If you haven’t been reading ChinaFile’s twice weekly “Conversation,” you should be. It basically consists of a bunch of knowledgeable China people getting together and discussing one (usually deep think) China issue. I particularly liked the most recent one, the topic of which was “China: What’s Going Right?” This conversation was with Michael Zhao, James… Continue Reading
Category Archives: China Business
Subscribe to China Business RSS FeedDoing Business In China. What’s Trust Got To Do With It?
Posted in China BusinessA few weeks ago, I met with Scott Markman and John Yang of the Monogram Group, a Chicago advertising, branding, and market research company. What differentiates the Monogram Group and what led to our meeting is their China practice, which they describe as follows: In 2007, Monogram established the first branding practice in the US… Continue Reading
China Importation 101. Part II.
Posted in China BusinessChina is evolving and certain things that were “no big deal” five years ago are a big deal now. Dealing with China customs law is a prime example of that. If you are a foreign company doing business in China that involves importing products into China (or exporting, but less so), it behooves you now… Continue Reading
Five Tips For Good Translations At Your China Meetings
Posted in China BusinessThough Steve Barru only recently started his China Business Hand Blog, I am already a big fan. Steve is just back in the United States after 25 years in China and it would be no exaggeration to call him a China hand. I spoke with Steve for a spell a few weeks ago and at the end… Continue Reading
Protecting Against Trademark Infringement in China. The Basics For Fashion Apparel.
Posted in Basics of China Business Law, China Business, Legal NewsA few weeks ago, one of the lawyers in my office, emailed me an article co-written by a law school friend of hers. The article was on trademark infringement in the clothing industry and on what clothing companies/fashion companies should do to protect their China trademarks, written by Yujing Shu and Hai-Ching Yang of KLGates. The note with the… Continue Reading
Think You Have A China Trademark Or China Company? Check Again.
Posted in China BusinessA loyal reader sent me an article this morning regarding a Chinese citizen who had fabricated his ownership in a US bank and used that fabrication to gain power in his hometown. This happened about a year ago so not sure why it was sent to me today, but the reader sent it with a… Continue Reading
China Importation 101
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsChina is evolving and certain things that were “no big deal” five years ago are a big deal now. Dealing with China customs law is a prime example of that. My law firm does not generally handle routine customs matters, believing that they are better left to non-lawyers who specialize in that; it just usually… Continue Reading
Is China Really Innovating? The China Licensing Numbers Say No.
Posted in China BusinessThose who say China is innovating often cite to the massive numbers of IP filings being made by Chinese companies in China. I use those numbers to counter those who allege that filing trademarks, copyrights and patents in China is a waste of time, but I do not think they show much regarding innovation. The… Continue Reading
Have A Problem With Your China Counterparty? DO NOT Go Visit Them.
Posted in China BusinessA few weeks ago, a China risk consultancy contacted us regarding their own China legal matter. During our conversation, the caller went off and said that he really liked our posts on how to avoid getting kidnapped in China. He then told me that so far this year, not a single week had passed without… Continue Reading
China Has Become So Popular, Nobody Goes There Anymore.
Posted in China BusinessI spent much of last week in Chicago meeting with “China people” and “talking China” and I left there with one inescapable conclusion: China is changing. No drum roll please. Of course China is changing you are saying, but how? The conclusion is that China is getting more difficult for foreign companies, but why and… Continue Reading
How To Negotiate With Chinese Companies. You Are The Cow And Here’s How To Avoid Getting Milked.
Posted in China BusinessI see it all the time and there is very little I can do about it beyond suggesting that maybe they be tougher. The “they” are my law firm’s clients and the “it” is entering into a service contract with a Chinese company based on the belief that “it will all work out in the… Continue Reading
The How Comes Of China Law Blog
Posted in China BusinessI have always hated book and movie reviews that focus on what the book or movie should have been about, but wasn’t. For example, the movie Lincoln, which I loved, took heat from some critics for not focusing nearly enough on the conditions of slavery, as opposed to its abolition. My thinking whenever I see… Continue Reading
Choosing A China OEM Manufacturer: A Practical Guide
Posted in China BusinessIn a post last week, How To Find Your China Manufacturer, Dan discussed some of the issues involved in choosing a China OEM manufacturer. I have been involved in this process on the ground in China for more than twenty years and I have developed some of my own standard practices for this. The major and… Continue Reading
Will China Avoid The Middle Income Trap? Four Ways To Make That Likely
Posted in China BusinessI am fascinated by the “Middle-Income Trap,” particularly as it applies to China. The Middle Income Trap is used to describe a developing economy that stalls out after a period of rapid growth before it becomes a developed economy. My shorthand view of it is that it is relatively easy to go from being an… Continue Reading
US Exports To China. Catch That Train Before It Leaves The Station.
