When I was in high school, I went to a bakery in Budapest, Hungary, during the Communist era. The bakery was tiny, the kind that in the United States would have at most two people working there. I was the only customer. I ordered from one woman, was instructed to go to the cash register… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: December 2008
Is China Going Green, Part XVIII: It Is, But Damn It’s Tough To Make A Buck On China GreenTech.
Posted in China BusinessOne of the great things about being a lawyer is that you get to work with and observe a diversity of businesses. My firm has helped all kinds of businesses get into China and do deals with Chinese companies and if I had to single out one industry that has the highest percentage of failures,… Continue Reading
Protection Money And Your China Business. Are We There Yet?
Posted in China Business“I won’t pay. I know too much about extortion.” Tony Soprano, Season 3, Episode 7, “Second Opinion” One of the “interesting” things about representing companies in emerging markets is the huge variance organized crime can play. The Associated Press, in a story entitled, “China readies for crackdown on organized crime,” recently wrote on how the… Continue Reading
China Melamine Yet Again And This Time It’s Getting Mighty Fishy.
Posted in China BusinessMost of you probably already know more about melamine than you ever expected. Melamine refers to both a chemical and to a resin produced from it. Human ingestion of melamine “may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.” Unfortunately, its high nitrogen content allows it to mimic… Continue Reading
Bernie Maddoff’s China Connection. Be Careful Out There.
Posted in Legal NewsWent to a party last night where a large group of us discussed the following scams: 1. Bernie Madoff. 2. Mark Dreier. I brought this one up and I have to give Dreir credit for managing to pull off a 300 million dollar scam, yet gain very little recognition for it because Madoff so quickly… Continue Reading
China Sourcing Done Right In These Tough Times.
Posted in China BusinessThe weakened economy has served to highlight the renewed need to engage in best practices when securing product from China and Ashton Udall over at the Global Sourcing Blog has a nice post out on what companies need to be doing on this front in these tough times. The post is entitled, “Global Sourcing Outlook:… Continue Reading
China Heavy: He’s Back….
Posted in China BusinessJack Perkowski, who knows as much about China business as anyone, recently wrote a piece for the Far Eastern Economic Review, entitled, “The Return of China Heavy.” By China Heavy, Perkowski is referring to what some call the “real China,” the China beyond the Westernized portions of places like Shanghai and Beijing. The economic downturn… Continue Reading
How To Secure Your China Quote.
Posted in China BusinessNot exactly sexy, but absolutely crucial for anyone sourcing product from China are the nuts and bolts of how to do so. I have been around long enough to see the countless mistakes sourcing neophytes can make when buying product overseas, including the following: 1. Not realizing that the payment was for product at the… Continue Reading
There Are The Laws When Times Are Good And There Are The Laws When Times Are Bad. Are China’s Bureaucrats Shock Troops Against Foreign Business?
Posted in Legal NewsOne of the things I love about being an international lawyer is using outside events to interpret the law. Now I know this is going to anger a lot of people, but non-lawyers generally do a terrible job interpreting the law. This is true worldwide. Examples of this abound: Non-lawyers tend to look for “the… Continue Reading
US Files WTO Case Against China. Tell Us Something We Don’t Know.
Posted in Legal NewsThe United States has hit China with a WTO case, contending China has been subsidizing its exporters, particularly its largest and best known companies. The US government is alleging that China’s central government, provinces and cities have all been paying subsidizing many Chinese companies that export. As my kids would say, well duh!. Since this… Continue Reading
China: Still THE Place For Growth.
Posted in China BusinessIn a post entitled, “Why China Matters, Part 2,” Steve Ganster explains why Western businesses should and do continue to look to China for growth and for manufacturing. Yes, China’s growth is slowing considerably, but at least we are still using the word, “growth.” Ganster does a great job laying out what China still offers:… Continue Reading
China, Somali Piracy, And Minding The Gap.
Posted in China BusinessI am a big fan of Thomas Barnett who is, perhaps, most famous for dividing countries between core and gap, as explained here by Wikipedia: Barnett has termed the globalized countries the “Functioning Core,” or simply “the Core.” The other countries are part of the “Non-Integrating Gap,” or simply “the Gap.” The Gap has been… Continue Reading
You Want China Guanxi? You Can’t Handle China Guanxi.
