A few years ago, I went to Goroka, Papua New Guinea, to recover two Kamov Helicopters on behalf of a client/friend from Sakhalin Island, Russia (man, I loved writing that sentence!). I flew from Seattle to Honolulu, from Honolulu to Sydney, Australia, from Sydney to Cairns, from Cairns to Port Moresby, and from Port Moresby… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: January 2008
How To Fly Out Of (And Into) China On The Cheap
Posted in China TravelHighly informative post up on the always excllent Shangaiist blog, entitled, “Air Asia: Another way to get your ass out of China.” The post gives a great rundown on the various budget carriers operating in (or near Mainland China): Air Asia, Tiger Airways, Jetstar, Cebu Pacific, Oasis Hong Kong, and Spring Airlines, including a quick… Continue Reading
A China Inheritance Tax. Steve Dickinson On CCTV-9 Says “Please Don’t.”
Posted in Legal NewsCLB co-blogger was on CCTV’s Dialogue show last week discussing whether China is ready for an inheritance tax. The Moderator was Tian Wei and Steve was on there with David Lee, from the Beijing Dacheng Law Offices. The show was described as follows: With China’s rapid economic development, the wealth gap in the country is… Continue Reading
International Risk Analysis, China Style
Posted in China BusinessBrilliant post over at Paul Denlinger’s China Vortex blog, entitled, “Risk is in the Eye of the Beholder,” on how and why Chinese companies measure risk differently than do Western companies. I have often wondered about this, but without the business background even to know on what I was wondering. One of the things I… Continue Reading
Plane Goes Down. Blame China?
Posted in China BusinessIs it just the lawyer in me — perhaps too rigorously trained to deal in facts — or am I justified in being troubled by this post over at the usually superb The China Game? Midler may very well be right (these sorts of things do happen) in his assessment, but it just seems way… Continue Reading
Why Paying More Is Good China Business
Posted in China BusinessMy friend Chris Carr, dean of the CalPoly MBA program and the brains behind the International Business Tour blog has a very thoughtful post, entitled, “Will Paying More Change Behavior And Make Someone More Ethical?” Thoughtful, but wrong. The post centers on whether paying more gets you better performance and/or better ethics, and Chris pretty… Continue Reading
Shanghai Commuting As China Business Metaphor. Or, Trust Kent Kedl With Your Business But Not Your Life.
Posted in China BusinessHeard a great story on NPR’s Marketplace last night on commuting in Shanghai and how it “is kind of a metaphor for doing business there.” It is. As NPR reporter, Scott Tong, explains, China’s lack of commuter civility today can be explained by its history: SCOTT TONG: The morning starts out nicely enough. Get dropped… Continue Reading
Chinese Cultural Awareness Simplified: Don’t Be An Asshole
Posted in China BusinessI have written many times on how cultural awareness is a grossly overrated skill for doing business in China, but never quite so bluntly as my friend Stan Abrams does over at China Hearsay, in his post, entitled, “Cultural Awareness.” As you can see from my previous posts, (here, here, and here) I was essentially… Continue Reading
China Trademarks — Do You Feel Lucky? Do You? Part II
Posted in Legal NewsIn an earlier post, entitled, “Do You Feel Lucky? Do You?” I wrote about how Ferrari had just lost a ten year battle to prove its horse constituted a famous mark such that it did not need to register it in China to achieve trademark protection there. I made clear that the best way to… Continue Reading
China SMEs — Own If You Want To Own
Posted in China BusinessIn the song, “Positive Vibrations,” Bob Marley sang, “Live if you want to live.” On AmchamDaily’s blog, Jeremy Goldkorn says if you want to own something in China, you have to make sure you own it. Marley and Goldkorn both speak great truths. AmCham Daily is doing a series of posts on starting up and… Continue Reading
China Seeks To Whip Inflation Now
Posted in China BusinessChina Challenges has a nice quote up from an FT article regarding the likely futility of China’s governmental efforts to clamp down on inflation: The raft of price control edicts issued over the past week by Beijing in an effort to rein in inflation has carried a whiff of old-style central planning and prompted scepticism… Continue Reading
China M&A — The One Sentence Answer
Posted in Legal NewsTwo days ago, I did a post on a Steve Dickinson article in China International Business Magazine on mergers and acquisitions in China. My friend, Jeremy Gordon over at China Business Blog, has inadvertently summed up both the article and the blog post n his post, “Don’t Quote Me (On Winning Strategies).” In that post,… Continue Reading
Meet China’s New M&A Policies. Same As The Old Policies.
