Loretta Chao and Andrew Batson of the Wall Street Journal have written an excellent piece on what is going on these days with China factories. The article is entitled, “China’s Small Factories Struggle,” and it is about factories closing, factories changing to meet changing demand, and about factories starting up. Not news breaking by any… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: January 2009
WTO China Piracy Ruling: It Ain’t Worth A Thing….
Posted in Legal NewsForbes Magazine (which, BTW, does a consistently excellent job in covering China) has a new and interesting article out, entitled, “U.S. Talks Up WTO Piracy Ruling, But It’s All Wind” and subtitled, “Washington claims that the trade body took its side in a suit against China, yet the decision will not halt intellectual property theft.”… Continue Reading
BREAKING NEWS: Obama Called Hu And Threw Geithner Under The China Bus.
Posted in China BusinessGot this news from a very close friend of mine who is very high up in the media, very connected, and very reliable. All I can say is that we go way, way back and I trust him implicitly (though he would also not be above feeding me something like this to make a fool… Continue Reading
Ox, Shmox, It’s Gonna Be A Pox. Why I Have No Faith In Chinese Real Estate For 2009.
Posted in China BusinessFirst, let me get my biases/perspectives out on the table. I am a lawyer. What this means is that no matter how much the media may tout me as riding some sort of second wave (check outthis super-cool article!), my training compels me to look at everything with a jaundiced and conservative eye, particularly investments…. Continue Reading
USTR Report On China’s WTO Compliance. This Is What The Damn Thing Says.
Posted in Legal NewsThe other day I did a post on the United States Trade Representative Office’s (USTR) release of its report on China’s compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. The report is a daunting 115 pages and at the time we wrote about it, in our post entitled, “USTR Releases Its Report On China’s WTO Compliance…. Continue Reading
How To Get A China Visa. It Ain’t Easy….
Posted in Recommended ReadingPost over at I Only Like China, entitled, “Visa troubles: trials, tribulations and tomfoolery,” does a nice job comparing the various China visas and setting out the machinations one often has to go through to get one. In defense of China on this securing a United States visa is no easier/better.
Hey Buddy Can You Spare A Yuan, Part III — Is Micro-Finance China’s Next BIG Thing?
Posted in China BusinessA couple years ago, we wrote about small business and consumer lending in China, in posts entitled, “Hey Buddy, Can you Spare a Yuan? The Sorry State of SME and Consumer Lending in China.” and “Hey Buddy, Can you Spare a Yuan, Part II — The Sorry State of SME and Consumer Lending in China.”… Continue Reading
Obama And Geithner On China. Election Hangover Or The Way Things Will Be?
Posted in China BusinessJames Fallows writes an interesting piece, entitled, “Broader point about Geithner, Obama, China, and ‘manipulation’” setting out his concerns on how the Obama administration is treating/going to treat China. To summarize what Fallows says (and hey, if I am not summarizing it properly, go ahead and attribute it to me) is that Obama is clearly… Continue Reading
Is Your China Business Recession Resistant? What Is?
Posted in China BusinessOne of the things I have always found fascinating is how macro economic issues can have such widely varying micro economic impacts. By this I mean that when an economy starts tanking, let’s say 10%, the impact on individual businesses can be all over the map. I remember becoming starkly aware of this during the… Continue Reading
China Bribes And Transparency: Why The FCPA Matters.
Posted in Legal NewsChina Journal has an excellent interview with Alexandra A. Wrage, president of Trace International, a nonprofit group that works with corporations to reduce bribery as they do business abroad. The post is entitled, “Bribes and Transparency on Chinese Holidays: A Primer,” and it sets out the basics of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA),… Continue Reading
China Joint Ventures And The Hotel California Effect.
Posted in Legal NewsBy way of explanation, here are the key lines from the Eagles’ song, Hotel California: We are programmed to receive. You can checkout any time you like, But you can never leave! China Economics Blog used the term, Hotel California effect (borrowing from a scholarly article) to describe the problems foreigners so often have in… Continue Reading
USTR Releases Its Report On China’s WTO Compliance. Will Someone Please Read The Damn Thing?
Posted in Legal NewsProfessor Clarke at the Chinese Law Prof Blog did a post linking over to the United States Trade Representative Office’s just released report to Congress on China’s compliance (and non-compliance) with its WTO obligations. It consists of 115 pages and Professor Clarke states that he has no comments because he has not read it yet…. Continue Reading
China’s New Labor Law. On The Mat, But Not Down For The Count.
