China Law Blog

Plus8Star blog has an excellent post up on Beijing's technology "scene." The post is an interview consisting of the following questions (with answers):

1. What’s the funding scene like in China and where are some of the incubators and resources Chinese entrepreneurs can look to?

2. How did the technology scene in China emerge and who are the leaders?

3. In your opinion, who are the up and coming web-based startup companies in China to watch out for?

4. How have Chinese politics and culture scene shaped the types of startups emerging?

5. What government resources are available for entrepreneurs?

6. Other than Mobile Monday Beijing, where can Chinese entrepreneurs go for China-specific events and news?

7. Can you make a case for moving or keeping your startup in China?

Though labeled as an interview on Beijing's tech scene, it really covers China as a whole and I recommend the post to anyone interested in China's emerging tech scene.

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Ryan McLaughlin over at Lost Laowai (and the technical force behind this blog) just did a post, entitled, "World Expo Shanghai 2010 Pavilions – Some Favourites," comparing various of the Shanghai Expo Pavilions.

Whether you agree or disagree with Ryan's anything but wimpy assessments, his post certainly does make for an interesting read and review of what's coming and I recommend it.

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Every month or so, I get an email from someone asking me for my views on their starting a business in China. These emails usually come from someone who has been in China for a year or so at a really low paying job or from someone who just recently graduated from college in the United States. I typically respond with one or two sentences of lawyer advice, something along the lines of the following:

I really do not know what to tell you, never having been an entrepreneur in China myself, but from the perspective of a lawyer who spends his life representing companies (including start-up companies there), I can tell you that it is going to be much more difficult and more expensive for you to start a company there (at least legally) than in the U.S. For an on the ground view of what it takes to be a foreign entrepreneur in China, you should read Sam Goodman's book, Where East Eats West.

I am now also going to tell them to read Rand Han's recent post, entitled, "Confessions of A China Entrepreneur." This paragraph both tells you what Rand's post will be about and why you absolutely should read it:

So in the interest of fully answering the “China Entrepreneur” question, I’m going to take those of you not already bored with this article down memory lane, and reflect on how many times I got my assed kicked, punched, and handed back to me in a beautifully arranged gift basket during my journey through China’s “wild wild east” business frontier… from the street level looking up.

The post is a no holds barred history of Rand's Shanghai-based advertising agency Bloody Amazing and his just-formed digital social media agency, ZeroDegrees. Though it does ramble a bit at times (which Rand admits and which really only adds to its charm), doing so it only makes us better "feel" what it is like to go through starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur in China. I am hoping this is only part 1 of a series.

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Maybe five years ago, I was at a really mediocre China conference right here in Seattle. I knew it would be bad, but I had been given a free ticket and I needed the CLE (continuing legal education) credits. And it was. Bad that is. One of the reasons it was so bad was because the moderator would spout out things like "whatever we [the United States] are making, China can make just as well as us for one tenth the cost and it probably already is. Last time I was there I was picked up in an SUV that cost around $5,000 and was every bit as good as a Range Rover."

What causes someone even to think that way? I don't know and to a large extent I don't care, but I do care that there seems to be a growing trend of people who seem to believe the US can do no right and China can do no wrong. Nobody (and I do mean nobody) with whom "I hang" thinks that way and that is because they have seen too much for reality not to preclude such views.

Steve Mufson and John Pomfret recently did an article in the Washington Post, entitled, "There's a new Red Scare. But is China really so scary?" (h/t to China Private Equity) This article is so dead on, so well-written, so sensible that you just have to read it. In its post, "Smart Commentary on China from Washington Post," China Private Equity provides the following excellent summary of the WaPo article:

The key insight is that America, in the midst of a deep and long recession, is undergoing one of its periodic bouts of self-laceration. The widespread anxiety that America is in decline is exacerbated by a sense that China is now better, smarter, faster in many important ways. A lot of this is plain silliness, as John’s article points out.

America’s problems are home-grown. China’s rise over the last 30 years is overwhelmingly positive, for its own citizens first and foremost, but also for the rest of the world, US included.

There’s a lot for an American to admire, even envy, about China. Two examples: even while remaking most aspects of its society, the family has retained its primacy in Chinese life, as a source of stability, happiness, and purpose. China also remains the most “kid friendly” country I know, measured by the care and affection lavished on the young Chinese, particularly infants and preschoolers.

Americans, in the main, have always had a special fondness for China, regardless of the state of the political relationship between the leaders of the two countries. But, that fondness doesn’t stop many of them from perpetuating simplistic notions about the place. Once, China was seem as hopelessly backward and poverty-stricken. Now, it’s seen as a novice superpower, outmuscling the US across the globe.

John’s article cites a quote from Sun Tzu, “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.”

I completely agree.

What do you think?

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About four months ago, in Part I of this series, I promised we would go through our blogroll and justify and expound upon each blog, five by five. A couple of months ago, I did part V of this series. This is the sixth of this slowly running series, where I explain, in alphabetical order, why it is that each blog managed to qualify for our blogroll under our admittedly "slippery, vague, and subjective criteria:"

Our blogroll basically consists of those blogs we like and which we think our readers will like or should be reading. We tend to like blogs that are unique in their content, well written, or consistently helpful. If we really like a blog, it makes it on no matter what. The less we like the blog, the more we have to believe it can be helpful to our readers. If a blog has not posted for a couple of months, we start seriously consider removing it from the rolls. Three months and it is usually removed. We obviously focus on China related blogs and, within that, we generally focus on those blogs related to law or business.

So without further ado, the sixth five in our alphabetical list:

China Hearsay. China Hearsay is written by my friend and fellow lawyer, Stan Abrams, who has been practicing law, mostly on the IP side, in China since 1999. It is subtitled, China law, business & economics commentary, and that's exactly what it is. Nearly daily, Stan provides us with insightful comments on China, with a much more political and social slant than this blog. I never miss a post and I urge you to do the same. Stan has recently branched out to form one third of the triumvirate writing for the new China/divide blog.

China Solved. China Solved drives me nuts. It is an excellent blog written by another friend of mine, Andrew Hupert. Andrew describes himself as "an experienced management consultant based in Shanghai. Previous to setting up house in Shanghai almost 6 years ago, Andrew lived in Taipei, Hong Kong and New York. In addition to consulting for MNCs in Shanghai and writing about China success strategies, Andrew lectures at New York University's Shanghai campus on international negotiation." All true but probably too modest. Andrew is an NYU MBA who really knows China business and does a great job writing on it. I swear that I end up writing on about half of Andrew's posts, which is probably a higher percentage than any other blog. So why does it drive me nuts? Because Andrew has a disconcerting tendency to get really busy and not write anything on his blog; his last post was about a month ago. But stay with it for the gems.

Chinalyst. Chinalyst is not really a blog. It is essentially a blog amalgamator that provides "a steady stream of updates from member blogs writing about China." It is a good place to go to keep up on the China blogosphere (particularly newer blogs) and every year it puts on its own best of China blog competition.

China Sourcing Blog. The China Sourcing Blog is put out by The Beijing Axis, which describes itself as "a cross-border business bridge to/from China in three principal areas: Strategy, Sourcing and Investment." This blog is a great source for studies and statistics on China manufacturing and business.

China Tax Insights. Matthew McKee, an Australian tax lawyer based in Beijing is the force behind China Tax Insights. Though I pride myself on hating tax law, I am a regular reader of Matthew's blog because, unfortunately, the importance of tax law to China business has been and will continue to increase exponentially.

More to come....

What do you think?

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The Start In China Blog has updated its previous post on various health insurance options for expatriates living in China. The post is entitled, "Health insurance for expats in China," and it really does a superb job setting out and comparing various expat insurance plans.

If you are an expat needing health insurance in China, I recommend you check out this post.

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I long ago created an arbitrary rule saying that I would not put a blog onto our blogroll until it had been around for at least three months. I instituted this rule after raving about a brand new blog, putting it on the blogroll, and then having it never put out another post. So never again, though I have to admit I at least thought long and hard about it today.

The blog that nearly caused me to lose my head is China/Divide and though it is brand spanking new, what got me all aflutter are the people behind it and its stated mission. The people behind it are Stan Abrams, whose China Hearsay blog has always been one of my favorites. Charles Custer, who has been banging out great stuff for quite some time over at the China Geeks blog he founded. And Kai Pan, the lead writer over at CnReviews, yet another truly top-flight China blog. I have to believe that any blog combining these three really thoughtful people will be superb. It would not be an exaggeration to say that these three people have produced some of the deepest, most thought-provoking blog posts out there on China.

And I love their mission statement:

China/divide is a group blog three incredibly awesome guys started to write socio-political commentary on modern China issues, how China relates to the world, and how the world relates to China.

Still here? Wow, okay…well, china/divide is also a place to escape from the wingnuts, from the rabid Chinese hyper-nationalists that think the world is out to keep China down on one side, and from the annoying self-righteous foreigners that think China is the definition of pure evil on the other. We like to think of ourselves as moderates, as being in the middle of this divide.

We’re middlenuts.

Which is fine, because we want to be reasonable and fair, to think critically about complicated problems, to challenge misconceptions and prejudices, and to recognize the good points whenever and wherever they are made.

So yeah, china/divide is us sharing what we’re interested in, what we know, and what we think. But it’s also a place for anyone genuinely interested in having interesting, intelligent, and honest conversations about China and all the insanity that surrounds it. If that sounds like you, we welcome you to share your comments with us and get involved in our discussions and debates.

Power to the middlenuts!

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I have been to factories in China that look like they could be in Denmark. They appear safe and clean, and their workers appear to be wearing the latest safety equipment. I have also been to "factories" in China that are really nothing more than a small room with people assembling things. And I have been to factories in China where I want to leave as quickly as possible for fear of my own health and the situation is ten times worse for the workers.

I thought of China factories this morning because I looked at/read a fascinating post on the Alex Hofford Photography Blog (h/t Danwei), entitled, "China Factory Series #7 - Worker Safety In Chinese Factories." It has some great photos, but it really should have been titled, "China Factory Series #7, The Lack Of Worker Safety In Chinese Factories.

I am always surprised at how often it is that my firm's clients have never themselves seen the Chinese factories from which they secure their product. These companies pretty much figure that if the product they are buying is fine, there's no need to visit the factory that produces it. Is this shortsighted? What if your product shows up in photos like these? Anyway, if you are having product made in China or if you are just curious what a China factory can look like, I recommend you check this out.

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There seem to be two schools of thoughts regarding China's economy. One school says everything is fine, China is different, and we should expect 10% GDP growth for the foreseeable future. Hakuna Matata.

Then there are those who say China's economy is a bubble and a meltdown is coming. Soon. Some of these people have been saying this for ten years, others for just the last year or so.

I do not have an opinion on where China's economy is heading because am not an economist and, even if I were, it would take me hundreds, maybe even thousands, of hours of intense study and analysis to be able to formulate my own opinion, as opposed to simply cribbing the opinion of someone I trust who has actually done all of that work.

But I always find well a reasoned analysis of China's economy interesting and this one, by Vitaliy Katsenelson is certainly interesting and thought provoking. Katsenelson, the Director of Research / Portfolio Manager at Investment Management Associates, sees China as bubble and he has a well-reasoned slide show to back up his contentions. The slide show is entitled, "China – The Mother of All Black Swans."

What do you think?

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Just cleaned up my feed reader, which meant deleting blogs that no longer post and deleting blogs that no longer interest me.

