Co-blogger Steve Dickinson recently wrote a column for the China Economic Review on the plusses and minuses of arbitration provisions in contracts with Chinese companies. The article is entitled, “Overseas arbitration and enforcing contracts in China,” and, not surprisingly, it says that decisions on whether to arbitrate should be made on a case by case… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: August 2008
National Security Review Under China’s New Anti-Monopoly Law
Posted in Legal NewsBy Steve Dickinson China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently reported on its plans for forming an interagency committee to review the national security impacts of foreign acquisitions of Chinese companies. Contrary to many of the news reports in both English and Chinese, this is not a new policy adopted by the NDRC. The… Continue Reading
China: Where The News Is Always Good.
Posted in Recommended ReadingBlack and White Cat does a great job showing how China’s media sanitizes foreign media articles on China, in its post entitled, “How the New York Times (should have) covered the Olympics.” I am “speechless” not because I am surprised (I am not), but because the post speaks volumes all by itself. Read it. (h/t… Continue Reading
Why To Go To China For Growth And How To Succeed At It
Posted in Recommended ReadingVery good article on China Success Stories on why and how to sell and market in and to China. Article is written by Beijing-based advertising guru Dan Mintz and is entitled “Sagging Markets? Look To China: Wealthy Chinese consumers are ripe for the pitching, but approach with caution.” Selling and marketing in China 101. Check… Continue Reading
China’s Anti-Monopoly Law. People, We’ve Got The Rules.
Posted in Legal NewsBy Steve Dickinson On August 3, 2008, the PRC State Council released its long awaited merger notification rules: Regulation on Notification Thresholds for Concentrations of Undertakings, State Council Regulation Number 529, available online in Chinese here. These merger notification rules are required by Article 21 of the PRC Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”), which requires prior notification… Continue Reading
Tony Blair Gets It Right On China. Why Not America?
Posted in Good PeopleEngland’s former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today that lays out exactly how the West should deal with a resurgent China, and why. Do politicians have to retire from office to speak coherently and sensibly on foreign policy, or has Blair always been so smart? After listening… Continue Reading
Beijing Olympics Quote Of The Day
Posted in EventsOf course this one is late, but I just heard it on The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart refers to the little girl who sang the opening night song, but whose face did not make it on TV: You thought your middle school days were tough? Imagine if your government got together and decided you… Continue Reading
Phillip Pan’s “Out Of Mao’s Shadow” Is One Great Book.
Posted in Recommended Reading“If you want to make an omelet, you must be willing to break a few eggs.” Vladmir Lenin “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely..” Lord Acton Phillip Pan, former Washington Post Beijing bureau chief has written a great book on China, entitled, “Out of Mao’s Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of… Continue Reading
Beijing Olympics Quote Of The Day
Posted in EventsThis one from Steve Kelley, consistently excellent sportswriter for the Seattle Times, in an article entitled, “Usain Bolt electrifies Beijing, winning the 200 in a world-record time“: If you’re old enough to remember the first time you saw Muhammad Ali, the first time you saw Roberto Clemente, the first time you saw Magic Johnson, watching… Continue Reading
China Too Expensive? That Depends
Posted in China BusinessAll Roads Lead to China has a very helpful post, entitled, “Is China No Longer Competitive?” All Roads asks the question and then proceeds to answer it in the only sensible way: it depends. The question is asked in the context of all the media reports of prices rising in China and companies fleeing because… Continue Reading
China Quality Control (QC). Who To Hire?
Posted in China BusinessThe relatively new Quality Wars blog is looking like it will be a good source of information on quality control (QC) in China. The blog’s subtitle is “The fight for quality export product in China.” I especially liked two of its posts. The first, entitled, “QC…In-house vs. Outsource,” deals with whether foreign companies manufacturing in… Continue Reading
Shanghai And Beijing Maps Good Enough For Tom Cruise
Posted in China TravelMapmatrix.com has what appear to be excellent maps of Shanghai and Beijing in pdf format. (h/t to James Fallows)
Chinese Litigation: This Is The Way (Uh Huh) We Like It
Posted in Legal NewsBy Steve Dickinson When we draft contracts in China, our foreign company clients usually instruct us to have the contract be governed by foreign law and for any disputes to be decided by arbitration, preferably outside of China. This is often a mistake. One major reason is that when any form of arbitration is required,… Continue Reading
Postcard From Beijing: Home Of Clean Air And Cheap Beer.
