Last week I did a quick post on the leasing requirements for forming a WFOE. That post generated some excellent comments/questions, hence, this Part II. A couple people asked about the legality of “virtual offices.” Virtual offices were once common in China though as far as I know, they have always been 100% improper for… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: July 2011
The Apple Way To Succeed In China. They Did It My Way.
Posted in China BusinessI’m somewhat kidding with the title. Though I do have to admit that one of the benefits of having blogged for so long is that I can occasionally write an ”I-told-you-so” post like this one. A couple years ago, when Apple was first getting started in China, a number of business and tech consultants talked… Continue Reading
On The Quality Of China’s Courts. What’s Your Benchmark?
Posted in Legal NewsI was sitting around the other day with a client/friend who has been doing business in China since forever. This person has spent probably 90% of the last thirty years of his life in China and despite his being an American, his knowledge of China business definitely surpasses his knowledge of business in the United… Continue Reading
China’s Train Wreck. I’m Not The Guy.
Posted in China BusinessI have a policy that if I receive five or more emails asking me to write on something, I will write on it. I very intentionally have not written on China’s recent train crash, but I have received well over five mails either suggesting I do so, or calling me out for not having done… Continue Reading
Leasing Requirements For A China WFOE To Be
Posted in Basics of China Business Law, Legal NewsI have always had trouble getting my head around the fact that to secure approval of a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE or WOFE) in China, the WFOE must first lease appropriate space. But how can a yet to exist entity do anything, much less lease space? In my email box this morning was an… Continue Reading
How And Why To Trademark In China.
Posted in Basics of China Business Law, Legal NewsIf you are doing business in or with China you should give serious thought to registering your trademarks in China. In particular, you should consider a China trademark registration for your trade-name, your logo and your service marks. Brand identity is critical for success in China (as it is just about everywhere) and if you… Continue Reading
How To Find The Right China Manufacturer And Get Good Product
Posted in China BusinessNew client of mine recently sent me a link to a post on the Quality Wars blog (a once good blog that has not posted since April) and asked me if it made sense. The post is entitled, How to Find a Good Factory in China and my response was, “yes, it most certainly does.”… Continue Reading
Making Films in China. You Talkin’ To Me?
Posted in China Film Industry, Legal NewsBy Mathew Alderson A few weeks ago, I did a post, “Sino-Foreign Film Co-Productions in China,” outlining the requirements for doing film co-productions in China. We received the following comment in response to that post: Thank god I ignored all this when I shot Shangdown: The Way of the Spur in Shanghai last year ;)… Continue Reading
Quasi-Legal In China. Not The Place You Want To Be.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsThis post is essentially a re-running of a post we did at the end of last year. We are re-running it because as China’s economy starts to waver, the Chinese government seems to have stepped up both its tax collection and its closing of illegal foreign businesses another notch. I received two calls just last… Continue Reading
Five Ways To Improve Your Relationship With The Chinese Government.
Posted in China BusinessRich Brubaker of The All Roads Lead To China blog did an excellent post entitled, Managing Government Relationships in China. The post sets out the following five suggestions by Rich for attaining and sustaining a successful reltionship with Chinese government officials: 1. Have a clear value proposition aligned with the objectives of the organization with… Continue Reading
Noodle Blogs: Your Absence Swells My Eyes With Tears, So I Am Seeing “Red In China.”
Posted in Good People, Recommended ReadingBy Damjan DeNoble Years ago Dan used the phrase “Noodle Blogging” to describe China blogs (often written by ESL teachers) that focused mostly on the blogger’s personal impressions of China. Most of these blogs do not last long (they typically end when the blogger returns to his or her home country) but some of them… Continue Reading
Anti-Monopoly Law And Practice In China: A Must Read.
Posted in Good People, Legal News, Recommended ReadingI recently received the book, Anti-Monopoly Law and Practice in China, written by H. Stephen Harris, Jr. (no relation), Peter J. Wang, Yizhe Zhang, Mark A. Cohen, and Sebastian J. Evrard. All of the authors are practicing lawyers, one with Microsoft, one with Baker & McKenzie, and the others with Jones Day. I know this… Continue Reading
Factory Closings In South China. All Part Of The Plan.