I use Feed Demon as my blog reader (I know Feed Demon is somewhat antiquated, but I have been using it since forever and I like it) and one of the things it does is list "dinosaur blogs" that have not posted for at least 60 days. I deleted most of the blogs on this list, but a number of them I was just not willing to delete. At least not yet.These are really good blogs that for I know had a lot of good/important/insightful things to say about China. These are blogs I miss and I am afraid to delete them, for fear they will come back and I will have missed something. Before I can delete them, I need to know more.

Here they are:

-- The Chief Asia Inspector Blog
-- China Business and Travel
-- Trade Media Blog
-- Experience Not Logic
-- Transnational Law Blog
-- ThinkChina
-- China Manufacturing Blog
-- Cup of Cha
-- Chinamatic
-- New Energy and Environment Digest
-- SinoFactory
-- Black and White Cat

So what has happened to these blogs? Are any planning on returning? Are they just on hiatus? Should I just go ahead and delete? What do you know?

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The China Sourcing Blog has an interesting post, entitled, "China and India: A Comparison in Sourcing Potential," on the similarities and differences between China and India when it comes to product sourcing:

There are many similarities between China and India in today's global-economic climate. Both have over one billion citizens, both have experienced resilient growth in output, and both have greatly expanded their roles in international trade. The relatively inexpensive yet well educated workforces of these two countries have made them key prospects for the sourcing of manufactured goods. Yet differences remain in their supplier and logistical capabilities which must be taken into account by the sourcing professional.

The post sees both India and China as "capable of world class manufacturing processes." The two countries are fairly close in terms of factory productivity, but (and no surprise here) China outperforms India on infrastructure and logistics which "may explain why India is a more common site for the outsourcing of services, particularly IT services, which do not require a physical good to be brought to market." The post concludes that both are viable countries for product sourcing:

However, India should not be entirely discredited as a sourcing destination for manufactured goods. Both it and China have allocated over 10% of their GDPs toward infrastructure development which will enhance their future logistical abilities in bringing their products to the world’s consumers. The greatest similarity between China and India: neither can be ignored by the sourcing professional.

What do you think? I would particularly love to hear from people with sourcing/manufacturing experience in both China and India.

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Just listened to an excellent podcast interview of Jeremy Goldkorn, the founder and force behind the must-read Danwei blog. Josh Gartner, AmCham China's Director of Policy Communications (and a darn good interviewer) conducted the interview, which focused on the Chinese government's "treatment" of internet websites and, in particular, those websites which write things the Chinese government would prefer its citizens not see.

If you have a website that you want to be seen in China, I highly recommend you listen to this interview.

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A few weeks ago, a client who will be opening a factory in China within a couple of months told me how much he has been learning about China by following people on Twitter and following their news links. He then asked me who if I had a list of "China people" he should be following.

I said about all I could tell him is that he should go through the people I follow on Twitter and pull out those related to China. The problem there is that I follow about 900 people and many of them have absolutely nothing at all to do with China. This morning, while perusing Ad Age China, I came across an excellent article by Normandy Madden (yes, she was named after the region in France) entitled, "25 China Experts You Should Follow on Twitter" and, with one giant caveat, it is a really good list.

The caveat is that I do not believe any of the 25 people on the list are China experts (myself included) and I would guess all 25 would agree with me on this. Calling someone a "China expert" is like calling someone an expert on the United States. There are no U.S. experts. There are US historians expert on particular historical periods. There are US economists, expert on particular aspects of the US economy. There are US lawyers, expert on particular aspects of US law. Etc., etc., etc. Same is true of China. Having said that, here's the list:

William Bao Bean, venture capitalist at Softbank focused on early stage tech, media, telco and consumer investments in Asia
Follow: @williambaobean

Sage Brennan, independent media and internet analyst and TEDx organizer in Shanghai
Follow: @sagebrennan

Richard Burger, blogger and editor at the Chinese newspaper Global Times
Follow:@ThePekingDuck

Simon Cousins, CEO of the PR and strategic communications agency Illuminant Partners in Beijing
Follow: @illuminantceo

Thomas Crampton, director of digital influence, Asia-Pacific at Ogilvy & Mather in Hong Kong
Follow: @ThomasCrampton

Oli D., Shanghai-based blogger
Follow: @djodcouk

Paul Denlinger, ex-VP at Chinadotcom and founder of China Business Strategy, which advises internet startups
Follow: @pdenlinger

David Feng, founder of Civitology, a network of mass transit-based China city sites
Follow: @DavidFeng

Andrew Galbraith, deputy editor, China Economic Review in Shanghai
Follow: @apgalbraith

Jeremy Goldkorn, founder and editor In Chief of Danwei.org in Beijing
Follow: @goldkorn

Dan Harris, China law blogger
Follow: @DanHarris

Lonnie Hodge, CEO at CFM, Asia Director at Pitchengine, Educator and Social Median
Follow: @lonniehodge

Kaiser Kuo, Beijing-based China tech watcher, Youku.com consultant and guitarist in one of China's top heavy metal bands, Tang Dynasty
Follow: @kaiserkuo

Ray Kwong, Asia market entry adviser in Beijing
Follow: @raykwong

Andy Lee, digital media and finance consultant in China
Follow: @andylee

Kevin Lee, magazine brand manager and integrated media strategist in Beijing
Follow: @kevinkclee

Kristie Lu Stout, Hong Kong-based anchor/correspondent on CNN International
Follow: @klustout

Ryan McLaughlin, writer and web designer in China
Follow: @thehumanaught

Will Moss, American spin doctor in Beijing
Follow: @imagethief

Jay Oatway, Hong Kong-based journalist covering tech news, culture, digital media, trends and social media
Follow: @JayOatway

Philip Pan, Moscow bureau chief of the Washington Post, formerly based in Beijing, author of the book "Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China"
Follow: @panphil

Adam Schokora, manager, digital, China at Edelman in Shanghai
Follow: @ajschokora

Dan Washburn, writer and founding editor of Shanghaiist
Follow: @danwashburn

Steven Weathers, TV host, video producer and founder of American English Circle in Shanghai
Follow: @sdweathers

David Wolf, communications strategist in Beijing
Follow: @wolfgroupasia

I sent this list to my client and told him this is a great place to start but that plenty of people are missing from this list. Who would you add? Do you know of any other good lists?

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I know some countries will not allow entry to people whose passports are within six months of expiring. I know this because it once happened to me, but I cannot remember whether it was Korea or China, or maybe some place else. It was no big deal at the time because I learned of the six month rule before I left the United States and I was able to renew my passport in plenty of time.

Today though I was checking to see if China has the six month rule and my Google search first led me to this excellent and fairly comprehensive US State Department site on travel to China. This site is chock full of all sorts of good information on China, ranging from locations of consulates, to visa requirements, to what to do if you are a victim of crime. I am not surprised by this as US government websites are often terrific first stops for these (and many other) sorts of things.

Anyway, if you are going to China or even if you are already there, I recommend you spend fifteen minutes reading this page as I am sure it will teach you something important or interesting you did not already know. Oh, and on that six month issue, it directed me to the Chinese Embassy website which states that at least six months must remain.

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The China Online Marketing Blog recently did an interesting five part series of posts discussing the various methods of making online payments in China. Even three years ago, these payment were barely being used at all and though their usage is nowhere near the levels in places like Korea or the United States, they are increasing at an incredible pace. Part 1 on Alipay is here, part 2 on Tenpay is here, Part 3 on online bank transfers is here, Part 4 on credit card payments is here, and part 5 on China Mobile payments is here.

If you are running an online business that takes payment from/in China, I recommend you check out this series.

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I have an almost Raymond Babbitt like attraction to numbers. Not kidding. Lists. Love them. Numbered lists. Love them even more. I see numbers in my head. I never liked math, but I love numbers. When I was a kid, my older brother would quiz me for hours on the most obscure statistics on every major league baseball player. Damn I was good.

This and only this (well and the fact that China Law Blog made the list) are the only explanations I have for referring to this list of the 50 best blogs on China.

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Really excellent post up at the just discovered (by me) Switchboard blog. This blog is put out by the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and the post is entitled, "China Renews Its Commitment to Renewable Energy." The post is written by Sara Schuman, a "visiting attorney" in the NRDC's Beijing Office. The post discusses what it sees as two "significant changes" to China's Renewable Energy Law brought about by the December 26, 2009, amendments to that law: "(1) the addition of measures intended to better implement the Mandatory Connection Policy and (2) the streamlining of the renewable energy fund that provides the financial incentives for the renewable energy industry."

I recommend Ms. Schumans' post for anyone with an interest in China's Renewable Energy Law.

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Can you read this post by Patrick Chovanec, entitled, "Reference Points on China Real Estate," and still insist China real estate (at least in its biggest wealthiest cities) is not one massive bubble that will have to eventually resoundingly pop?

I couldn't.

UPDATE: I just started a discussion on this topic over at the Linkedin China Law Blog Group.

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Great discussion budding over at the Linkedin China Law Blog Group among some really knowledgeable China people on whether there really is such a thing as top Chinese brands in the worldwide market and if and when there will be such a thing.

David Dayton of Silk Road International blog started the discussion by laying down the gauntlet by proclaiming not now and not likely later either. He then he took the ball with him by posting on it over at his own blog in a post entitled, "Famous Chinese brands and other things you've never heard of."

I urge you all to go here to join the fun.

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Interesting guest post by Arie Schreier over at the China Solved Blog. The post is entitled, "How Not to Choose a Business Partner in China," and reduced to its essence, it is saying to pick your partner for business reasons.

But it makes for a much better story than that as it relays how so many companies pick their partner because he or she speaks English and has provided top of the line chauffeuring and dining.

I have an unwritten rule when I travel to China (Korea too) regarding people taking me around. My rule is that if someone I have worked with for years offers to pick me up at the airport or send someone out to get me, I will accept. But I never accept a ride or a dinner from anyone else. I have this rule for two reasons. One, I do not want someone I do not know well trying to and possibly succeeding in monopolizing my time. Two, (and though I find it unlikely) I do not want my personal feelings to influence my judgment, which judgment I am usually exercising on behalf of my clients.

If you are new to doing business in Asia, I recommend you read this post. For a somewhat related post, I also urge you to read "Your Chinese-American VP Don't Know Diddley 'Bout China Law And I Have Friggin Had It."

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Now that everyone knows garnering all 1.33 billion Chinese as customers for your product or service is unrealistic, selling to China's youth is the new holy grail.

But who are China's youth and what do they want? Seeing as how I do not profess to having a clue on those questions in my own country, I am not even going to begin to try to answer those questions regarding China. But I do know enough to know that plenty of Chinese parents are not unwilling to shell out big bucks for their kids and that there is plenty of money to be made by catering to China's youth. I would estimate that around half of my firm's consumer-centric clients cater at least partially to China's youth. This is particularly true of our clients in the software, clothing, educational, gaming, entertainment, technology and food industries and I fully expect this skewering towards China's youth to continue.

I am a huge fan of the enoVate blog, which is put out by the company of the same name, which company describes itself as follows:

enoVate is an insights and design firm located in Shanghai. We combine youth insights and an experienced strategy team to develop solutions for China’s youth market. We work with multinational and Asia based brands, agencies, and investors looking to expand in the growing China youth market. Our core strengths are:

youth insights and trends, qualitative research, creative offline and online campaigns, and
youth focused strategies for market entry, product/service development, and branding.
enoVate’s’ experience includes helping companies like Coca-cola, New Balance, Ticketmaster, and Anta to identify and take advantage of youth insights and new brand concepts.

