The passing of the Contract Law ended the confusion brought about by three separate pieces of legislation - the Economic Contract Law, the Foreign-related Economic Contract Law and the Technology Contract Law. The 1999 law aimed to build a single open marketplace, provide a unified and complete legal basis for economic exchanges, and to apply the rule of law in a socialist economy. The Contract Law takes into consideration both efficiency and social justice, maintains the security of market exchanges, reflects the objective requirements of market exchanges and ensures the healthy development of China’s socialist market economy.

The promulgation of the Contract Law was a milestone in China’s contract legislation, as it included detailed rules covering market activities, and so protected the interests of parties to contracts and helped promote the rapid development of China’s market economy.