Posted in China BusinessApologies to Jack Nicholson. Having grown up in a small Midwestern city, I have an inherent (and what I see as a healthy) distrust of government. Every government. Anywhere. I was yet again reminded why when I read this excellent Wall Street Journal article on British Petroleum’s recent problems in Russia, entitled, “Misreading the Kremlin… Continue Reading
Finance People. Shanghai Says Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.
Posted in China BusinessThere is a fairly prevalent theory that the best time to start a new business is during a recession/depression. I buy that. During tough times, established companies often disappear, get overly cautious, and lay off scads of good people, who can be hired relatively cheaply. During tough times, big shifts can occur. A few months… Continue Reading
China: It Ain’t The Business, It’s The Pot Of Cash.
Posted in China BusinessI rarely have revelations, but after being knocked over the head countless times over the years, I finally got one regarding how Chinese businesspeople view their businesses differently from how American businesspeople view theirs. The other day, a deal my law firm had been working on for a US company fell through, much to the… Continue Reading
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About China’s Anti-Monopoly Law.
Posted in Basics of China Business LawGlobal mega-firm DLA Piper has online an 18 page booklet that does a truly superb job of explaining China’s anti-monopoly laws and how they will impact your business. [h/t Experience Not Logic, who appropriately called his post, "There's No Competing With This AML Guide"]. Click here for the DLA primer.
China And The US. Which Of Us Is The Most Capitalistic?
Posted in Recommended Reading“‘You sit by yourself grasshopper. What do you think of?’ -Master Po ‘My mother, my father. Both gone. I am alone.’ ‘You hear the flock of birds flying overhead? You hear the fish? The beetle?’ To all of this the young Caine nods. ‘In this crowded place you feel alone. Which of us is the… Continue Reading
2009 China Holiday Schedule
Posted in China BusinessCnReviews nicely sets out China’s holiday schedule for 2009. Knowing me, I will probably remember to consult it only when nobody is responding to my emails/phone calls. The key dates are as follows: January 1-2 New Year’s January 25-30 Chinese New Year April 4-6 Qingming Holiday May 1 Labor Day May 28-29 Duanwu Holiday October… Continue Reading
You Want A Lawyer Job In China (Asia)? Read This.
Posted in Recommended ReadingAbove the Law (this is the site that had my firm merging with Baker & McKenzie???!), just did a post on how the Asian legal market is not as hot as the New York Times and other MSM have made it out to be. In other words, if you are a Western lawyer hoping to… Continue Reading
“My China Business Has Just Fallen Off A F–king Cliff And You Want To Tell Me What I Should Do Next Time!?”
Posted in Legal NewsPhone calls from potential clients always start out fun and this economic downturn has brought in a whole slew of new clients and potential clients needing legal help in dealing with the economic downturn. This post is on three potential clients whose situations were so bad that I had to suggest they not hire us… Continue Reading
China Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents. It’s All The Same To Me, I’m An Air Conditioned ….
Posted in Legal NewsIn its post, “Why I Should Stop Reading IP Case Summaries in the News,” China Hearsay does a great job attacking a Xinhua news story on what appears to have been a legal victory by Apple Computer in a trademark lawsuit. China Hearsay is justifiably ticked off about the misstatements in and extreme vagueness (can… Continue Reading
China Food Products: Can’t Live With ‘Em, Can’t Live Without ‘Em.
Posted in China BusinessMet with a food client today that imports about 85% of its product from Asia and nearly half that from China. Its sales are still growing. “But I thought people were moving away from China product because of all the safety scares,” I said to him. “They are,” he told me, “but not nearly as… Continue Reading
Young, Educated, And Bi-Lingual And Making Less Than $20,000 A Year?
Posted in China BusinessThe always interesting BizCult is in the midst of a decidedly unscientific expat salary survey. In its post, “The Real Slim, Shady Expat Wages Stand Up,” BizCult reveals that of “15 respondents so far, the majority are 26-30 year old professionals from North America making US$10,000-$19,000 a year.” I find this numbers both fascinating and… Continue Reading
China’s New Labor Contract Law. Harmonized Out Of Existence?
Posted in Legal NewsAs regular CLB readers know, we have been flacking China’s new labor contract law since even before its inception at the beginning of this year. Without a doubt, it has been one of our two or three most popular topics. To wit: –”China’s Proposed Labor Law:Going After Capitalists Like China, 1967” – “China’s Proposed Labor… Continue Reading
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