The blog itself very much focuses on China's youth and their parents. If you are selling to China's youth or thinking of selling to China's youth, you should be reading enoVate. I highly recommend it.

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The China Works Blog just ran a terrific post setting out the various steps a foreign company should take to manufacture product in China. Entitled, "The ultimate China sourcing checklist – a beginner’s guide to manufacturing in China," the post nicely sets out twenty-three steps to be followed, within the following five categories:

-- Before you start
-- Finding and selecting a factory
-- Placing your order
-- When your order is ready
-- Receiving your order

It really is a great list and one I will, no doubt, be referring my clients to in the future. I do fault it for leaving out what I see as two critical legal elements, however, and I so noted by leaving the following comment:

You left out everything legal. I would add in (for most anyway) the need to have a good Non Disclusure Agreement (NDA) drafted (in Chinese) and signed by the factory before revealing confidential information and the need to have a good OEM Agreement (probably in Chinese as well) for added protection with respect to the manufacturing itself.

If you are looking to manufacture in China, I urge you to make this China Works post your starting point.

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The Imagethief blog has a post up here that provides an excellent list of the best writings so far on the Google-China Kerfuffle.

This story is already big because it is Google and China and I see a very real possibility of this becoming huge if it spreads. I do not even know what "spreading" could look like, but I do think that now that so much of what so many of us have suspected/known for a long long time, there may be no backing down by some very big players and that could mean some big changes for all of us.

UPDATE: The China Beat has an excellent list also, broken out into what it calls "the five C's on China:" Comprehensive, Chronological, Cynical, Cheeky, and Clarifying.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that there is a discussion regarding Google/China going on at the China Law Blog China Group. Join up and participate.

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About four months ago, in Part I of this series, I promised we would go through our blogroll and justify and expound upon each blog, five by five. About a month ago, I did part IV of this series. This is the fifth of this slowly running series, where I explain, in alphabetical order, why it is that each blog managed to qualify for our blogroll under our admittedly "slippery, vague, and subjective criteria:"

Our blogroll basically consists of those blogs we like and which we think our readers will like or should be reading. We tend to like blogs that are unique in their content, well written, or consistently helpful. If we really like a blog, it makes it on no matter what. The less we like the blog, the more we have to believe it can be helpful to our readers. If a blog has not posted for a couple of months, we start seriously consider removing it from the rolls. Three months and it is usually removed. We obviously focus on China related blogs and, within that, we generally focus on those blogs related to law or business.

So without further ado, the fifth five in our alphabetical list:

China Economic Review Editors Journal. Less of a blog now than it used to be (for instance, it no longer allows for comments), this Blog/Journal is a good weekly read of a key business issue facing either China or those who do business with China. China Economic Review is an excellent business/economics magazine (as evidenced by, among other things, their brilliance in using CLB's own Steve Dickinson as its legal columnist) and its editors certainly know whereof they speak.

China Economics Blog. This blog describes itself as a "place to find news, observations, statistics, information on undergraduate (BSc and BA economics) postgraduate (MSc economics) and academic analysis of important issues for China's economy including economic growth, inequality, stockmarket, shares, exchange rates, the environment, foreign direct investment, WTO and much more" and that is exactly what it is. I read it for its usually spot on and clearly written China economic analysis.

China Environmental Law. This blog is written by Charlie McElwee, "an international energy & environmental lawyer based in Shanghai." Charlie accurately describes his blog as a "discussion of China’s environmental and energy laws, regulations, and policies" and it is the first place I turn when I want to know more about the big environmental issues confronting China.

China Esquire. This blog is adroitly written by Thomas Chow, a San Francisco based lawyer with TechSoup Global. This blog describes itself as covering "Chinese law, business, and non-profits" and that is exactly what it does, with more of a policy bent than ours.

China Geeks. China Geeks describes itself as follows:

ChinaGeeks is a website about China. We post articles, original essays, translations, news, and relevant links to further the English-language discourse on China. Topics covered include (but are not limited to) history, current events, politics, literature, culture, and philosophy. We take pride in our writing standards–everything you find here will be well-written and worth your time (we hope!)

We’re also striving to create a community here; a community that embraces the many people throughout the world who (1) speak English and (2) are interested in China. Please join us, and leave us a comment or even join our team of contributors!

Accurate enough, but I see China Geeks more than anything else as a very important source for English language translations of news percolating in the Chinese press but missed by the English language mainstream media.

More to come....

What do you think?

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Just finished a very interesting and very nicely done three part series over at the brand spanking new View to China blog, written by London based lawyer, Geraldine Johns-Putra. The series is on the five big issues confronting China in its ascension to superpower status and it is entitled, "China as the next Superpower? Top 5 Make or Break Issues." Part 1 is here, part 2 is here and part 3 is here.

I recommend it.

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Stanley Lubman, an esteemed Chinese legal scholar, now at UC-Berkeley, wrote an excellent piece this week for the Wall Street Journal's ChinaRealTimeReport. The article, entitled, "Stanley Lubman: Business in China: What Does ‘Playing by the Rules’ Mean?" sets out the dilemma faced by foreign businesses operating in (or with) China: Can they "do business in China without violating the law?"

I recommend you read the whole article, but if you choose not to, at least read the conclusion below:

In an era when the Chinese market is increasingly important to many global businesses, some over-eager participants may be tempted to bend the rules for fear of being “left out” or missing a good opportunity. They should resist the temptation, and heed McGregor (p. 122), who notes that many foreign companies “have policies of zero tolerance for corruption in China, and still do good business because their products are the best and in demand.”

I buy that.

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If you like this blog and have not yet joined up as a member of the China Law Blog Group on Linkedin, you are really missing out.

About two weeks ago, I asked the Group to list out what they thought to be the best ten books on China business. Within about a week, Forbes Magazine asked me to write an article on the same thing. That article, entitled, "Best 10 Books On China: Planning your first business trip to China? Here's a guide," just came out today.

So without further ado, here's my list (in the order in which I am suggesting they be read, not in order of quality):

1. Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid, by J. Maarten Troost.

2. Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China, by John Pomfret.

3. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001, HarperCollins, $14.40), or Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present (2006, HarperCollins, $17.79), both by Peter Hessler.

4.Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China, by Phillip P. Pan (2008, Simon & Schuster, $18.48).

5.Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China, by James Fallows (2009, Vintage Books USA, $10.17).

6. China Shakes The World: A Titan's Rise and Troubled Future and the Challenge for America, by James Kynge (2006, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $20.00).

7. The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage, by Alexandra Harney (2008, The Penguin Press, $17.78).

8. Mr. China: A Memoir, by Tim Clissold (2005, HarperCollins, $15).

9. One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, by James McGregor (2005, Free Press, $2).

10. China CEO: Voices of Experience from 20 International Business Leaders, by Juan Antonio Fernandez and Laurie Underwood (2006, John Wiley & Sons, $14.96); and/or Where East Eats West: The Street-Smarts Guide to Business in China, by Sam Goodman (2008, BookSurge Publishing, $18.99).

If you want my explanation of the above, please go here for the Forbes article. And if you disagree (or agree) with me, please let me (and everyone else) know by commenting on this blog post or by adding to the ongoing discussion on our Linkedin Group.

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One of the fascinating things about having a China law practice is the front row seat it provides into the evolving trade relationship China has with the rest of the world. One of the things I have seen happening in far greater numbers over the last year or so are US companies establishing their worldwide or Asian distribution centers in mainland China. I have seen this from companies that used to have their only distribution center in the United States and I have seen this from companies that have distribution centers all around the world:

Chaina Magazine (the Magazine of the Global Supply Chain Council) just ran a very detailed article by Damon R. Paling, of PricewaterhouseCooper's Shanghai office, entitled, "Planning for Economic Recovery: Establishing a Regional Distribution Centre in China." The article "summarizes the experiences of a US luxury retailer as they evaluated options for establishing a Regional Distribution Centre (RDC) on Mainland China," and in doing so, makes for an excellent primer for anyone thinking of setting up distribution in China.

I recommend it for those looking to engage in product distribution from China.

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About a week ago, we went public with a China Law Blog Group on Linkedin. The goal of the group is to gather together people interested in real discussions on Chinese law and business and, sometimes even China in general.

There are plenty of other China groups on Linkedin and I am a member of some of them. So why did we form the China Law Blog Group? Well the quick answer is to provide a forum for our readers who are, of course, the best people in the world. But the real answer is because I was dissatisfied with most of the other groups, usually on one of two grounds. First, many groups have been hijacked by a few people whose goals are not to learn or to engage, but to market and sell. Now I have absolutely nothing against marketing and selling....nothing at all. But I do not want to be in a group where that goes on. And what was driving me crazy was how much of this is going on and how badly it is disguised. The typical example I always give is the person who goes on to a China group and asks whether you are having trouble finding a good translator and then proceeds to explain how their company provides great translation services? Who needs that? Really.

But at the same time, if a businessperson or lawyer or whomever is going to Dalian, China, and will need a translator while there, there would be nothing wrong with that person posting something to the group asking if anyone knows of a good translator in Dalian, China. The difference being that this person is asking the question because he or she wants an answer, not as a set-up to pitch a product or a service.

You an tell from the above though that monitoring a group is important. Those who monitor must be willing to delete the first, while keeping the second.

The other fault I have seen with so many Linkedin Groups is a lack of activity. Someone will pose a great question, to which I would love to see a response, but a response is never forthcoming. So again, who needs that?

The goal of the China Law Blog Group is above all else to be useful to its members. Because if it is not, what's the point?

The way I see it, there are only two ingredients for succeeding with a Linkedin Group: its monitor and its members and I think the China Law Blog Group has made a good start on both fronts. I am committed to engaging in tough monitoring and if that job ever gets too big, I will bring in others to assist. As for the members, I am delighted with the number of people who have already joined (nearly 200 in one week), but way more importantly, I am absolutely thrilled with their caliber.

I thank each and every one of you for joining.

Our members are and will be the key to a successful group. It will be their contributions to the discussion forums and the various other areas of the group that will determine whether it becomes a must see way station for those interested in China. We are off to a good start, but my being the person that I am, I want to do better. Always better.

We have been having an excellent discussion on the best English language books on China and that discussion does a great job of highlighting why it should be taking place on something like Linkedin, rather than in the comments section here. The discussion started out with my asking for people to list what they thought to be the best China books on business and it has since evolved into the best books on China in general and its most recent turn has been to whether there are any good English language books on Chinese law. I like it.

At the same time, one of our members asked a question regarding TechGear's coverage of Foxconn and Shenzhen and there has yet to be a response. That's too bad and that should not happen, which is really the point of this post.

Linkedin Groups are only as good as their members but quantity matters. I strongly suspect there was no answer to the Foxconn question because those who saw it did not feel they were qualified to give a response. I put myself in that category. But if we had 500 members instead of 200 members, there would be a much greater chance of members having the knowledge and the interest to respond.

So I am urging all of you to go here and check out our brand new group on Linkedin and join if you are interested.

Let's make it work.