Posted in China BusinessBy: Steve Dickinson Yesterday we were greeted in the foreign press with the following headline: Southern China Sees Wave of Manufacturing Bankruptcies. This was predictably followed by vehement denials vehement denials from the Chinese government. For example, the CCTV Channel 9 business news was full of stories today stating that Chinese SMEs throughout the country… Continue Reading
Collecting Debt From Chinese Companies. Clear Threats Trump Logic.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsWe are frequently requested to write demand letters to Chinese companies that owe money to our American clients. These letters are very different from what we would write were we seeking to collect from an American company. Demand letters to American companies are typically fairly long. They usually spend considerably space setting out the facts… Continue Reading
Google+ For China. You Heard It Here First.
Posted in Events, Good People, Recommended ReadingJust read a surprisingly interesting article on social networking on Business Insider, entitled “LinkedIn CEO: Does Anybody Have The Free Time For Google+?.” The article is on recent talks given by Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner, super-agent Ari Emanuel (of Entourage fame) and Kara Swisher of AllThingsD. Among other things, these three talked about the limitations of… Continue Reading
Want Your China-Based Molds? You’re Probably Too Late For That.
Posted in Legal NewsEvery few months we get a frantic call from someone wanting our “immediate” help in getting them their molds back. These situations usually present themselves as follows: Small to mid-sized company (“SME”) has spent $25,000 to $250,000 building a mold(s) for manufacturing their product in China. SME provided this mold to its one Chinese supplier… Continue Reading
Investing In China Stocks. Is Now The Right Time?
Posted in China Business, Recommended ReadingA couple of weeks ago, co-blogger Steve Dickinson did a post on Chinese companies that trade publicly on U.S. exchanges. That post was entitled, “Thinking Clearly About Chinese Companies Listed On US Stock Exchanges. Or, If A Tree Falls In A Sino-Forest….,” and in it, Steve distinguished between legitimate Chinese companies and fraudulent Chinese companies…. Continue Reading
Who Owns China’s Internet? Why Even Ask That?
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsChinese Law Professor has an excellent post, entitled, “Who Owns The Chinese Internet,” seeking to answer that very question. The post is in reference to this article [in Chinese] by Jing Linbo and Wang Xuefeng from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, asserting “(a) that foreigners (“foreign capital”) in the article’s terminology) have come to… Continue Reading
China Readings Per ImageThief
Posted in Recommended ReadingA reader sent me the following email this morning, apparently in response to my most recent post on Beijing Daze that mentioned how our blogroll is delibertly limited to the more “businessy” China blogs: Dan, I know how carefully you tend to your blogroll and I appreciate that, but it is too business-based for many… Continue Reading
Beijing Daze. Because I Like It.
Posted in China Travel, Recommended ReadingI am always getting emails from people asking me what they should be reading on China politics, China travel, China food, China this and China that. My quick answer is to refer them to our blogroll. But that only goes so far because our blogroll is intentionally and decidedly quite narrow, confined almost exclusively blogs… Continue Reading
Employer Social Insurance In China. I See Foreign People.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsIn the last three years, I estimate that about 25% of the China employee wage/labor disputes on which my firm has worked have involved foreign (i.e., non-Chinese) employees. I think there are two reasons for this. One, companies do not bother calling us if the dispute involves a Chinese employee being paid $12,000 a year…. Continue Reading
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Fraud. Clear Speaking On VIEs.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsIf it seems we have been obsessed of late regarding Variable Interest Entities (VIEs), it is because we are. We are obsessed with them because we have spent massive amounts of time over the last few months working with investment companies (and others) investigating publicly traded Chinese companies that use VIE structures. This work has… Continue Reading
On Sports Heros And Asian-Americans. A Reluctant Part II.
Posted in Recommended ReadingLast week, in response to reader emails and the quality and the provocativeness of an article, I did a post on Asian-Americans. I am not even sure my doing so came within the Mission of this blog, but I could not resist. Now here I go again. I never see good articles on Asian-Americans, but… Continue Reading
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 101. The Basics For China.
Posted in Basics of China Business Law, Recommended ReadingIf you are an American company doing business in or with China, it behooves you to have at least some familiarity with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). But where to turn for that? I’m going to tell you: Michael Kohler’s FCPA Professor blog, in a post appropriately entitled, FCPA 101. The post is logically… Continue Reading
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