China's Joint Venture Jeopardy
The Wall Street Journal just ran an article I wrote, entitled, "Joint Venture Jeopardy". It is on the Danone-Wahaha dispute and it gives a few basics for avoiding joint venture problems. For those of you coming here for the first time from that article, I say welcome.
The easiest way to find us again is to go to www.chinalawblog.com. If you had to use a proxy in China to get here, it is because all Typepad blogs are being blocked these days by the Great Firewall.
If you are interested in reading more on the Danone-Wahaha dispute, check out these previous posts:
- "Danone v. Wahaha -- Which Of Us Is The Most China Rookie?"
- "China Litigation: You Want Government With That?"
- "Danone and China's Wahaha: A Lecture on How (Not) to Make Allies Enemies"
- "New York Times And Steve Dickinson On The Danone Wahaha China Dispute And On Avoiding Your Own"
For those interested in reading more on Chinese joint ventures and wholly foreign owned enterprises (WFOEs), check out the following:
- "The Basics Of Getting Your Business Into China By WFOE/WOFE"
- "WFOE v. JV"
- "Chinese Company Formation -- Forming a Wholly Foreign Owned Entity (WFOE) in China"
- "Chinese Company Formation, Part II -- WFOE Minimum Capital Requirements"
- "China -- Damn The Joint Venture"
- "China Company Formation Law Is Clear -- WFOEs Are Easy"
- "Beware The China Joint Venture"
- "Beware The China Joint Venture, But Do Not Ignore It Completely"
Oh, and feel free to stay a while.
http://www.chinalawblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/2000
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Comments
Congratulations on a great article. I feel like I knew you and this blog back when....
Posted by: James | June 24, 2007 5:51 PM
James --
Thanks. It's because you have.
Posted by: China Law Blog | June 24, 2007 5:53 PM
not all typepad blogs. dilbertblog is coming in just fine. seems the nanny also needs her daily fix of office humor.
Posted by: Jim | June 24, 2007 6:58 PM
Jim --
Did not know that as I keep hearing of the China ones being down. Gosh, in some ways Dilbert can be pretty subversive.
Posted by: China Law Blog | June 24, 2007 10:00 PM
I guess the WSJ is getting its licks in on China before Darth Murcdoch takes over and replaces the editorial staff with patriotic chinese.
Posted by: nanheyangrouchuan | June 25, 2007 1:02 PM
Great article that underscores the need for MNCs to have executives on the ground who understand how to navigate the Chinese markets. It is shocking the Danone does not appear to have anyone in the JV.
We almost always recommend against JVs whenever possible to our clients but, if you do decide to do one, I agree with Dan about documenting everything and have your own team on the ground. My personal recommendation -- make sure the CFO comes from your side.
Posted by: Shaun Rein | June 25, 2007 2:13 PM
nh --
What is happening, I find myself agreeing with you once again.
Posted by: China Law Blog | June 25, 2007 7:16 PM
Shaun --
I'm trying to catch up with you with your weekly Business Week articles.
I agree with all of your points.
Posted by: China Law Blog | June 25, 2007 7:16 PM
Dan:
I'm in your head ;-)
Posted by: nanheyangrouchuan | June 27, 2007 11:20 PM