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About three months ago, in Part I of this series, I promised we would go through our blogroll and justify and expound upon each blog, five by five. About a month ago, I did part III of this series. This is the fourth of this slowly running series where I explain, in alphabetical order, why it is that each blog managed to qualify for our blogroll under our admittedly "slippery, vague, and subjective criteria:"

Our blogroll basically consists of those blogs we like and which we think our readers will like or should be reading. We tend to like blogs that are unique in their content, well written, or consistently helpful. If we really like a blog, it makes it on no matter what. The less we like the blog, the more we have to believe it can be helpful to our readers. If a blog has not posted for a couple of months, we start seriously consider removing it from the rolls. Three months and it is usually removed. We obviously focus on China related blogs and, within that, we generally focus on those blogs related to law or business.

So without further ado, the fourth five in our alphabetical list:

China Challenges. Written by veteran Shanghai hand, Brian Schwarz, this blog excels in its simplicity. When at its nadir, it consists of little more than Schwarz pulling the best/most interesting/most informative China post/article off the net and nicely summarizing it. I know that does not sound like much, but I analogize it to the wide receiver in football who, game in and game out, catches a few passes for a ten to fifteen yard gain. Many a time I have gotten post ideas from China Challenges.

China Comment. In some ways, China Comment is the opposite of China Challenges. China Comment is written by a US law student who wishes to remain anonymous. The blog posts only every few weeks or so, but each post is typically a doozy. The posts are long, well thought out, and full of great and oftentimes difficult to find sources. They usually relate to energy and environmental issues in China.

China Confidential. Many years ago, the force behind China Confidential and I were on a BBC radio program together on China and I have been impressed by his China knowledge and, particularly, his contacts ever since. The blogger behind CC chooses to remain confidential to protect his many China sources, some of whom are quite high up in the government and the military there. This blog definitely does not have a strictly China focus, as it writes on world politics unrelated to China at least as often as it writes on China. This blog is not to be confused with the FT.com pay per view site, China Confidential, which apparently had no qualms about usurping that name from this blog.

China Dialogue. China Dialogue's about page does such a good job describing it, I will just go with that: "Founded by international journalist Isabel Hilton in 2006, chinadialogue is the bilingual [English and Chinese] source of high-quality news, analysis and discussion on all environmental issues, with a special focus on China." It is a great source of high end environmental news on China.

China Digital Times. If someone told me they could read only one blog/site to keep up on China, I would probably suggest they make China Digital Times their one site. I am again going to let the site itself do the describing:

CDT is a bilingual news website covering China’s social and political transition and its emerging role in the world. We aggregate the most up-to-the-minute news and analysis about China from around the Web, while providing independent reporting, translations from Chinese cyberspace, perspectives from across the geographical, political and social spectrum, and daily recommendations of readings from the Chinese blogosphere.

CDT does a consistently amazing job of pulling the best/most important China news and analysis from the top newspapers, magazines and blogs.

More to come....

What do you think?

Oh, and please be sure to vote for China Law Blog in this year's best law blog competition at the ABA Journal. Go here to register, and then vote for us in the "Geo" category.

UPDATE: As you can see from the below, some of you have complained about China Confidential's politics on matters not involving China. This blog does not base its blogroll on politics and it is proud of the fact that the politics of the bloggers on the blogroll span the political spectrum. The complaint that China Confidential does not write much on China is a legitimate one and is something I have been monitoring for quite some time. When I put it on the blogroll years ago, it dealt only with China and it has certainly moved away from that as of late and it is not nearly as China-centric as I would like and there have been times I have seriously considered dropping it from the blogroll for this reason. Yet, just about every time I have been close to doing so, it comes up with an original China post based on what I believe to be inside knowledge. That keeps it on here a while longer. China Confidential was the blog that broke the HUGE story about how the Shanghai bar association was angered by how foreign lawyers were handling their China law practices, which story was subsequently picked up by the mainstream media. This is just one example. I also have another beef with China Confidential, which is that it does not allow comments, which makes me wonder whether it is truly a blog at all. So keep up the comments as they are appreciated.

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Bill Russo, China car expert extraordinaire, has been running an excellent series of posts on China's car market and he just hit the lucky number 8 and final one and this one really got my attention. It is entitled, "TREND #8: China’s Rapidly Changing Demographics and Growing Demand in Lower Tier Cities," and its focus is on China's demographics relating to car sales in China. But it really is a terrific short briefing on China's demographics as they are relevant to business.

If you are dong business in China or thinking of doing business in China, particularly if you are selling product or services in or into China, I suggest you read it. And it certainly would not hurt you to read the seven posts that preceded it.

Please don't forget to vote for China Law Blog.

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Robert Hu, a law librarian/professor at St. Mary's University School of Law just came out with a China IP bibliography, entitled, Protecting Intellectual Property in China: A Selective Bibliography and Resource for Research. That long title is the academic way of saying a really helpful list of sources on China IP.

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"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game."
Jacques Barzun

I love watching and reading about sports. Always have. Always will. Growing up, I never missed school unless the Cubs were on the television. No way was I going to waste a sick day on I Love Lucy and the Beverly Hillbillies.

Many years ago, a London lawyer friend of mine (who happens to be a baseball fan) was asking me about racism in the United States. I told him of an incident in Ken Burns' amazing documentary, Baseball, that to me, pretty well summed up both the absurdity and shame of American racism. The story (as I remember it now) was Curt Flood (or was it Lou Brock?), an intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate black man, talking about a doubleheader his minor league team played in Arkansas (I think it was Arkansas) where he had to sit out the second game because the local laundry would not wash the clothes of a Black man. I then instructed my friend to read David Halberstam's book, October 1964, which does as good a job of any in explaining American racism. My read it and loved it.

Though I know it to be a total cliche, I cannot resist also pointing out that sports teach you about life. Because they do. Read this amazing article on Walter Payton and then try to dispute that.

All this is a preface to pointing out that there is some excellent China sports writing going on out there in English, of which you should be aware.

The China Sports Review Blog and China Sports Today are both excellent general sports blogs.

China Sports Today describes itself as follows:

From our base in Beijing, China Sports Today covers the Chinese sports world - from professional leagues and Olympic teams to sports marketing and recreational events. Our daily news updates, events calendar (coming soon), guides and listings of relevant locations (coming soon) around China will help you make sense of the rapidly evolving sports scene here.

Whether you are a journalist looking for the names of China's top badminton players, a rugby player looking for a team to play with in Shanghai or a sports fan coming to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing next August, China Sports Today is your online source.

China Sports Review describes itself as follows:

China Sports Review was established in Oct. 2008, one month after the Beijing Olympics Games, with the objective of providing up-to-date news about China’s sports industry, analysis and opinions on current happenings in the Chinese sports world, as well as information on Chinese sports media, education, culture and history.

And though I am of the Golf is a good walk spoiled view (mostly because I suck at it) I love Dan Washburn's Par for China blog, which he describes as follows:

I am Dan Washburn, an American writer based in Shanghai, China. I am currently researching a book about the development of golf in China. Golf, its emergence and growth in China, is a barometer for the country’s rapid economic rise. But golf is also symbolic of the less glamorous realities of a nation’s awkward and arduous evolution from developing to developed — historical prejudice, class struggle, political corruption, environmental neglect, and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. This website is dedicated to some of my work on the topic.

It is often said that to fully understand a culture, you have to understand its humor. I think the same holds true of a country's sports and its relationship to those sports. If you want to know more about China through sports, I recommend you read China Sports Review, China Sports Today, and Par for China .

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Anyone and everyone who does business in or with China needs to read these two posts at The Black China Hand. "If I Build a Potemkin Village Will They Come?" and "How to Start a Chinese Company."

The first post is about a Chinese company that sought to hire the Black China Hand to make his company (within a few weeks) look like an American company so as to win a big contract from an American company. The takeaway from this is that cursory due diligence on a company with which you intend to do business is not enough. Let me give you some examples of cases on which I have worked:

1. Western company pays Chinese Steel company ~$2 million for steel rods. Chinese company has a really nice office but there is no company there and the $2 million completely disappears.

2. Western company pays Chinese shipping company to ship food product from Russia to China. Problem was there was no Chinese shipping company and the food never arrived. Total loss was approximately ~$2 million.

3. Western company discovers that its China manager has been skimming about $5 million a year for ten years by charging its suppliers fees for contracts.

4. Western company invests ~$500,000 in project with Chinese aviation company that does not exist.

In all of the above cases, the Western company was invited to China to check out the company and did so. My firm has probably been contacted about one hundred times by companies who ordered product from Chinese companies over the internet and then either never received anything or else received fakes.

The point here is absolutely NOT that all Chinese companies are fake because obviously that is not the case. The point is that not everything (anywhere, not just China) is as it seems and it always makes sense to conduct due diligence.

The second post is about the same Chinese company and how it got its start:

He was hired right out of college to the sales department of a state-owned import-export company. After working there several years he decided he wanted to branch off on his own but he needed capital and clients. He solved that problem by basically poaching the clients he made working at the import-export company. As for capital: he basically ran his company from his desk in the import-export company drawing a salary, making use of the company's resources (cars, dinners, gifts) to fund his personal initiative. If company officials knew or cared they didn't make him aware of it. So with no risk (financial or legal) whatsoever, over several years, Mr. H was able to build his company until it could sustain itself without the "shield" that the import-export company unknowingly provided it.

At that point, he simply quit the job at the import-export company … registered his own with the relevant authorities, rented a space elsewhere and continued doing what he had been doing over the last several years. Ten years later he's in the running for what I perceived to be a multi-million dollar contract with a top US company.

Again, this is just not that unusual:

1. A few years ago, I brought a lawsuit on behalf of an international fishing company against an employee who for years had been traveling the world in style on my client's dime to buy and sell fish products for his own company. In fact, this employee had set up a joint venture in Asia with one of my client's biggest suppliers.

2. I am right now in the middle of a lawsuit on behalf of a Chinese company against an ex-employee who is alleged to have sold substantial amounts of my client's product, with payment having gone to his account, not the company, and which money this person used to set up a competitive business.

I do not for a minute think these sorts of things are peculiar to China. Not at all. In fact, I have seen similar things in wholly American companies. But, I do think linguistic and cultural differences make companies both less willing to investigate, less able to understand what is going on, and even less willing to challenge something that just does not seem right.

Nothing profound here, just a bit of advice to be on your guard.

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I am three-quarters of the way through the book, Understanding Labor and Employment Law in China, by Ronald C. Brown. Brown is a Professor of Law and the Chair of the Pacific-Asian Legal Studies Committee at University of Hawaii Law School and can confidently state that it is a great book.

But it is not for those seeking merely a light dusting on Chinese labor and employment law. Not at all.

It is 332 page exposition on the current state of China's labor laws. It was just published so it is quite current. Its appendix consists of translations of the key Chinese laws relating to labor and employment.

Who should read this book?
-- Academics interested in China labor laws? Check.
-- Private practice lawyers seeking a deeper understanding of China's labor laws? Check.
-- In-house lawyers wanting to better understand China's labor laws? Check.
-- HR personnel with businesses operating in China? Probably check.
-- Lawyers who actually practice labor law in China? Maybe check.
-- The general businessperson doing business in China? Maybe check.

Let me explain my maybes.

Any lawyer actually doing employment law in China must be able to speak and read Mandarin fluently and so that lawyer probably does not have much need for a book like this, written in English. If you are going to be writing employee manuals and employment contracts in China or giving advice regarding China's labor laws, you absolutely must now how to read and write Mandarin. You have to know how to read it because so many of the employment laws are local, rather than national, and because there is no substitute for reading a law in its original language. You have to know how to write in Mandarin because your employee manuals and your employment contracts pretty much have to be in Chinese if you have any Chinese employees.

