Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the history of China's legislation and judicial practice on the party autonomy principle in contractual choice of law. It examines how the relevant legal rules have evolved and how they have been applied in people's courts in China. It demonstrates that, although the private international law legislation and judicial practice in China has progressed greatly since 1978, most of the legal rules are abstract. They create ambiguities in several respects concerning the practical operation of the party autonomy principle.