Chinese legal and medical text is a field where linguistic knowledge without professional knowledge is dangerous. China's Civil Code, in force since January 2021, combines the concepts of continental law with Chinese institutional logic; Chinese medical documentation has the parallel systems of Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine coexisting even in one hospital. This page describes how we translate contracts, court and arbitration documents, corporate papers and medical records in the Chinese-Georgian pair, which concepts require explanation rather than translation, and who checks the result.
Chinese law for a Georgian lawyer: what is similar and what is not
Chinese private law is built on the German and Japanese models, and this is good news for a Georgian lawyer: the basic structure of contract, obligation, property and tort resembles the structure of the Georgian Civil Code, and at this level translation is relatively direct. The differences start at the institutional and procedural level. The "legal representative" of a Chinese company acts by force of law and bears personal liability, which differs from the status of a Georgian director; the "business scope" in the business licence limits the company's legal capacity, which does not exist in Georgian law; the company seal carries more legal force than a signature.
A separate topic is Chinese arbitration. Chinese contractors and investors often specify in contracts the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) or the arbitration centres of Shanghai and Shenzhen. The translation of the arbitration clause must be legally flawless in both languages, because it is precisely this article that determines where and under which rules the dispute will be resolved. Our legal translators know the terminology of Chinese arbitration rules and translate the clause in both languages so that it remains enforceable.
Contracts with a Chinese partner
The most common types of Chinese-Georgian commercial contracts:
- Sale and supply contracts in the trade of wine, agricultural products and cars
- Construction and engineering contracts (often on the FIDIC model, with Chinese adaptation) for infrastructure projects
- Joint venture and investment agreements in free industrial zones
- Distribution and agency contracts for entering the Chinese market
- Licence and technology transfer agreements
- Employment contracts for Chinese and Georgian employees in joint projects
The structure of a Chinese contract differs from a Georgian one: it is often shorter, begins with an article of general principles and moves the details into annexes, while the "friendly negotiation" (友好协商) article almost always precedes the dispute resolution article. The Georgian structure, on the contrary, demands a detailed main text. In a two-column contract this difference must be decided in advance: which party's structure is the base, and the numbering of articles is synchronous in both columns. The language prevalence article, which establishes which text prevails in case of dispute, is translated in both languages with special care.
Corporate and registration documents
Registration of Chinese investment in Georgia requires a Georgian translation of the Chinese company's business licence (营业执照), articles of association (公司章程), founders' decision and power of attorney, with an apostille and notarisation. Chinese articles of association differ from Georgian ones both structurally and in content: they often contain provisions on managing the company seal, changing the legal representative and the party organisation, which have no analogue in Georgian law and which we render unchanged in the translation, with an explanation. In the opposite direction the Georgian extract from the register of entrepreneurs and articles of association are translated into Chinese for registering a representative office in China or opening an account at a Chinese bank, and here the Georgian "director", "partner" and "share" must be written in Chinese corporate terminology so that the Chinese authority understands the structure at one reading.
Court and procedural documents
Chinese court judgments (判决书), arbitral awards (裁决书) and procedural documents are translated for recognition and enforcement in Georgia, and Georgian court documents in China for the same purpose. The structure of a Chinese judgment is recognisable to a Georgian lawyer, but the terminology is specific: the "people's court" (人民法院) at various levels, the "collegial panel", the "case number" with special coding, "entry into legal force" under the deadlines of the Chinese procedural code. The last one is decisive for recognition, and in the translation we render it with the exact term of Georgian procedural law. Chinese evidence, correspondence, invoices, technical reports, is submitted to a Georgian court with a notarised translation, and its volume is often hundreds of pages; in such cases we establish together with the client which document is essential and plan the deadlines by priority.
Intellectual property in China
Registration of Georgian brands in China, including wine, water, cuisine and tourism brands, is a topical subject of recent years, partly because the Chinese "first to file" principle makes local registration of foreign brands by third parties possible. At the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) the application is filled in Chinese, with the Chinese official list of classes of goods, while the Chinese version of the brand (phonetic, semantic or combined) is registered separately. The documents of this process, the application, the power of attorney for the Chinese representative, the documents confirming priority, are rendered by our legal translators in Chinese IP terminology, while the choice of the brand's Chinese name is handled separately within marketing localisation.