This book is probably too intense, too thorough, too long, too deep, and too complicated for the typical businessperson seeking a general background on Chinese employment law and I do not think it was ever intended for that purpose.

If you are looking for an English language book that really details China's labor and employment laws, this is the book.

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The Eileen Eats blog has an excellent, and very scary post up on the state of Chinese food. It is entitled, "Food Safety– Can’t let your guard down," and its money quote is as follows:

Hung Huang, chief executive of the China Interactive Media Group in China, said recently in an article in the New York Times that China as a nation of food lovers is going on a diet. “Not because we don’t love to eat anymore,” she said, “but because we just don’t know what is safe to eat.”

For an article on the state of China's food safety, check out this article, Food Fumble, co-blogger Steve Dickinson wrote for the Wall Street Journal.

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Atlantic Magazine has a short article up, entitled, "The Nine Nations of China." It is written by Patrick Chovanec, a professor at Tsinghua University, and it basically consists of an interactive map that seeks to make the well-worn (and pretty well-known) point that China is not monolithic (did I just hear someone call for stopping the presses?) (h/t James Fallows) This article is coming out now to coincide with President Obama's China visit:

This week, President Obama makes his first state visit to China. What kind of country will he find there? We tend to imagine China as a monolith: 1.3 billion people sharing the same language, history, and culture. The truth is far more interesting. China is a mosaic of several distinct regions, each with its own resources, dynamics, and historical character.

I am not sure how these nine regions were determined and when I pressed the link for what appears to be a fuller explanation, I got sent to an error page. But I know that knowing these nine regions is important because the article tells me so:

As China’s economy becomes more integrated, these regional differences are taking on greater importance than ever before. Each of the Nine Nations faces a unique set of challenges and opportunities in carving out its own competitive niche. Anyone who wants to do business in China, make policy towards China, or simply comprehend the dramatic changes happening there should understand the Nine Nations and the role each of them is playing in shaping China’s future.

My problem I see with this map is that it is exactly that. A map. And as a map, it distinguishes among regions geographically and that is not how I view many aspects of China. Just by way of an example, I see Beijing having commonalities with Shanghai just because they are two powerful and relatively sophisticated big cities. Different as these two cities are (and they are plenty different, in their cultures, in their attitudes and even in their languages), they still share many commonalities in terms of business.

Help me out here. What do you think?

UPDATE: Mr. Chovanec has done a nice post on his blog explaining his map a bit more. And Jottings from the Granite Studio has weighed in as well.

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A China gaming client recently sent me the link to a very interesting and informative post on China Vortex, entitled, "Chinese Face, Chinese Heart," on Western companies seeking to break into China's internet and/or gaming industries. Here is what that post is about:

One of the frequent questions I run into in China is how western Internet companies coming into China should position themselves for growth in China.

Should they try to be western, or should they try in the shortest possible time, try to become Chinese, hiring Chinese for their local staff and management? Under what circumstances is it best to be western, and under what circumstances is it best to be Chinese? And what if a company has been in Taiwan, Hong Kong and/or the US; how should they position themselves for future growth in the Chinese market?

Well worth a read for those in either the internet or the gaming arena or simply in business in China.

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Paul French has written an interesting article for Ethical Corporation magazine, entitled, "Bye-bye backhanders." (h/t China Herald) The article is subtitled, "China’s initiative on removing corruption in tendering for public contracts are a victory for transparency" and it nicely details how China is in the process of enacting a state of the art process for choosing the winning bids for government procurement contracts. The article talks of how this new process (starting in the bigger cities first) is intended to (and likely will) greatly reduce corruption and patronage in Chinese government contracting.

It is well worth a read.

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The other day I went to lunch with two international lawyers from Spain who were passing through town. They talked a lot about their work in Angola and in Mozambique and we talked a lot about our work in China and the rest of Asia. They talked of how in Spain there had been a consumer and regulatory backlash against many Chinese consumer goods and how, for instance, consumers there had pretty much stopped buying Chinese made shoes.

I asked if there were many Chinese in Angola and Mozambique and they both immediately starting talking about the huge numbers of them in both countries. I asked what they were doing in those countries and they answered, construction. Chinese companies are behind the building of infrastructure and buildings in both countries. Now of course I knew/assumed China was in these two countries, but knowing that is different from having a real knowledge of what they are doing there.

Though I often write on what Chinese companies are doing in the United States (and that is nearly always from the prism of the Chinese companies with which my law firm has worked), my knowledge of what those companies are doing outside the United States is very limited. To try to expand my knowledge of that, I have taken to reading the "Hurting the Feelings of the Chinese People" blog, which is subtitled, "China vs. the World." The blog's about page describes it as follows:

I am interested in how the rise of China is affecting other countries, and how the Chinese are adapting to their increasing power. So, a blog with some links and commentary about the 21st century and China ... by "Hong Mao"

-- "Chinese businessmen in Papua New Guinea armed with machine guns"
-- "Ninety Chinese-run brothels in Dublin"
-- "Chinese set up factories in Egypt"
-- "Fujianese extortion gangs prey on Chinese business owners around New York"
-- "Nepal/India: tigers and rhino decimated by poachers for Chinese market"
-- "Zimbabwean security services based on Chinese model"
-- "Ethiopia uses Chinese help to suppress truth about famine"

I have to believe there are relevant lessons to be learned about China business and, in particular, Chinese business overseas, from all (or at least nearly all) of these articles. More importantly, I find them unremittingly interesting and I highly recommend you check out this blog.

Update:

An anonymous commenter left a comment to this post that, though somewhat critical of the post, is dead on and bears repeating in the body of this post:

I just checked out the blog. I'm a little surprised that someone like Dan, who is usually a pretty careful guy, would recommend that blog with the words "although pretty much "just" an news aggregator, this is an excellent and important blog. It typically posts around ten articles a day on what is happening with Chinese company and the Chinese people around the world."

It would be like describing Freerepublic.com or the Michelle Malkin blog as "excellent and important resources to learn what is happening with liberals around the world".

It seems from at least the headlines that stories are selected which focus on disreputable, paranoid-inducing and fearmongering news about the Chinese.

Worse, the blog actually alters the headline and text of the original news stories, editing out facts or statements that present a more neutral picture, causing the reader to have a decidedly more negative view towards China and Chinese than the original articles present.

For example, take a look at the story linked above headlined "Fujianese extortion gangs prey on Chinese business owners around New York".

It has a link to the original Newsday story which was headlined "Massapequa boy bound but uninjured in home invasion". The original news story does not mention Fujianese extortion gangs in the headline.

Further, 3 paragraphs were redacted out of the story reprinted at the blog:

"Nassau Det. Sgt. Al Sharpe said the possibility that the family was targeted because of their business "is certainly one of the angles we're looking at."
....
Sharpe could not comment on whether the suspects targeted the family because of their background.
....
One of the three men was wearing a red baseball cap, police said. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential."

The original headlined and article presented a more neutral and objective statement of the facts. The "fact" of Fujianese extortion gangs preying on Chinese businesspeople in NY was actually just a hearsay statement uncorroborated by any evidence ("the mother said friends have told her about thieves within the Fujianese-Chinese community targeting restaurant owners"). The Newsday journalist correctly inserted a balancing statement by the police sergeant which cautions against drawing any conclusions without evidence.

Not so the blog, which blares the problem of Fujianese extortion gangs as conclusive fact in the headline.

Hmmm. Is it "news aggregation" when the news aggregator changes the headline and deletes text from the original news story to suit the blog's own view of the world?

What is the intention behind it?

As Dan well knows, when writing legal briefs, one of the ways lawyers try to strengthen an argument is to cite and quote cases selectively to bolster, hoping that the reader will not notice the missing parts of the original cases cited. But when the reader picks up on what has been deleted, and realizes how much the meaning of the original has been distorted by the deletion, then the drafter loses credibility in the readers' mind, because of the misleading use of the citations.

Out of the 7 articles linked above, the original articles for 5 of them are significantly different from the article appearing at the blog. The effect is to take articles where the Chinese role is relatively minor and magnify it in a negative way (e.g., compare the Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Nepal articles as cited in the blog to the original, and notice the differences).

I know Dan is a busy professional (like most working lawyers) and appreciates that someone is out there aggregating news around the world about China in one place, and probably doesn't have time to check the blog against the original source to see what the differences are.

My suggestion is to use the blog, and then read the original. It is very easy to see the "slant" of the blogger Hong Mao when you do this.

First off, let me say thanks for taking the time to review the blog and to write your comment. Mea culpa. I did not realize this blog was anything more than a news aggregator and I did not realize it had an agenda. I certainly did not realize that it was leaving out key sections of articles and essentially changing the thrust of those articles with its headlines. I did not realize any of these things because I did not compare the articles within the blog to the originals. I am particularly troubled by its omitting portions of the articles, while making it seem as though we are seeing the whole thing.

Having said all this, I still find the blog somewhat worthwhile, though decidely less so than before. To use the commenter's analogy, Michelle Malkin's blog and Freerepublic.com are good sources to find out to "learn what is happening with liberals around the world." But if you are going to read those two sites, you should do so knowing their agendas and you should seek to balance that out by reading other sites as well. When I was in college (and had all the time in the world), I would read just about every political magazine out there, from National Review on the right to The Nation on the left, both of which were good sources for learning about what was happening with liberals and conservatives around the world. So go ahead and read "Hurting the Feelings of Chinese People," but recognize it has its own slant on the world and be sure to read the underlying articles to learn it all. Frankly, I do not have time to double check everything that a blogger says on issues that are really pretty tangential to my life and so while I am going to keep this blog on my RSS feeder just because it is a good amalgamator of news about Chinese business outside China, I likely will not be reading many of its posts.

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I recently became a regular reader of the Jason Patent blog. Patent is a PhD linguist with a ton of teaching and writing experience regarding Chinese culture. Patent now offers coaching and consulting services, mostly relating to Chinese business culture and that is what he usually writes about on his blog as well.

His welcome page describes his blog:

All organizations in China work in an unpredictable environment. What few realize is that much of what determines your success or failure is completely predictable. Decades of on-the-ground experience and validated research have shown that when Westerners go to China, certain things will come up as a result of the unfamiliar cultural environment they find themselves in.

A hitter in baseball knows the difference between a fastball and a curveball, and knows which one they’re better at hitting. Nobody should go to China without knowing the cultural basics, or without knowing their own strengths and weaknesses as leaders and as venturers into the unknown. Why lose out for failure to prepare for what you can prepare for?

There is one reason for my being here: to help you succeed in China. The formula is straightforward: by being ready for the mental traps awaiting you in China, you will save precious time, money and goodwill, giving yourself the best possible chance at success.

His posts often explore a particular way Westerners view Chinese and then details how the perception might have arisen, and analyzes its validity/invalidity. The posts also usually set forth how to deal with these perceptions to more smoothly allow business to go forward. I particularly liked his series on trust:

-- Truth and Trust: Prove it
-- Truth and Trust: Absent malice?
-- Truth and Trust: American lies
-- Truth and Trust: Chinese truths

If you are doing business in or with China, you should be reading the Jason Patent blog and I just added it to our blogroll.

