On the afternoon of November 17, 2025, a lecture themed "Risks and Paths: Identifying Legal Barriers and Safe Operating Methods for Chinese Enterprises Investing in Europe" was successfully held in Conference Room 434, Xingmin Building, Xianlin Campus, Nanjing Normal University. The lecture specially invited Mr. Gao Sen, the first Chinese lawyer practicing in corporate law and commercial law in Germany, as the keynote speaker. He is also the head and partner of the China Department of Hau King Law Firm in Germany. Professor Yan Lin from the School of Law, Nanjing Normal University, served as the host of the lecture. Students from all grades of the School of Law actively participated in the event, jointly learning and discussing legal issues related to Chinese enterprises investing in Europe.

At the beginning of the lecture, Associate Professor Yan Lin from the School of Law at Nanjing Normal University extended a warm welcome to lawyer Gao Sen for his visit and briefly introduced his academic achievements and professional experience. Lawyer Gao Sen first introduced the scale and business scope of Haojin Law Firm, emphasizing the firm's deep involvement in cross-border cooperation between Chinese and European enterprises. Then, starting from his personal growth and study experience in Germany, he elaborated on how to understand the underlying logic of the European legal system in a cross-cultural context, and further introduced the core topic of European investment restrictions on Chinese enterprises.
In the core topic explanation session, lawyer Gao Sen started from basic concepts and led the students to delve into the restrictions imposed by Europe on Chinese corporate investments. He pointed out that greenfield investments and mergers and acquisitions are the two main avenues for Chinese enterprises to enter the European market, and thus led to the topic of EU foreign investment reform. He mentioned that currently, 25 EU member states have established national investment restriction mechanisms, with only Croatia and Cyprus having not yet established relevant review mechanisms.
Immediately afterwards, when analyzing the restrictions on Chinese investment in Germany, lawyer Gao Sen provided an in-depth interpretation of the review standards and practical operations of German foreign trade law in key technology fields, combining specific cases. He pointed out that in recent years, the number of German review procedures has been on the rise. On the one hand, special laws are used to restrict investments in clearly defined key areas such as aerospace, semiconductors, and quantum technology; on the other hand, general laws are employed to impose constraints on cross-industry investments.
The entire lecture was rich in content and had a clear logical structure. It progressively revealed the legal challenges and response paths for Chinese enterprises investing in Europe, from investment review to compliant operations. The practical perspective of lawyer Gao Sen complemented the theoretical sublimation of Professor Yan Lin, providing a forward-looking and operational framework for the teachers and students present.