Joaquin Sapien, a ProPublica reporter has been churning out really top flight in-depth stories on the Chinese Drywall situation almost since its inception. If you have any interest at all in Chinese drywall, you should be reading his stories. In fact, if you have any interest at all in learning how manufacturing (even business as… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: October 2010
Selling Your Product Into China. Lawyers Need Not Apply.
Posted in China BusinessI am fascinated by China’s consumer market, mostly because it is so damn unpredictable, at least by me. I have seen Western products go into China that I thought had zero chance of attaining success, only to see them succeed even beyond the crazy expectations of my client. I have two clients who make very… Continue Reading
Eight Big Mistakes To Avoid In China.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsOne of the favorite topics among China lawyers is the big mistakes they have seen their clients, rejected clients, and others make when trying to navigate China. The discussion usually transpires with one attorney telling the facts, with the others then giving a knowing laugh and nod and then trying to top it. Had this… Continue Reading
China Corruption By The Numbers.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsI gave a talk yesterday at a China seminar on litigating against Chinese companies in which I discussed suing Chinese companies in China. At one point, while musing about the cases my firm has overseen in China I remarked that I was not aware of any cases having been decided based on corruption. I then… Continue Reading
China Consumer Contracts. Read This Or Risk A Fine.
Posted in Legal NewsThe basics of contract law tends not to vary all that much from country to country. For example, as far as I know, it is the law of every country in the world that if you agree to pay someone for a product and that someone gives you the product on time and in perfectly… Continue Reading
China Law Blog: Who You Calling A Geek?
Posted in Recommended ReadingSince even Hollywood is now Geek-chic, I am honored that China Law Blog made it into the Legal Week article, “New ideas in law: The geek shall inherit…” The article is by Alex Aldridge and it calls out a nice list of (mostly British) law blogs (a/k/a blawgs) impacting the legal world and puts China Law… Continue Reading
China WFOEs And The Required Lease.
Posted in Legal NewsAs costs in China continue to rise, we are seeing many more companies struggling to find well-priced space that qualifies for a WFOE. Let me back up a bit and explain. One of the requirements for forming a Wholly Foreign Owned Entity in China is that there be a lease in place for the WFOE-to-be…. Continue Reading
Shutting Down A China Rep Office Without Going To Jail.
Posted in Legal NewsThe absolute strangest thing just happened. I was about to write a blog post on what it takes to shut down a China business, but I wanted to read my emails first. In my emails was the following email, which I have not changed even one bit: I’ve just been browsing your Chinalawblog which is… Continue Reading
On Buying Product From China. A Run-Through On The Legal Basics.
Posted in Basics of China Business LawJust received a very typical email from someone looking to manufacture product in China: A bit of background on our company; we are a supplier and installer of _______ and following months of design and development have finally completed a prototype model of ___________ which we now want to manufacture in China. Following two months… Continue Reading
On Leasing A China Factory. Get WFOE.
Posted in Basics of China Business Law, Legal NewsWe received an email today from a China consultant with whom we have worked in the past. This consultant has a client who wants to lease a factory in China: We have a client whose business is exporting ___________ materials from China mostly to Eastern Europe. His clients are big __________ plants who always have… Continue Reading
China Employment Contracts. Get Them In Writing Early.
Posted in Legal NewsChina’s “new” Labor Law has now been around long enough such that most companies doing business in China have at least some understanding for its basic requirements. At least I thought that until recently, when I received a phone call from a client who told me that he had just heard from a second “fairly… Continue Reading
China’s Rare Earths. We Called This One.
Posted in China BusinessThere are reports out today of China either planning to reduce its exports of rare earths by 30 percent or ending its exports entirely. I am betting it is the former, but either way, this should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog. For way back a year ago, in “China U.S…. Continue Reading
How We Really Feel About China, Part II: Joint Ventures. We Love Them AND We Hate Them.
