How Should WeChat and Email Evidence Be Preserved for a China Contract Dispute?

1. Direct answer: the messages may be evidence, but a screenshot is not the end of the exercise

Article 14 of the Supreme People's Court Provisions on Evidence in Civil Proceedings identifies email, instant messaging, group communications, registration and authentication data, electronic transaction records, communications records and login logs as electronic data. Their digital form is not a reason for exclusion, but the party relying on them must still establish source, authenticity, relevance and the proposition proved.

In a cross-border contract case, a court is unlikely to examine an isolated promise to refund without asking who sent it, which order it concerned, whether conditions followed, whether attachments match the native files and whether payment, delivery, inspection and demand records tell the same story.

2. Preserve the four facts that determine evidential weight

Content and identity must be proved together. A profile image, English nickname or company email suffix is a lead, not conclusive proof that the user could admit a debt, vary a contract or settle for the company. Preserve account ownership, authority, continuity and corroboration as distinct questions.

• Account ownership: mobile number, corporate domain, verified profile, business card, signature block and consistent historic use
• Authority: involvement in contracting and performance, public role and whether the statement exceeded ordinary operating authority
• Complete context: the question, condition, attachment, retraction and later performance surrounding the relied-on statement
• Corroboration: orders, invoices, bank records, logistics, inspection, minutes and system logs supporting the same fact

3. Preserve by evidential purpose, not merely by filename

Article 15 generally requires the original electronic data, while treating a creator's matching copy or a printout or other readable output taken directly from the data as an original. In practice, keep both the native environment and a working copy: the device, mailbox or server preserves provenance; exports and printouts support review, translation and indexed filing.

Do not delete apparently irrelevant messages, retype content, overwrite files or retain only selected screenshots to make the bundle tidy. Record the export date, operator, device, software version and path and, where appropriate, a hash. Give counsel a read-only working copy and assess whether continued use of the original device could overwrite data.

• Contracting party: account profile, corporate domain, signature, registered name and historic communications
• Variation: complete thread, native attachment, transmission time, response and subsequent performance
• Breach and loss: demands, admissions, delivery or acceptance, cover purchase, storage, testing and payment
• Authenticity: native device, platform export, backup, login information and records from independent systems

4. Notarisation and blockchain may assist, but cannot cure a defect before preservation

A notary may record the time, device interface and collection process. A trusted timestamp or blockchain may support an argument that data did not change after a point in time. Rules 16 to 18 of the SPC Online Litigation Rules nevertheless distinguish integrity after data is put on-chain from authenticity before that event. Uploading a cropped screenshot does not prove the missing context or account owner.

Whether to use notarisation, expert evidence or court preservation depends on deletion risk, control of the data, value and the anticipated challenge. If platform retention is expiring, an employee is leaving, a device will be reset or the critical record is controlled by an opponent or platform, consider investigation or preservation before the evidence deadline rather than after the account disappears.

5. Overseas material raises translation, formality and compliance questions

Foreign-language documents and explanatory material filed in a PRC court require a Chinese translation. Preserve account names, dates, currency, attachment titles and technical fields consistently and explain abbreviations that do not translate directly. Overseas public documents and evidence concerning status may require notarisation, an apostille or another treaty procedure. Ordinary commercial email should not automatically be treated as a foreign public document; classify the evidence first.

Collection must also be lawful and proportionate. Do not break into an opponent's account, obtain passwords by deception, remotely access a former employee's device or export an entire customer or employee database. Define the proposition to prove, then limit custodians, accounts, dates and fields while documenting authority and handovers.

6. A common failure path: the message is genuine but does not prove the defendant's liability

Assume an overseas buyer retains a full WeChat thread and native phone showing a Chinese supplier's sales manager saying that a refund will be made next week. The message may be genuine. But if payment went to another company, the contract names an affiliate and the sales manager lacked authority to admit a debt for the recipient, the message may still fail to prove that the sued entity owes the refund. Entity, funds-flow and authority evidence—not more screenshots of the same exchange—close that gap. This is a hypothetical illustration only.

If the contract, orders, recipient account, invoices, shipping entity, corporate email and partial refund all point to the same company, the message has materially stronger corroboration. Electronic evidence gains value through connections between records, not dramatic wording in one record.

7. A seven-day preservation sequence

Preserve irreplaceable data first, create working copies second, and then decide whether formal notarisation, expert review or court measures are proportionate. Contract notice periods, limitation and platform retention may require a shorter timetable.

• Day 0: suspend deletion, device resets and account closure; issue a focused preservation notice
• Days 1–2: identify the legal entities, key accounts, devices, administrators and countries where data is held
• Days 2–3: export complete chats, emails with headers, native attachments and platform transactions
• Days 3–4: map each proposition to its source, custodian and corroborating record
• Days 4–5: test authority, payments, performance, loss and asset evidence for entity or timing gaps
• Days 5–6: assess notarisation, expert analysis, court investigation or evidence preservation
• Day 7: complete the read-only bundle, Chinese translation plan and litigation or arbitration timetable