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.
de-china-2015-base | BGBl. 2015 II S. 1647 | Signed: 2014-03-28 | Gazette publication: 2015-12-29
Source form
official-publication PDF with native text layer; reader is a machine transcription
Source scope
original implementing law, bilingual base treaty and accompanying protocol; not a current consolidated text
Retrieved
2026-09-30
Text and language scope
This source supplies German and English versions. The signing clause also identifies Chinese as authentic; that third version is NOT present in this reader. Unreviewed coordinate-based machine transcription of this original source edition only. Printed line breaks, hyphens and uncertain token spacing are retained, not silently corrected. Treaty preamble, closing formula, protocol and shared signatures are separate retained assets, not part of the last article. Full supplements: /review/de-china-2015-base/. PDF page links identify pages, not verified paragraph correspondence.
Review status
Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed.
Currentness
Original source edition; not a verified current-law consolidation. Unknown. No current-law consolidation, effective-period determination, MLI application, or complete amendment-chain verification has been performed. Original publication year is not a current applicability date. Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Protocols and later instruments
The protocol printed with this agreement is separately preserved in source supplements; it has not been merged into treaty articles. Subsequent protocols, amendments, MLI effects, replacements and suspensions are unresolved. This is not a consolidated current-law instrument. Source-triage warnings: Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Text language and status
en · authentic-language-transcription · machine-transcription
BGBl. 2015 II S. 1647 | de-china-2015-base | de-china-2015-base | BGBl. 2015 II S. 1647 | Signed: 2014-03-28 | Gazette publication: 2015-12-29 | Article 3 | en | Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed. | /library/treaties/de-china-2015-base/en/articles/article-3/
Source, edition and limits
Source edition
de-china-2015-base | BGBl. 2015 II S. 1647 | Signed: 2014-03-28 | Gazette publication: 2015-12-29
Source form
official-publication PDF with native text layer; reader is a machine transcription
Source scope
original implementing law, bilingual base treaty and accompanying protocol; not a current consolidated text
Retrieved
2026-09-30
Text and language scope
This source supplies German and English versions. The signing clause also identifies Chinese as authentic; that third version is NOT present in this reader. Unreviewed coordinate-based machine transcription of this original source edition only. Printed line breaks, hyphens and uncertain token spacing are retained, not silently corrected. Treaty preamble, closing formula, protocol and shared signatures are separate retained assets, not part of the last article. Full supplements: /review/de-china-2015-base/. PDF page links identify pages, not verified paragraph correspondence.
Review status
Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed.
Currentness
Original source edition; not a verified current-law consolidation. Unknown. No current-law consolidation, effective-period determination, MLI application, or complete amendment-chain verification has been performed. Original publication year is not a current applicability date. Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Protocols and later instruments
The protocol printed with this agreement is separately preserved in source supplements; it has not been merged into treaty articles. Subsequent protocols, amendments, MLI effects, replacements and suspensions are unresolved. This is not a consolidated current-law instrument. Source-triage warnings: Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Text language and status
en · authentic-language-transcription · machine-transcription