted to engage in lawyer's professional work;
（c） to entrust, on behalf of foreign clients, Chinese law firms to deal with the Chinese legal affairs;
（d） to enter into contracts to maintain long-term entrustment relations with Chinese law firms for legal affairs;
（e） to provide information on the impact of the Chinese legal environment. Entrustment allows the foreign representative office to directly instruct lawyers in the entrusted Chinese law firm, as agreed between both parties.
The representatives of a foreign law firm shall be practitioner lawyers who are members of the bar or law society in a WTO member and have practiced for no less than two years outside of China. The Chief representative shall be a partner or equivalent （e.g., member of a law firm of a limited liability corporation） of a law firm of a WTO member and have practiced for no less than three years.