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About two months ago, in Part I of this series, I promised we would go through our blogroll and justify and expound upon each blog, five by five. About a month ago, I did part II of this series. This is the third of this slowly running series where I explain, in alphabetical order, why it is that each blog managed to qualify for our blogroll under our admittedly "slippery, vague, and subjective criteria:"

Our blogroll basically consists of those blogs we like and which we think our readers will like or should be reading. We tend to like blogs that are unique in their content, well written, or consistently helpful. If we really like a blog, it makes it on no matter what. The less we like the blog, the more we have to believe it can be helpful to our readers. If a blog has not posted for a couple of months, we start seriously consider removing it from the rolls. Three months and it is usually removed. We obviously focus on China related blogs and, within that, we generally focus on those blogs related to law or business.

So without further ado, the third five in our alphabetical list:

China Business Blog. This blog is written by Jeremy Gordon, a true China veteran. Jeremy has been in the thick of China business for more than a decade and before that he was in Hong Kong as an officer with Britain's Brigade of Gurkhas. My law firm has worked with Jeremy and his company on a number of China business intelligence and China business investigatory matters. True to its title, Jeremy's blog focuses mostly on matters impacting business in China. Lately, it has about every week posted on the top ten twitter tweets on China business.

The China Beat. Cleverly subtitled, "Blogging How the East is Read, this blog, according to its "about" page, "provides context and criticism on contemporary China from China scholars and journalists. Based around a group of active contributors at the University of California, Irvine, including co-founders Kenneth Pomeranz and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, the blog draws on a global group of China watchers in the U.S., China, the U.K., Australia, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, and many other locations." All true, but despite being written by a bunch of legitimate China scholars, it actually makes for a consistently interesting and down to earth read.

ChinaBizGov. Talk about scholarly....This blog is one of the most intellectual China blogs in the blogosphere, but I still absolutely love it. It is the brainchild of G.E. Anderson, who describes himself as a "China specialist, former CFO, and PhD Candidate in Political Science at UCLA. Research focuses on state-owned enterprises, corporate governance and China's auto industry." I love it for two reasons. First, it provides great coverage on China's auto industry, which in turn provides great insight into Chinese business in general and to the relationship between business and government in China. Second, it provides great coverage of the relationship between business and government in China, which, is, for most industries, absolutely critical information to have.

China Business Blog and Podcast. This blog makes the list for pretty much the same reason as the ones that precede it here today: because I am 100% confident that the person behind it knows whereof he speaks. This blog is written by Kent Kedl of Technomic Asia and I have known and worked with and been impressed by Kent and his company for many years. Kent has been working in China (now based in Shanghai) since forever, though he still (for some unknown reason) prides himself on being a Minnesotan. His blog does a consistently superb job focusing on the big picture of doing business in China. With the allegedb"hiatus" of Will Moss over at ImageThief, Kent has to now be the undisputed funniest/most clever China blogger out there.

China Bystander. This is a true sleeper blog. It is been around since July, 2007, quietly and putting out a short sparse post on China just about every day. I do not even know who is behind this blog, as its about page consists only of the following: "A curious glance from an old China hand or two as the country develops before our eyes." But it is a damn good blog, written by someone who clearly understands economics. It typically sparsely (I am intentionally using that same word twice in this paragraph) focuses on one big (yet overtimes under-covered) issue each day. I cannot tell you how many times I have first heard of an important China economic or business issue on this blog. If you do not have this on your RSS feeder, you are making a mistake.

More to come....

What do you think?

UPDATE: Kent Kedl has proven the point regarding humor and brilliance by doing a post, entitled, "Aw, shucks … stop it. You’re embarrassing us!" extolling this humble blog (which the "cool kids" apparently call CLB).

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Our blogroll is very intentionally limited to blogs on China or, at minimum, those with a decided China focus. If we were to open it beyond these confines, I have no idea what the new confines would be, our blogroll would get too big, and we would almost certainly leave out deserving blogs.

Keeping our blogroll limited does have its downsides, including that many great blogs we read regularly are left out. Over time, we will be highlighting some of these blogs because we believe many of our readers will have an interest in those blogs as well. I am starting this "series" by highlighting the International Business Law Advisor blog, written by Santiago Cueto, a Miami (technically, Coral Gables) based international lawyer who focuses on international litigation and arbitration. The blog's byline is "identifying trends in international business law," and that is exactly what it so deftly does. For example:

-- "Hey Brazil: It'sTime to Ratify Those Bilateral Investment Agreements," where he rightly points out how Brazil's rising economic and political status signals it is time for Brazil to start signing bilateral trade agreements:

However, it [Brazil] lags behind all other Latin American countries in one important respect: it has yet to ratify any bilateral investment agreements (BITs). These agreements protect international investors when disputes arise in host countries. In light of Brazil’s recent good fortune, the time has come for Brazil to rethink its approach to BITs and implement measures to protect foreign investors.

-- "Florida Court Refuses to Enforce $97M Foreign Judgment Against Dole," highlighting the refusal of a Florida Federal Court's refusal to enforce a Nicaraguan judgment against Dole Foods because the law on which it was based violated international standards.

-- "Alien Tort Claims Act: A Threat to U.S. Corporations Operating Overseas?" This post posits that corporations are being sued as surrogates for countries that violate human rights.

In addition to being thoughtful and crisply written, its design is first rate as well. I have it on my RSS feeder and if you have an interest in international law generally, so should you.

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Advertising Age Magazine just came out with its list of "20 Blogs Marketers to China Should Be Reading " and I like it. I like it not just because it lists China Law Blog (though I will admit I have trouble seeing past that), but because it provides a diverse list of blogs, every one of which I consider to be good.

I like how it includes well deserved classics like Danwei and Peking Duck, deep think blogs like China Beat and James Fallows, top newcomer blogs like Aimee Barnes and China Smack, not boring legal blogs, China Hearsay and IP Dragon, and cutting edge China marketing blogs like China IWOM and China Youthology.

I also like how its list is alphabetical, which calmed me a bit after I realized that was the case and it was not ranking us at #10.

If you are interested in China (and that is why you are here, right?) I urge you to check it out.

What blogs are missing?

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Just finished the book, Chocolate Fortunes, by Lawrence L. Allen. It's a very good book.

The book is about the competition between Hershey's, Mars, Ferraro Rocher, Nestle and Cadbury for the Chinese consumer. But it is really more about is what it takes to succeed in the consumer products business in China. And lest anyone ever thought China consumer sales would be easy, Chocolate Fortunes thoroughly dispels that notion while explaining exactly what it does take to succeed or fail in China. Lawrence Allen was himself an executive with both Hershey and Nestle and he clearly knows whereof he speaks in describing who among the Chocolate titans did well and why.

For anyone who is thinking of going into consumer products or food or retail in China (and who out there is willing to ignore 1.3 billion customers?) this book is a must read.

Based on my firm's experience in handling the legal aspects for all sorts of businesses going into China, I see the legal side of China consumer products/retail as relatively straightforward. But the "making money side of retail in China is no mean feat. For the most part, our manufacturing clients go into China, start making a product and then start making a profit relatively quickly. Our service sector clients go into China, get an office, and then start making money relatively quickly. Now I know it has to be more difficult than that, but from my perspective as a lawyer, it does seem that the call I get from these clients 3-6 months after we have set them all up usually involves them telling me how well things are going and how well they expect things to keep going.

Not so on the consumer products and retail side. Issues like where to sell in China, distribution, and marketing (all of which Chocolate Fortunes extensively discusses) are intensely complicated and can be fraught with peril. And then there is the issue of costs. Getting good retail space (either through renting one's own store or through distribution through existing stores can be shockingly high in China. We have had a number of very well funded clients decide to test out retail concept in a second tier city like Qingdao or Suzhou after finding out how much it would cost to do so in Shanghai or Beijing. Indeed, these days, places like Qingdao and Suzhou are not really bargains either. And my 3-6 month calls from our retail/consumer goods clients who are seeking to sell into china usually involve them muttering about how they had no idea "gaining traction" in China would be so difficult.

What are you seeing out there?

UPDATE: Just saw Experience Not Logic's excellent post-review on this book, "Everything You Wanted to Know About the Chocolate Business in China."

FURTHER UPDATE (2-28-2010): China Herald just came out with a favorable review on the book as well, in this post, entitled, "China disasters with a chocolate coating."

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The Transcript from my AmCham interview on China joint ventures is now online here. We are working on a post on how companies can best protect themselves if they do go forward with a joint venture in China, but in the meantime, this transcript does a nice job (thanks in large measure to Josh Gartner's interviewing skills) of teasing out the state of the joint venture in China today.

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All Roads Lead to China just came out with a fascinating, but way too short, post on a few interviews of Shanghai's underclass. It is called, "It's All About Hope and Opportunity in China" and I urge everyone to read it.

All Roads' post touches on the sorts of things China Law Blog used to discuss a lot more often when when we first started oh so long ago.

I can remember writing a number of posts and comments where I would talk about how the Chinese are more like Americans than many realize. And how I have always felt far more "at home" in China than in what I see as for more hierarchical and formal societies like Korea and Japan.

The All Roads post brought back some fond memories for me of one of my longest and best China friendships. Excuse me for a rare burst of maudlin here, but it all goes back to a case I was handling in Qingdao where I and a Qingdao lawyer ended up spending the better part of two days together waiting for a ship to come in to Qingdao's port and then hunting it down once we heard it had arrived. We had a lot of time to talk and one of the things I will never forget about our conversation was how we both saw our countries so similarly.

We talked about how what we most liked about our country was how it was still possible for people from poverty to rise up and achieve just about anything. And of how this belief is so essential to the fabric of both our countries. This belief is our core. And this now very wealthy, exceedingly well educated Chinese lawyer knew of this from the heart as he is one of 13 children from a tiny village whose father had a 4th grade education.

We then talked about what most concerned us about our respective countries and we both again said that our biggest concern was how this was changing. We both talked of how the wealthy are starting to live in gated communities and send their kids to private schools and we both worried about the long term impact this might have on our countries' futures. Our two law firms eventually established a formal affiliation, but it has always been built more on our friendship than on any piece of paper.

All Roads' piece talks about the hopes of the financially downtrodden to do better by their next generation. CLB's Steve Dickinson is always telling me of conversations he has with waiters and waitresses and others in China's less respected jobs. And what he says reinforces what All Roads is saying. That these people believe their hard work will pay off in a better future, if not for them, than for their children.

When I was in college, I took a course on revolutions and the two things I best remember from that course (in fact, probably the only two substantive things I remember from that course) where that revolutions typically spring from the urban middle class (this is obviously less true of China than of most countries) and they spring from those who believe the elites have blocked the paths upward.

Rich, put me down as someone else who would love to see more of your street interviews.

Just a few random thoughts....

What do you think?

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FT.com has a very nicely put together, very informative timeline/article mapping out the key points in China's history. It is entitled, "People’s Republic of China at 60" and its pitch is that it allows you to "follow the key political and economic moments in the history of the People’s Republic since its founding on October 1, 1949. It does and I recommend it.

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About a month ago, in Part I of this series, I promised we would go through our blogroll and justify and expound upon each blog, five by five. This is the second in that series. As I mentioned in that last blog post, we pick our blogs based on the following slippery, vague, and subjective criteria:

Our blogroll basically consists of those blogs we like and which we think our readers will like or should be reading. We tend to like blogs that are unique in their content, well written, or consistently helpful. If we really like a blog, it makes it on no matter what. The less we like the blog, the more we have to believe it can be helpful to our readers. If a blog has not posted for a couple of months, we start seriously consider removing it from the rolls. Three months and it is usually removed. We obviously focus on China related blogs and, within that, we generally focus on those blogs related to law or business.