Posted in Legal NewsThis is part II of our relatively new series setting forth how we “really feel” about the issues that have generated controversy on our blog over the years. Part I dealt with guanxi and the comments to that post alone have made it a great read. We started this series because “we have taken many… Continue Reading
Son Of Chinese Government Official Uses Car To Mow Down Innocent Student. There, I Said It.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsI love 99.9% of our readers and loathe the other one percent. That other .01% consists pretty much of two people whose comments I get just about every day and whose comments I always delete. One of these people constantly complains about our lack of India coverage and attributes this to my disliking Indians. This… Continue Reading
China’s 2nd Tier Cities For Business.
Posted in China BusinessA while back Patrick Chovanec did a post on China’s second tier cities, entitled, “China Radio: China’s Nine Nations and 2nd-Tier Cities.” In that post he discussed his radio interview in which he had talked about how companies like Retailers like Wal-mart, Carrefour, Pizza Hut and KFC have been “among the most aggressive in reaching”… Continue Reading
How To Start A China Business — Representative Office
Posted in Basics of China Business LawI am always saying that for every 100 China WFOEs and Joint Ventures my firm helps set up in China, it does one representative office. Why so few, when it is generally agreed that representative offices are the easiest type of offices for foreign firms to set up in China? Because the inherent limitations on… Continue Reading
Spies Among Your China Employees? It’s Possible. Your Other Employees? That’s Possible Too.
Posted in China BusinessThe New York Times is out with a story today, entitled, “U.S. Companies Are at Risk of Spying by Their Own Workers.” It is a fascinating and downright chilling story. Though there will no doubt be many who believe the story is over-dramatic, I think it actually grossly understates the problem. The article discusses various… Continue Reading
China Trademarks And Litigation And Speed As The Enemy Of Accuracy. Get Me Goldilocks.
Posted in Legal NewsI did a post the other day implicitly complaining about how long it takes for Chinese trademark registrations to go through. In response to that post, Stan Abrams over at China Hearsay, in a post entitled “China Trademarks: That Pesky Perennial Pendency Problem,” wrote of the opposite concern: what will happen to accuracy if China’s… Continue Reading
Representing Chinese Companies. I See Some Light.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsHad a nice meeting last week with one of my firm’s few Chinese clients. Though the bulk of my law firm’s work involves helping mostly US companies go overseas, we also sometimes help foreign companies come into the United States. Our language and cultural capabilities means most of that work should be done for Russian,… Continue Reading
Eight Tips For Your China Licensing Agreement.
Posted in Legal NewsSantiago Cueto of the International Business Law Advisor Blog did a post, entitled, 6 Key Provisions You Should Include in Your International Licensing Agreements. I borrow extensively from that post for this one, which is more tailored towards China. I list out Santiago’s tips in bold and then provide his explanation in normal font and then my… Continue Reading
China Trademarks. Rumors Of Speed Are Greatly Exaggerated.
Posted in Legal NewsRecently gave some China trademark advice of somewhat universal applicablity. The first was for a client getting ready to register a couple of its trademarks in China. They asked how long “it would all take” and I gave my standard answer. We typically take a week or two to get everything set up and filed,… Continue Reading
How To Choose Your China Attorney. Quality, Quality, Quality.
Posted in UncategorizedCo-blogger Steve Dickinson and I recently wrapped up a China law suit. I would love to be able to provide full details, but I need to give some distance to the case before I can do that. The Chinese law firm with which we worked did an absolutely fabulous job and it deserves massive credit…. Continue Reading
Law As China Social Change Agent. I’m Getting Emotional.
Posted in Legal NewsWhen I was just beginning as a lawyer, one of my clients complained that she had the sense I was not 100% convinced of the merits of her company’s case. She was obviously troubled by this and so I was troubled by it too. I went to a senior partner and explained the situation with… Continue Reading
China Versus India. How To Always “Win” The Argument.
Posted in China BusinessiLook China has a post up comparing China’s economic future with India’s. The post focuses on the recent Economist cover story positing that India’s economy will soon out-pace China’s. I never read that article because I find articles like that somewhat silly. Economists have trouble predicting two years out, much less ten or twenty. The… Continue Reading
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