Posted in China BusinessWhenever a client decides not to venture forward (those words intentionally chosen) overseas in a situation where I am convinced that it should, I get frustrated. I get particularly frustrated if the client says that it “hasn’t ruled out the move, but it is going to table it for a while.” I keep my mouth… Continue Reading
China Intellectual Property Law. A Radio Interview For World Intellectual Property Rights Day
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsI have to admit that one of the things I love about both China and Russia is that they take various international days seriously, that nobody even knows about in the United States. I suspect that is due to communism and/or its remnants. Anyway, as part of today’s World Intellectual Property Rights Day (how many… Continue Reading
How To Find Your China Manufacturer
Posted in China BusinessWhenever I give a speech or write an article or post about what it takes to succeed in China, I invariably list “a good Chinese partner” as item one. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am always getting asked how to find the “good Chinese partner” to which I am always referring. My initial response is usually… Continue Reading
China Is Getting Tougher On Foreign Business. Stay Flexible And It Will Be Just Fine…
Posted in China BusinessOne of the themes of this blog for years has been that China is making things tougher for foreign businesses by increasing the strength of its business laws and by stepping up its enforcement of them against foreign companies. We hear that the same thing is happening to Chinese domestic companies, but starting from a… Continue Reading
Ancient Chinese Business Scam With A New Hollywood Twist. It’s Baaaack.
Posted in China Business, China Film IndustryAbout a year ago, in Ancient China Business Scam With A New Hollywood Twist, we wrote of how we were hearing about film and media companies getting hit with an old-fashioned scam from China. Things then went quiet for a while, but in the last month, we have received two emails from two US film companies seeking… Continue Reading
Improving The Global Supply Chain: Create.Org
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsA few weeks ago, I met with Pamela Passman, President and CEO of The Center for Responsible Enterprise And Trade (CREATe.org), “a non-profit organization dedicated to helping companies and their suppliers and business partners reduce counterfeiting, piracy, trade secret theft and corruption.” Previously, Ms. Passman was Deputy General Counsel of Microsoft and before that she was… Continue Reading
Doing business in China: Being efficient isn’t enough
Posted in China Business, Recommended ReadingJust read a fascinating post at a fascinating blog with which I was not previously familiar. The blog is Global Michigan, and it is run by William Foreman as a “showcase” for the international research and other internationally related activity at the University of Michigan. If you are interested in the world (and who isn’t), I recommend… Continue Reading
China’s Five Best Business Opportunities
Posted in China BusinessWay back in 2010, I was asked in an NPR interview what I saw as the being the best opportunities for American companies doing business in China or selling to China. I answered with education, healthcare, food, clean-tech/green-tech, and software. These were the same five industries I had been saying for years. So I could not have been… Continue Reading
China Factories Moving In Droves To Cambodia/Vietnam/Myanmar/Malaysia. NOT.
Posted in China BusinessEver since the New York Times did an article, Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia, on how companies are leaving China for Cambodia, there has been a whole host of media and blog play and real life discussion about how “everyone” is leaving China for places like Cambodia or Myanmar or Vietnam or Indonesia. The… Continue Reading
China Poverty Is Way Down. I Say Kudos For That.
Posted in China BusinessThe trend these days is to focus on inequality and on the gini coefficient, which measures inequality, and then to mercilessly criticize China for its inequality. I have a problem with that. I do not think that fair. Please allow me to digress for a moment. I am sometimes criticized for being to harsh on… Continue Reading
"...the widely respected China Law Blog"
"Clear and compelling"