Medical translation: for whom and for what
The need for Chinese-language medical translation comes from several groups. Chinese citizens in Georgia, students, contractors' employees, members of Georgian-Chinese families, are treated at Georgian clinics and need their Chinese medical history for a Georgian doctor, and a Georgian discharge summary to continue treatment in China or for an insurance company. Georgian specialists who work in China submit a physical examination form for a work permit. Medical tourism grows in both directions: Chinese patients at Georgian clinics, Georgian patients at China's oncology and traditional medicine centres. Added to this are the registration documents of pharmaceuticals and medical devices for the Chinese regulator (NMPA) and the Georgian one.
The structure of Chinese medical documents
A Chinese hospital discharge summary (出院小结) resembles the structure of a Georgian discharge summary: reason for admission, history, tests, diagnosis, treatment, recommendations. The diagnosis certificate (诊断证明) is a separate, short document with the hospital's seal, often issued for an employer or an insurer. Laboratory test sheets (化验单) are standardised and use international units, though the reference ranges follow the practice of Chinese laboratories and remain unchanged in the translation. Drug names are often Chinese trade brands that are not sold in Georgia; in the translation we keep the brand and add the international non-proprietary name in brackets.
Traditional Chinese medicine in Georgian translation
Part of Chinese medical documents contains diagnoses and prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine (中医), sometimes in parallel with a Western diagnosis. Concepts such as 气 (qi), 阴阳 (yin and yang), 脾虚 (spleen deficiency in the traditional sense) find no equivalent in Western medicine, and "translating" them with a Western term is a mistake. Our approach is transcription with explanation: we render the term phonetically in Georgian, indicate the Chinese characters in brackets and a short explanation, so that the Georgian doctor understands that this is a traditional, not a clinical diagnosis. Prescriptions of herbal preparations are checked by Latin botanical names.
Documents of a doctor's qualification
Chinese doctors working in Georgia and Georgian doctors in China are still rare, but the translation of medical education documents is already regular: Georgians who graduated from Chinese medical universities, Chinese students on Georgian medical programmes, joint research projects. A Chinese medical diploma, degree certificate and physician's licence (医师资格证书 and 医师执业证书, two separate documents whose difference needs explanation for a Georgian recipient) are translated into Georgian for recognition. A Georgian medical diploma and curriculum are translated into Chinese for enrolment on a master's or doctoral programme at a Chinese university. In both directions the names of subjects must be translated identically in all of the client's documents.
Labour law in joint projects
The work of Chinese contractors in Georgia creates a two-way flow of labour documents: employment contracts of Chinese workers for the Georgian labour inspectorate and residence permit, contracts of Georgian workers for the Chinese parent company's internal audit, safety instructions in both languages, work regulations, disciplinary and workplace injury reports. Concepts of Chinese labour law, the "Labour Contract Law", the "probation period", "economic compensation" upon termination of employment, partly match the concepts of the Georgian Labour Code and partly do not, and the translation must show both parties exactly which country's norm applies in a specific article. Workplace injury documents are medical and legal at the same time, and their translation is checked by both types of editor.
Real estate and investment
The interest of Chinese investors in Georgian real estate and free industrial zones requires a Chinese translation of sale contracts, Public Registry extracts, construction permits and lease contracts, while the structure of Chinese investment (a holding in Hong Kong, an operating company in Georgia) requires a Georgian translation of Hong Kong and mainland corporate documents. The concepts of the Georgian Public Registry extract, "title document", "cadastral code", "mortgage", must be written in the terminology of Chinese real estate registration so that the Chinese investor, who is used to the system of land use rights on state-owned land, correctly understands the logic of Georgian private property. This is one of those cases where the translation often needs an explanatory note more than the text itself.
Registration of pharmaceuticals and medical devices
The entry of Georgian pharmaceutical products and medical devices into the Chinese market and the registration of Chinese products in Georgia create a flow of specialised medical translation: registration dossier, clinical trial reports, package inserts (说明书), quality certificates, manufacturing licences. The Chinese regulator (NMPA) requires documents in Chinese, with its own terminological standards, and a translation that does not follow this standard is returned for a formal reason. In such projects we work with a glossary approved by the client, the official terminology of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and an editor with a pharmaceutical education. The translation of the package insert must meet a double standard: precise for the regulator and understandable for the patient.
