Deemed Abandonment of an Arbitration Agreement
If a disputing party files a lawsuit with a people’s court without declaring the existence of an arbitration agreement and the case is admitted, the other disputing party must submit the arbitration agreement before the first hearing of the court and request that the case be dismissed. The people's court shall dismiss the case unless the arbitration agreement is invalid. But if the other party fails to challenge the admission of the case before the first hearing, his failure will be deemed as an abandonment of the arbitration agreement, in which case the court will proceed with the hearing.
Robert Zhang 
Steve Li 