Posted in Legal NewsCo-blogger, Steve Dickinson, has a new article out in China International Business Magazine, entitled, “New M&A Law:No Major Changes,” Steve posits that for all the hype, China’s new mergers and acquisitions (M&A) law, set to go into effect on August 1, 2008, will, as a practical matter, leave things pretty much unchanged: Contrary to expectations,… Continue Reading
Stopping China Online Content Theft/Seattle Blawging
Posted in Legal NewsAt least half a dozen times, fellow China bloggers have written me, apoplectic, about someone stealing their online content. Each time, I offer to write a threatening attorney letter (for free) but tell them that may not be terribly effective. I then suggest they first very nicely ask the offending party to take down the… Continue Reading
Limits On China’s Soft Power: Booty Shaking
Posted in Recommended ReadingIn its post, “Hu Jintao Needs to ‘Get Retarded’” the always original Mutant Palm Blog convincingly argues how China’s plan to use its cultural industries to advance China’s soft power worldwide is doomed to failure. The post pulls the following quote from Hu Jintao’s call for developing China’s cultural industry: “[we must] create more excellent,… Continue Reading
China And The United States And The Balance Of Financial Terror
Posted in China BusinessBrilliant (word NOT used lightly) article, entitled, The $1.4 Trillion Question, by James Fallows over at The Atlantic Magazine (h/t to China Economic Review Blog) Thesis is that China has essentially been subsidizing the United States for a long time and the key questions are whether this will continue, for how long, and what mind… Continue Reading
Zhou Enlai 101
Posted in Recommended ReadingOne of my favorite blogs, Jottings From the Granite Studio, has a superb post up on Zhou Enlai, entitled, “This date in history: The Death of Zhou Enlai. Peking Duck rightly describes this post as “blogging at its very best” and additional kudos to the always formidable Danwei for spotting it first and for pulling… Continue Reading
Beijing Is Polluted
Posted in Recommended ReadingSince I had promised myself I would never devote a post to Beijing’s pollution, please consider this to be on government manipulation of statistics and the perpetual need to examine Chinese government reporting. The International Herald Tribune just did an article, entitled, “Air Quality Improvements in Beijing Challenged,” on a study claiming the sole basis… Continue Reading
China’s Class of ’77 — The Elite Of The Elite
Posted in Recommended ReadingFascinating NY Times article on China’s “class of ’77,” entitled, “1977 Exam Opened Escape Route Into China’s Elite.” Article is on the huge successes of those who passed China’s first nationwide university entrance exam since 1965 (h/t to my friend Chris Carr, over at the CalPolyMBA Blog). Check it out.
Building Workplace Trust In China — Be Nice
Posted in China BusinessInteresting article at knowledge@Wharton, entitled, “Building Workplace Trust in Some Cultures Blurs the Line Between Professional and Personal Life.” The article is on a study by Singapore Management University professor of Tan Hwee Hoon, and management professors S. Arzu Wasti and Selin Eser of Sabanci University in Turkey probing the impact “different cultures have on… Continue Reading
Inherent Limitations On Chinese Law: Poor People Need Not Apply.
Posted in Legal NewsAnd the sign said anybody caught trespassin’ would be shot on sight So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house, “Hey! What gives you the right?” “To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep mother nature in” “If God was here he’d tell you to your face, Man,… Continue Reading
Chinese Takeaway — Protection From Bad Product
Posted in Legal NewsJust read a clear and informative article on how to protect yourself from dangerous Chinese product. The article is by Hillel Parness and Derek Craig from the Lovells firm and it is entitled, “Chinese Takeaway.” The article starts out talking about the high costs of recalls and litigation and notes that in “most US jurisdictions,… Continue Reading
NPR On China’s New Labor Law — Low Tech Getting “Difficult”
Posted in Legal NewsJust found an interview National Public Radio did with co-blogger, Steve Dickinson, a few weeks ago on the impact of China’s new labor law. It is entitled, “More Security for Chinese Laborers” and the thrust of the story is that wage costs will be increasing in China when its new labor law kicks in on… Continue Reading
Who Needs International/Foreign Law? Not Us, We’re Americans.
Posted in Legal NewsThis post is on private, not public international law. That means it has little to nothing to do with such hot button issues as the United Nations, the Kyoto Protocol, the International Criminal Court. This post is on how American courts deal with business cases involving foreign parties and foreign or international law as that… Continue Reading
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