Posted in EventsJust got an email from my friend and blogger extraordinaire, Ben Ross. I thought it did a nice job encapsulating what is going on in Beijing these days and after I secured his permission to post it, here goes: Just wanted to give everybody a quick update from Beijing. For starters, this has probably been… Continue Reading
China’s 10 Worst Laws
Posted in Recommended ReadingForeign Policy Magazine is out with a fascinating and very well done list of China’s 10 worst laws (damn, why didn’t I think of that). (h/t to Jeremiah over at Peking Duck) I certainly agree with most of those on the list, but I hardly think it fair to put the New Property Rights Law… Continue Reading
On The Benefits Of Chinglish
Posted in China BusinessVery insightful post on Matt Schiavenza’s blog, entitled, “Why Chinglish Exists.” Post starts out with a great story on the Great Communicator (Ronald Reagan) and then explains the marketing benefits of using English, no matter how mangled: In mainland China, having English advertisements represents modernity, internationalism, and sophistication. Most Chinese people wouldn’t realize that the… Continue Reading
Beijing Olympics Quote Of The Day
Posted in EventsJames Fallows telling us not to worry about the plethora of “I love China” decals we are seeing on so many Chinese people’s faces: History is full of examples of “rising national powers” getting the big head, feeling arrogant, and doing dangerous things. That’s not the main feeling I get here. It’s negative Chinese nationalism,… Continue Reading
Beijing Olympics Quote Of The Day
Posted in EventsToo good a line not to repeat. It is from a Lost Laowai post, entitled, “Beijing: Chinatown in Disneyland,” reflecting on the atmosphere in Beijing during the Olympics: The Beijing people seem happy in the way that the staff at a five star hotel are happy, but not in the way that a group of… Continue Reading
Qingdao Olympic Update (Live)
Posted in EventsQingdao Olympics Report Week Two August 18, 2008 By: Steve Dickinson From: Qingdao, China We are heading into week two of the Olympic Sailing Events here in Qingdao. It is time for a short report. In order to host the Olympic sailing events, Qingdao built a modern sailing center right in the heart of the… Continue Reading
Our Policies, Biases, And Conflicts
Posted in Good PeopleI am a huge fan of Seth Godin’s books and of his blog. His piece, “Small is the new big,” is a classic. Godin is a marketing genius. On Godin’s blog yesterday, he had the following post, entitled, “Policies, biases and conflicts“: I don’t take advertising on this site. I never have, I don’t intend… Continue Reading
Who Is Winning The Olympics?
Posted in EventsSo is it gold medals that determine it or is it total medals? Should we give 3 points for a gold, 2 for a silver, and one for a bronze? And shouldn’t team sports in something big-time like basketball or volleyball or even soccer count for more than an individual metal in synchronized dive wrestling?… Continue Reading
Global Rainmaking. What’s Good For Lawyers Is Good For All.
Posted in China BusinessThe International Lawyer Coach has an excellent post, entitled, “Global Rainmaking Tips: Pointers on Developing Clients Abroad.” Though the post is geared towards international lawyers, its advice no doubt applies to nearly everyone trying to globalize their service business. My favorite takeaway: Lastly, having a general interest in other cultures really enhances global rainmaking. Prospective… Continue Reading
Basketball As China Metaphor: The Expanded Edition.
Posted in China BusinessWill Lewis over at Experience Not Logic has an interesting post up riffing on my post wondering why China cannot produce an elite point guard, nicely weaving in the David Brooks/James Fallows/John Pomfret/Harold Meyerson discussion on individualism versus collectivism. (I always love it when someone elevates one of my posts to a higher intellectual plane,… Continue Reading
China Olympics Athlete Blog List And Why No Chinese Magic Johnson?
Posted in China BusinessGot an email this morning asking me why I was not writing more on the Olympics. Main reason is because I am vacationing in Pentwater, Michigan, placing me about 1800 miles from my 50″ HDTV and forcing me to watch it on a 21″ circa 1970s model. But, I have asked co-blogger, Steve Dickinson, who… Continue Reading
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