Here then is our second five, listed alphabetically:

Asia Health Care Blog. Alphabetically, this blog actually belonged on our first list, but since we added it since that post, I am writing on it now. I tend not to like listing industry specific blogs because.....well, they are too industry specific. There are many excellent China tech blogs and none of those are on our blogroll. But I have added this one for two reasons. One, health care impacts us all (yes, I know technology does also, but remember the subjective part mentioned above) and this blog is written with a general audience in mind. Second, the two bloggers are so damn earnest, I wanted to give them some kudos.

bezdomny ex patria. My Latin ain't so good, but I think this blog title means homeless and outside of one's native country. And at least the second part is true of the force behind this blog. It is written by a New Zealander who lives in Beijing, hence its subtitle: "ramblings of an expat Kiwi living in one small corner of Beijing." I like that it is not yet another American blog and I especially like how the guy behind it, Chris Waugh, is very smart, very independent, and not afraid to put it all out there in his posts. This is not your standard China blog and that is why you should be reading it. Waugh describes himself as follows:

My real name is Chris Waugh.... I’m from Wellington, I live in Beijing where I teach English to earn my keep and study Chinese in my spare time because…… well, why the hell not? I mean, apart from the fact I live in China and my wife is Chinese, it’s just interesting. Well, I majored in French language and literature (Otago University, finished my BA in 1998, graduated May 1999), I also studied German language and literature, Russian language and literature, German and Russian film, Russian history….. I guess you could say I’m the kind of guy who loves studying languages, literature, cultures, that kind of thing. So in that respect, living in China is great, never a dull moment, always something to keep me interested.

I’m one of the least threatening people I know, and I don’t blog about the kind of stuff that would have people kicking my door in and dragging me off for reeducation. This blog is simply about what I observe and experience in my banal little life. If people find it interesting, cool, if not, there are plenty of other things you can kill your time with. What you can expect to read here is rambling about life in Beijing, my experiences trying to learn Chinese, perhaps some ranting about stuff in the news- but that’s not likely to be of a nature to invite unwelcome attention, I’m more likely to rant about shitty journalism, and just whatever occurs to me to write. Don’t come here looking for profound insights into Chinese language, culture, society, history or anything like that. Explore my blogroll, several of the blogs there are much better at that kind of thing. Basically, I just write about my view from this little corner of the world. That’s all.

Chris underrates himself. I have learned a lot from his blog and it makes me think.

Black and White Cat. Black and White Cat is a very intelligent, irreverent, thoughtful and independent blog. It typically takes a topical and interesting China news story and goes deeper. The writer is anonymous, but whomever he or she is, he or she knows China and does an excellent job tying previous news to current news. B&W Cat describes itself as follows:

Black and White Cat tends to be about China, since that is where I live; and I live here because I like it. But although most things I write or translate are about China, I do also launch off into other things. That is probably quite irritating to many people who would prefer not know what I think about other things.

If you came here looking for information about cats, there isn’t any. Sorry.

I'm glad about the lack of cats.

Blogging For China. The full name of this blog is Fools Mountain: Blogging for China. And its subtitle is "A wise one knows moving mountains is beyond human power, but a fool has other thoughts…." This blog too is on our blogroll for its originality and also for its courage. Courage because this blog is not afraid to take a stand and to offend. I like that. No, actually, I love that, even though I definitely do not always agree.

Blogging for China has this to say about itself:

Fool’s Mountain (愚公移山) is a collaborative effort amongst writers focused on Chinese issues. Through our blog, we publish regular English-language articles and essays for both a Western and Chinese audience. All articles represent only the opinion of the individual writer, and may not reflect the opinions and views of other contributors. All contributors write on a voluntary basis with no compensation; those who write are driven to do so by their conscience, and nothing else.

Just by way of a good example, its most recent post is a video of a bunch of American school children chillingly reciting a piece deifying Barrack Obama. The post is entitled, "Mmm, mmm, mm … Barack Hussein Obama!" and the point of it is that maybe we Americans should look at ourselves and our willingness to ignore our own propagandizing when we so condescendingly criticize China for doing the same thing. In other words, is it propagandizing that we do not like or is it the message of the propaganda that offends us. As someone who does not believing in politicizing our schools and politically brainwashing children, I like the question posed.

Last, and maybe least, is the Cal Poly MBA Blog. Least not because of content, which has always been excellent, but because of a lack of posting regularity. It has had only two posts since June 18. But I have the following reasons for keeping it on the blogroll, at least for a while longer:

1. This blog is written by a friend of mine, Chris Carr. I have known Chris for years and I greatly like and respect him.

2. This blog is really good. Chris is a professor at the highly regarded Orfalea Business School at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and he brings that perspective to his posts on China. By that I mean that he views a lot of what he sees in and about China from a business prospective. More importantly, his posts are great teaching devises and great for spurring thought and conversation regarding China.

What do you think?

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Teachingtips.com did an article entitled, "25 Surprising Facts About China’s Education System." (h/t to China Economics Blog) And though I am not prepared to say all 25 will surprise you, certainly most of them are at least pretty interesting. On top of that, each fact has a link to its source, which usually provides more interesting/surprising information.

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I just love this post, "Saying “I love you” with a toilet: of indirect displays of love in Chinese families," over at the Speaking of China blog. I love it because it perfectly illustrates how Chinese express an emotion (in this case love) differently than in the West.

Differently, not necessarily better or worse.

The post is about an American woman, married to a Chinese man, and how her in-laws show their affection for her by first installing a stand-up toilet, and then adding on rooms to their house. A Chinese client of mine (who has been living in the United States for probably 15 years now) told me of how her father never once told her mother that he loved her, but that her mother always knew from the way he acted.

There has to be a way to relate this post to doing business in China and I would love (see how easy we Westerners are with that word) for someone to expound on it.

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President Obama faces a September 17th deadline to determine whether to go along with the International Trade Commission’s recommendation to impose high tariffs on low end Chinese tires. The US has the authority to impose these tariffs under section 421 of China’s complicated WTO accession agreement. There were six similar cases during the Bush administration, although in no cases were tariffs implemented, including four separate cases where President Bush himself shot down the commission’s prescription.

This is the first China trade case for President Obama and it is therefore being watched very closely both in the United States and in China. Interestingly, the tire unions brought this case and the tire companies have been noticeably quiet, presumably in an effort to maintain their good standing in China as they try to capture a piece of the rapidly expanding Chinese tire market. It will be interesting to see how Obama plays this as he tries to avoid angering the Chinese before the September 20 G-20 meeting and before his November visit to China, while also trying to placate the unions, who supported him in the election.

There aren’t that many places to get really insightful analysis of such a technical issue, but AmCham-China just did an excellent podcast with Akin Gump’s Spencer Griffith. Griffith is a highly respected international trade lawyer who clearly knows his stuff and my friend Josh Gartner does a great job with the questions. I’ve been enjoying AmCham-China’s “China Brief Insight” podcasts for a while (hey, they had me on, so how bad could it be?) and I highly recommend you catch this podcast interview if you have any interest in US-China trade issues and on what may very soon be coming down the pike. Click here if you want to get it through iTunes.

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Whirlwind China entrepreneur and friend Sam Goodman has a great and blissfully short book out on how to do business in China. I say blissfully short not because I did not like his book (because I did), but because its shortness is one of its strengths. Most people wanting to learn the ins and outs of doing business in China neither want to nor have the time to read an encyclopedia on the subject. They want something that gives them a full overview of the basics in a hard-hitting and relevant way. Sam's newly released tome, Where East Eats West, is that book.

Sam is a somewhat rare beast in China: an experienced and successful expat entrepreneur. Sam started a chain of cafes in 1997, called Beijing Sammies. Sam built these cafes into a real business and then sold them in 2003. His book does a great job distilling what he learned from those experiences.

The book consists of a series of many very short, very informative, chapters. Though I see this book's highest and best use as being for the person seeking to start a business in China, it also is a great read for anyone looking to learn more about how business is really done in China. I took comfort in reading how much of what has happened to my clients is not so unusual after all. It is appropriately subtitled, The Street-Smarts Guide to Business in China.

According to the book's website, reading the book will give you the following invaluable information:

Here are just a few things you’ll learn in Where East Eats West:

1. How to keep yourself in check in the first few infatuating weeks and avoid becoming delirious with China Fever (and then how to cope when the fascination ends and reality sets in).

2. Just enough background about business in China to help you understand where they’re coming from when you don’t see eye to eye (which will happen more times than you can count!).

3. What to expect and how to deal with China’s vast human resources, a.k.a. the enormous talent puddle.

4. How to break down the basics of ‘face’, ‘guanxi’ and so much more - so you get what you want for your business.

5. How to command respect (and avoid getting screwed over) by suppliers, vendors, and even your customers.

6. How to stick to your guns when the aforementioned suppliers, vendors and customers try to wear you down and bleed you dry (it’s not personal, it’s just business).

7. How to avoid offending your new friends and colleagues (a.k.a. a few touchy subjects to NEVER, EVER bring up).

8. How to avoid the most common scams to con you out of your money (if you do find yourself a victim, you won’t get much sympathy or help from the police or Chinese legal system, so you want to avoid these scams).

9. How to cover your butt before you face a business deal gone bad (and you probably will, at least once).

10. A roadmap to navigate the negotiating detours and potholes that come with Chinese business negotiations.

11. How to deal with bureaucrats and their constantly-changing rules.

12. The two most uncommon things in China – a friendly warning so you’re not caught off-guard.

13. The two most important rules to succeeding in the Chinese business market.

David Wolf over at the Silicon Hutong blog sums up the book perfectly:

Sam Goodman is the Harvey Mackay of China, a straight-shooting entrepreneur who has defied the odds and succeeded where some of the world’s largest and smartest companies have failed.

Get it for your Kindle by going here.

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The Sun Bin blog has a fascinating and thoughtful post analyzing how China handles border disputes and when it uses its military. The post, entitled "China's Policy in Border Disputes," mostly consists of an interview with Professor M. Taylor Fravel of MIT, whose academic focus has been on Chinese territorial disputes and its use of force. This is an interesting and important post and I highly recommend it.

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Thought provoking post over at TwoFish's Blog, entitled, "Best and the worst – The Sanlu Settlement." The thesis is that China's handling of payments to those injured by the Sanlu dairy food poisonings was handled better than would have been the case had Sanlu been in the United States and been subject to a class action suit.

TwoFish makes some valid points, which points are certainly more sophisticated than some commentators who fly over to China for a week and come back proclaiming that if only China allowed tort claims (it does) just like in the United States, all (or at least nearly all) food safety problems would be solved there.

TwoFish says China handled Sanlu "quite well" and he challenges those who are "critical" to "explain what the Chinese government could have done better:"

As I said above, as far as the actual settlements and consequences, I do think that the Chinese government handled things quite well, and I’d like for people that are critical of the legal aftermath to explain what the Chinese government could have done better. Yes, one could argue that the payouts where low, but as it was, it totally bankrupted the company responsible. If you mandate US-style damage awards, then the whole thing becomes a lottery, in which people that are the first to file or who have particularly good lawyers get the bulk of the money, and everyone else spends years fighting over the scraps that remain. (What happened with asbestos.)