Insurance cases between two countries
Reimbursement of a Chinese patient's treatment costs in Georgia by a Chinese insurance company, or reimbursement of a Georgian patient's treatment in China by Georgian insurance, requires a joint package of medical and financial documents: discharge summary, invoices, payment receipts, diagnosis certificate, doctor's prescription. The insurance company looks in the translation for justification of the necessity of treatment, so the translation of the discharge summary and the invoice must correspond to each other exactly: every procedure that is in the invoice must also appear in the discharge summary under the same name. Chinese medical invoices (发票) are standardised and contain tax codes, which we keep unchanged in the translation; when translating Georgian invoices into Chinese we take the requirements of Chinese insurance companies into account.
Who translates and who checks
Chinese legal texts are translated by translators who have a legal education or many years of practice in Chinese law, with experience of studying or working in China. A contract translated from Georgian into Chinese is checked by a native Chinese legal editor. A medical translation is compared with clinical logic by an editor with a medical education: does the diagnosis match the treatment, are the doses and units correct, are Western and traditional diagnoses correctly separated. In both types of translation numbers are checked separately with the 万 and 亿 system in mind, as are dates, names and seals.
Technical preparation of two-column documents
A Chinese-Georgian bilingual contract is a separate technical task: the Chinese text is, as a rule, shorter than the Georgian (character writing is compact), and aligning the paragraphs in parallel columns requires manual formatting. The numbering of articles is synchronous in both columns, annexes are prepared in both languages with an identical structure, and the signature block takes Chinese practice into account: the place for the seal, the legal representative's signature, the date in Chinese format. Terminological consistency in both columns is checked automatically: if the Georgian says "supplier", the Chinese must have the same term everywhere. The finished document is handed over in an editable and signable format, with or without notarisation.
Confidentiality and deadlines
Legal and medical documents are processed within a confidentiality agreement; medical data are accessible only to the translator and editor working on the specific document. A standard medical certificate or a short contract is ready in one working day, express in 1-2 hours; a multi-page contract, a court case, a registration dossier or a full medical history with an individual deadline and terminology base. Notarisation and apostille are available for both types of document.
Frequently asked questions
The Chinese contract says that in case of dispute the Chinese text prevails. What should I consider?
This means that the accuracy of the Chinese version is decisive for you. Before signing you must have an exact Georgian translation of the Chinese text, and if you are preparing the contract, the Chinese version must be checked by a native Chinese legal editor.
The Chinese articles of association contain an article on the party organisation. Is this translated into Georgian?
Yes, unchanged. It is a standard element of Chinese corporate law that has no Georgian analogue; we keep it in the translation and add a short explanation.
What does a CIETAC arbitration clause mean in Georgian?
That the dispute will be resolved at the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, under its rules. The translation of the clause must be legally exact in both languages so that it remains enforceable.
The Chinese discharge summary also contains a traditional medicine diagnosis. How is it translated?
Traditional concepts are rendered by transcription and explanation, with the characters indicated, and are unambiguously separated from the Western clinical diagnosis. Herbal preparations are checked by Latin botanical names.
How is the name of a Chinese drug written in Georgian?
We keep the brand and add the international non-proprietary name in brackets, so that the Georgian doctor recognises the drug.
A physician's licence in China is two documents. Which one do I need?
Usually both: the qualification certificate confirms passing the exam, the practice certificate the right to work at a specific institution. In the translation we separate and explain both.
What must be translated for registering a brand in China?
The application, the description of classes of goods by the Chinese official list, the power of attorney for the Chinese representative and, when needed, priority documents. The Chinese version of the brand is handled separately.
A Chinese insurance company asks for reimbursement documents for treatment in Georgia. What do I translate?
The discharge summary, diagnosis certificate, invoices and payment receipts, with unified terminology, so that every procedure appears identically in the invoice and the discharge summary. For the Chinese side notarisation and an apostille are often needed as well.
The evidence in the court case is hundreds of pages. Must everything be translated?
Together with the client and their lawyer we establish which document is essential and plan by priority. Often part of the full package is prepared as an informational translation and the essential part as a notarised one.