Posted in Legal NewsIn early December, 2008, in “China’s New Labor Contract Law. Harmonized Out Of Existence?“we wrote about hearing from clients how local officials were giving them broad hints that they would not be too tough on enforcing China’s new Labor Contract Law, so long as those companies maintained their employment numbers. We covered this issue again,… Continue Reading
Taking Depositions In China. It Can Be Done. Just Kidding.
Posted in Legal NewsNot sure how I missed this until now, but Experience Not Logic did an excellent series of posts on taking depositions in China, here, here, here, and here. The first post sets out the issue: Here’s the scenario: you’re a litigator preparing a case in the United States. You have reached the onerous task of… Continue Reading
Tort Liability For China Counterfeit Goods?
Posted in Legal NewsBlogger Ryan McLaughlin (and my firm’s webmaster) recently posted on media coverage of the death of his beloved Golden Retriever, believed to have been caused by a package of Optima dog food. The post is entitled, “US-made Optima dog food in China may have killed my dog,” and in it, Ryan discusses how the US-based… Continue Reading
China Cracking Down On Illegal Foreigners. Duh.
Posted in Legal NewsTwice last week I got calls from companies wanting to get legal in China. URGENTLY. One company is in Shandong province, the other is in Shanghai. Both have been operating illegally in China for years. I asked both “why now?” and they both gave essentially the same response: I want to register my business in… Continue Reading
China: On Why To Stay Current On Your Rabies Shot
Posted in China TravelTim Johnson, at the always interesting China Rises, recently wrote on the upsurge in rabies cases in China in a post entitled, “Rabies explodes in China.” (h/t Time China Blog) Much of this increased incidence of rabies has been in Southern China. Are your rabies shots up to date?
Chinese Drywall. If You Think That Is Bad…..Just Wait.
Posted in Legal NewsAbsurdity, Allegory and China is doing an excellent job in covering the recent problems with Chinese drywall that have cropped up in Florida. AAC has done a series of posts on this issue, the most recent one, entitled, “Just Follow the Links,” which, as its name implies, links over to the previous ones. As I… Continue Reading
I Know Hong Kong. Hong Kong, You Are No Mainland China. Legally That Is.
Posted in Legal NewsAs a lawyer, I have to appreciate a great burn and one of the greatest of all time, has to have been Lloyd Bentson’s smoking of Dan Quayle during the 1988 vice-presidential debates: Tom Brokaw: Senator Quayle, I don’t mean to beat this drum until it has no more sound in it. But to follow… Continue Reading
The Latest On Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) In China
Posted in Legal NewsThe following is an outline of a talk co-blogger Steve Dickinson gave yesterday at The China Economic Review” forum on “Foreign Direct Investment in China: Optimizing FDI strategy in the current economic climate.” UPDATE AND FORECAST OF REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR FDI IN CHINA I. Major features of the current FDI system in China as of… Continue Reading
Trademarks In China. A Whole Lotta Ways To Go.
Posted in Legal NewsForeign companies contemplating doing business in China are getting more sophisticated about the need to register their trademarks in China. I think. I say this because the number of companies contacting my firm who think the have a trademark in China simply by virtue of the fact that they may have one in Puducah has… Continue Reading
China’s Labor Laws. Worry Me Or Worry Me Not.
Posted in Legal NewsAbout a month ago, we did a post entitled, “China’s New Labor Contract Law. Harmonized Out Of Existence?” In that post, we (I say we here because some of what I was reporting was coming to me from co-blogger Steve Dickinson who is based in China) talked about how local and provincial authorities were giving… Continue Reading
How To Have A China Ready Supply Chain
Posted in Recommended ReadingThe most recent issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine has a really informative article by Steven Ganster on China. The article is entitled, “The China-ready Supply Chain: Key attributes to ensure a high degree of readiness for doing business well with China,” and it does an excellent job setting out what foreign companies… Continue Reading
China Law Blog As Flavor Of The Week
Posted in Good PeopleAt the end of every year and the beginning of the new one, many (most?) blogs do a post extolling the previous year’s posts, their own blog’s longevity and/or ever increasing readership, and talking about how great it is to blog for such smart/astute/wonderful people, and why this blog is so different from all the… Continue Reading
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