When Two People Sign the Same Contract but Mean Two Different Things

When two businessmen signed a Mandarin contract without lawyers, they thought “equity” meant land. The Court of Appeal in Sui v Jiang (2021) showed why translation gaps can turn million-dollar ventures into years of litigation. The Court reaffirmed that commercial certainty depends not on language, but on the law’s view of intention — and how fairness survives imperfect words.