Standing at the intersection of the conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan, 2025 outlines the future with the brush of the rule of law. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China set the tone for the next five years, the official implementation of the Private Economy Promotion Law has given private enterprises a "reassurance pill", and the Public Security Administration Punishment Law has undergone its first major revision in nearly 20 years.

Legal Provisions：Article 19: Construction projects shall be awarded through bidding in accordance with law, and direct contracting may be adopted for those not suitable for bidding.

Legal Provisions: Article 24 Where several construction contracts entered into by the parties in respect of the same construction project are all invalid, but the quality of the construction project is up to standard, if one party requests compensation to the contractor by converting the price with reference to the agreement on project price in the actually performed contract, the people's court shall support such request.

Affiliated operation is common in industries such as construction engineering and transportation. Usually, individuals or entities without corresponding qualifications engage in business activities by borrowing the name of the affiliated party.

Affiliation is a relatively common phenomenon in the construction industry. Affiliation behaviors disrupt the normal order of the construction market, and the most crucial issue that easily triggers disputes among them is the problem of project quality. Once quality problems occur, how should the liability be borne? This is not only related to the healthy development of the construction industry but also closely linked to the safety of people's lives and property.

Article 43 of the "Judicial Interpretation (I) on Construction Engineering Contracts" stipulates: "Where an actual constructor initiates a lawsuit against the subcontractor or illegal subcontractor, the people's court shall accept the case in accordance with the law.

From a legal perspective, in accordance with the provisions on the relativity of contracts in the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, a legally established contract is only legally binding on the parties thereto. When an affiliate enters into a contract with a counterparty in their own name, the parties to the contract are clearly the affiliate and the counterparty.

In summary, there are many controversies and uncertainties in legal provisions and judicial practice regarding whether the affiliated person can claim the project price from the employer and whether they have the priority right to be compensated for the construction project price when the employer knows that the affiliated person is borrowing qualifications.

In the field of construction engineering, the phenomenon of affiliation is not uncommon, and the resulting legal disputes are also increasing. Among them, whether the affiliated person can claim the project price from the affiliated person based on Article 43 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of Law in the Trial of Construction Contract Disputes (1) (hereinafter referred to as the "Judicial Interpretation of Construction Engineering (1)") frequently occurs in practice.

In the field of construction engineering, affiliation refers to the act where an actual constructor without qualifications borrows the name of a qualified construction enterprise, or a construction enterprise with low qualifications borrows the name of an enterprise with high qualifications to undertake engineering projects.

When the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) deployed to "comprehensively deepen reform on the track of the rule of law", and when the draft Private Economy Promotion Law reassured 180 million market entities, 2024 saw high-quality development safeguarded by the power of the rule of law.

In the vibrant bustle of Zibo's barbecue stalls lies the legal code of urban governance; in the collapse of telecom fraud gangs in northern Myanmar, the resolve to crack down on cross-border crimes through the rule of law is demonstrated.