ancient india and china represent distinct traditions of law, and have historically had independent schools of legal theory and practice. the "arthashastra", probably compiled around 100 ad (although it contains older material), and the "manusmriti" (c. 100–300 ad) were foundational treatises in india, and comprise texts considered authoritative legal guidance. manu's central philosophy was tolerance and pluralism, and was cited across southeast asia. during the muslim conquests in the indian subcontinent, sharia was established by the muslim sultanates and empires, most notably mughal empire's fatawa-e-alamgiri, compiled by emperor aurangzeb and various scholars of islam. after british colonialism, the hindu tradition, along with islamic law, was supplanted by the common law when india became part of the british empire. malaysia, brunei, singapore and hong kong also adopted the common law. the eastern asia legal tradition reflects a unique blend of secular and religious influences. japan was the first country to begin modernising its legal system along western lines, by importing parts of the french, but mostly the german civil code. this partly reflected germany's status as a rising power in the late 19th century. similarly, traditional chinese law gave way to westernisation towards the final years of the qing dynasty in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the japanese model of german law. today taiwanese law retains the closest affinity to the codifications from that period, because of the split between chiang kai-shek's nationalists, who fled there, and mao zedong's communists who won control of the mainland in 1949. the current legal infrastructure in the people's republic of china was heavily influenced by soviet socialist law, which essentially inflates administrative law at the expense of private law rights. due to rapid industrialisation, today china is undergoing a process of reform, at least in terms of economic, if not social and political, rights. a new contract code in 1999 represented a move away from administrative domination. furthermore, after negotiations lasting fifteen years, in 2001 china joined the world trade organization.