1. For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context
otherwise requires:
a) the term “China” means the People’s Republic of China, and
when used in a geographical sense, means all the territory of
the People’s Republic of China, including its territorial sea, in
so far as the Chinese laws relating to taxation apply, and any
area beyond its territorial sea, insofar as the People’s Repub-
lic of China has sovereign rights of exploration for and
exploitation of resources of the sea-bed and its sub-soil and
superjacent water resources in accordance with international
law and its internal law;
b) the term “Germany” means the Federal Republic of Germany,
and when used in a geographical sense, means the territory
of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the area of the
sea-bed, its sub-soil and the superjacent waters adjacent
to the territorial sea, in so far as the Federal Republic of
Germany may exercise sovereign rights and jurisdiction in
conformity with international law and its national legislation
for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and
managing the living and non-living natural resources;
c) the terms “a Contracting State” and “the other Contracting
State” mean the Federal Republic of Germany or China as
the context requires;
d) the term “person” includes an individual, a company and any
other body of persons;
e) the term “company” means any body corporate or any entity
that is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
f)
the terms “enterprise of a Contracting State” and “enterprise
of the other Contracting State” mean respectively an enter-
prise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an
enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting
State;
g) the term “international traffic” means any transport by a ship
or aircraft operated by an enterprise that has its place of
effective management in a Contracting State, except when
the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the
other Contracting State;
h) the term “national” means:
(i)
in respect of the Federal Republic of Germany,
any German within the meaning of the Basic Law for the
Federal Republic of Germany and any legal person, part-
nership and association deriving its status as such from
the laws in force in the Federal Republic of Germany;
(ii)
in respect of China,
any individual possessing the nationality of the People’s
Republic of China, and any legal person, partnership or
association deriving its status as such from the laws in
force in the People’s Republic of China;
i)
the term “competent authority” means:
(i)
in the case of China, the State Administration of Taxa-
tion or its authorized representative;
(ii)
in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, the
Federal Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has
delegated its powers.
2. As regards the application of the Agreement at any time by
a Contracting State, any term not defined therein shall, unless
the context otherwise requires, have the meaning which it has at
that time under the law of that State for the purposes of the taxes
to which the Agreement applies, any meaning under the appli-
cable tax laws of that State prevailing over a meaning given to
the term under other laws of that State.