Also if you have a long nasty class action lawsuit, then most of the money ends up with the lawyers (there is an entire industry devoted to asbestos lawsuits). In the mean time, honest dairy farmers and dairy workers who weren’t involved in the scandal are hurt because the company gets pounded into dust.

China did handle Sanlu pretty well, but in large part, that was because that case received so much publicity, China almost had to handle it well. As much as I agree with TwoFish that a class action where the plaintiffs' lawyers get rich and the plaintiffs themselves get a pittance is no solution at all, I do not believe top down remedies can work consistently.

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Sometimes big events can be so complicated, controversial and unwieldy, there is hardly any point in reading current reports because they are likely to be so biased and/or inaccurate as to be of no value. In those instances, particularly when the underlying topic is not of huge interest to me, I generally pretty much stop reading articles on it and just wait for the dust to settle. I think the common wisdom is that real dust settling (and releasing of key documents) and gaining of perspective usually takes around 50 years.

And though I would love to be able to look at China's recent Rio Tinto arrests from the perspective of fifty years hence, that is obviously not possible right now. So instead, I will turn to an excellent FT.com by Arthur Kroeber, somewhat mis-titled, "Rio Tinto arrests reveal China has growing-up to do."

The thrust of the article is that China is a relatively safe place in which to do business, particularly as compared to Russia. I agree. China has done an amazing job making it clear to its higher level government functionaries that routine foreign company filings are strictly off limits for corruption. Here is what I mean by that. My firm has done hundreds of company and trademark registrations in China and not one single time have we ever been hit up for "extra" money and not one single time have we ever felt we were treated unfairly or differently for not making any such offering. Without naming names, I will just say that is absolutely not the case for other developing market economies in which my law firm is active. In one country, where a registration should take a month, we are often told that we should pay a couple thousand dollars extra to speed things up so that it does not take six months. Kroeber's article captures this:

Historically, China has done a good job of not letting its opaque authoritarian political system and vast legal grey areas get in the way of business. Annual foreign direct investment flows that now exceed US$100bn testify to China’s success in creating a stable and predictable business environment, despite well-advertised corruption problems.

He goes on to say that Rio Tinto has not really changed this:

The Rio Tinto detentions, which elevated an acrimonious but ultimately quite ordinary commercial dispute into a matter of national security, threatened to destroy, at one stroke, an imperfect but notable reputation for reliability built at great cost over three decades.

The bland denouement averts that catastrophe. The coda will likely be a quick trial in which Stern Hu, Rio’s Australian-citizen iron-ore negotiations boss, will be convicted and then immediately repatriated to Australia, probably on some spurious health grounds; his three less fortunate Chinese-national colleagues will likely receive relatively light sentences of a couple of years.

I agree.

For more on CLB's take on the Rio Tinto case, check out the following:

-- China's Rio Tinto Arrests. Everyone Just Move Along....

-- "China's Rio Tinto Case. Everyone Move Along..."

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The Eileen Eats blog did an excellent, though very disquieting, post on the state of Chinese food. The post is entitled, "Food Safety– Can’t let your guard down," and it has the following money quote:

Hung Huang, chief executive of the China Interactive Media Group in China, said recently in an article in the New York Times that China as a nation of food lovers is going on a diet. “Not because we don’t love to eat anymore,” she said, “but because we just don’t know what is safe to eat.”

CLB's own Steve Dickinson wrote a Wall Street Journal column earlier this year, entitled, "Food Fumble," discussing how China's new food safety laws will do little to solve China's food safety problems.

What will work? When will it work? What do you think?

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Not me, of course. But Gina in Shanghai, who on her blog, Gina in Shanghai, has written a very thought provoking piece, entitled, "Peter Hessler and laowai nuzi," on how Western women are viewed in China (h/t China Beat). To grossly summarize, Chinese view Western women to be like the women in "Sex in the City." Western women are envied for their independence and strength, but looked askance at for being "a bit too morally degenerate." Gina very nicely explains her frustration with these stereotyped views in a post that is well worth a read.

Just added the Sex, Sex, Sex part both to draw in more readers (trust me, putting sex in a post works for this EVERY time), but also because I just came across a very interesting, and related, post on China Geeks, "Li Yinhe: Criticizing the Sex Double Standard." The post translates a Li Yinhe post on THE double standard in China when it comes to sex: "the more sexual a man is, the better; the less sexual a woman is, the better." The post concludes by asking, "How do you feel about attitudes toward sex in China?"

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I normally hate this sort of thing, but "Steve" over at Fool's Mountain does such a great job with it, I cannot resist posting on it. The post is entitled, "Cross Cultural Dating," but I think it goes way beyond that and that is my point. The post does a great job explaining the need to be sensitive to other cultures and the advice given definitely translates to the business world and even to dealing with another person within the same culture.

What do you think?

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Robert D. O'Brien (have I linked to the right person?) over at China Beat has a great post up on the impact China's manufacturing downturn is having and will have on China's big picture. The post is entitled, "China’s Migrant Workers in the Wake of the Economic Crisis: Unemployed, Undeterred," and it basically concludes that the macro impacts on China will be micro.

I tend to agree. What do you think?

8-14 UPDATE: China Translated just did a very interesting post, entitled, "Migrant workers in the economic crisis - the view from the ground."

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Fascinating collection of articles over at Forbes Magazine on American manufacturing and how it does and should compete with China. The introduction gives a good description of the themes the articles.

Made in America meant something very different 30 years ago. It will mean something very different 30 years from now. All we can do is make good guesses. The facts are that 12 million adults make something for a living in the U.S., and their output accounts for $1.6 trillion, one-fifth of world manufacturing, more than that of any other nation. Yet our unprecedented manufacturing muscle is, to many, and justifiably so, in a state of crisis. Those 12 million jobs were once 19.5 million jobs. Since its peak in 1979, factory employment has never stopped falling. The hard truth? It never will. Manufacturing is always in crisis. Productivity eliminates jobs here, in China, in Mexico and everywhere. Making goods will continue to play an important part in our economy, but it will employ a smaller workforce. The growth will be in the ideas that come with the hands: innovation, automation and customization. Hands have skill; people have passion.

I have read two so far and was impressed. What do you think?

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I often receive email complaints from bloggers whose blogs are not on our blogroll. Increasingly, they favorably compare themselves to blogs on our roll, along with sometimes veiled or not so veiled complaints about those blogs. Though China Law Blog has been in existence for more than three years, we have never really provided an explanation for our blogroll, so here goes. In this intermittent series of posts, I am going to go through our blogroll in alphabetical order and explain, five blogs at a time, why each blog has made it there.

Our blogroll basically consists of those blogs we like and which we think our readers will like or should be reading. We tend to like blogs that are unique in their content, well written, or consistently helpful. If we really like a blog, it makes it on no matter what. The less we like the blog, the more we have to believe it can be helpful to our readers. If a blog has not posted for a couple of months, we start seriously consider removing it from the rolls. Three months and it is usually removed. We obviously focus on China related blogs and, within that, we generally focus on those blogs related to law or business.

Now for our first five:

Absurdity, Allegory and China. This blog is subtitled, "The Kingdom from another angle," and that is exactly why I like it so much; it really is written from a very original and creative angle. Jim Gourley, who lives and works in Tianjin is the blogger. One never knows on what Jim is going to write (or photograph), but his is really one of the consistently most original and thought provoking China blogs out there. I am always flogging it for a reason.

AimeeBarnesBlog. Aimee is a China consultant now based in New York, from where she both assists foreign companies going into China and Chinese companies going overseas. Her blog is subtitled, "form, seizing the peak business" (translated from Mandarin). Aimee spent many years in China and she knows whereof she speaks. She has done some great interviews on her blog and she often writes very interesting posts on crime in China. She is working on a book on China's shadow economy. Her only flaw is that her name starts with "Ai" as does my legal assistant's so I have been known to inadvertently email Aimee an internal law firm email or two.

All Roads Lead to China. Rich Brubaker, a Shanghai-based China logistics guru, is the force behind this blog. It is subtitled, "China Based News Analysis, Strategic Insight, and Advice," and it is the go to blog for China logistics and supply chain management. So if you are shipping product to or from or within China (and who isn't?), this is THE blog for you.

Asia Business Intelligence. This is one of the oldest China blogs. It has been online for eight years. Rich Kuslan is the force behind it, and though he posts only once a twice a week his posts are virtually always thoughtful and original. It is subtitled, "The Web's First China Business Blog."

Beijing Boyce. Because everybody needs to have some fun sometime and Beijing Boyce is the best place I know to go to find out how to do that, at least in Beijing. Its subtitles(!) are "A consumer's view of
Beijing's bar and wine scenes" and "A Somewhat Young China Hand on the Local Drinking Scene>." It has been headed up since 2005 by the perennially gracious Jim Boyce.

So whaddya think? A good list so far? Anything missing?

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Crossroads blog has a post up listing China Corporate Social Responsibility related twitterers, broken out between "China Social Entrepreneurs," "China Treehuggers," and "NGOs." If you twitter and have an interest in China CSR, I urge you to check it out.

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When I worked in BigLaw, I, along with most of the other associates at my mega-firm, could hardly wait for the next issue of American Lawyer Magazine to hit our law firm's library. That magazine did a pretty decent job keeping us informed of what was going on in the legal world, and even within our own firm. It would give ratings to working as an associate at the big firms, with a commentary.

My friends and I would always try to get quoted, though always anonymously. One year we bet on who would get quoted. I won by saying that we associates were pretty well informed of firm goings-on because we would get so much coverage in the American Lawyer. Now, if you want to read law firm rumors, the best place is Above the Law, (which had my firm down for a merger with Baker & McKenzie!) but it does not carry much on Asia.

Asia Legal Blog is written by a legal headhunting firm so it is not going to go off on a rumor, but it is a good and free source of goings on in the Asian legal community. It does a good job listing new offices in Asia, new hires in Asia, and big transactions. If you want to know what is happening with mostly BigLaw in Asia and in China, I recommend you check it out.

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Excellent article by Tina Wang up on Forbes.com. The article is entitled "KKR's Concrete Lessons In China" and it is subtitled, "A KKR-led group bought into a Chinese tycoon's cement business. Over a year later, who's in charge?" It is on a KKR cement industry joint venture in China and like so many stories on joint ventures (not just in China but just about everywhere), it reads like a bad spy/war novel.

It reminds me a bit of a chapter (or two) from Jack Perkowski's book, Managing the Dragon, where Jack very graphically writes about one of his China joint ventures gone bad. Jack's story is so incredible, that if my firm had not represented parties in similar situations (right down to the unbelievable parts), I would never have believed it. Let's just say one of my favorite joint venture stories involved a client who after being hung head first outside a high floor window in Russia he decided he would gladly relinquish his controlling interest after all.

For additional reading on the perils of joint ventures in China, check out the following:

"Chinese Joint Ventures -- The Information The Chinese Government Does Not Want You To Know "

"WFOE v. JV"

"China's Joint Venture Jeopardy" (this post is on an article I wrote for the Wall Street Journal on the same subject.

"China -- Damn The Joint Venture"

"Beware The China Joint Venture"

"Beware The China Joint Venture, But Do Not Ignore It Completely"

"China SMEs: Own If You Want To Own."

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A client recently sent me a blogpost and asked me if I "thought it made sense." The post is entitled "Organizing Your Export Trial Run," and, yes I do. Not only does it make sense, but it also has a slew of very helpful links. So if you are in the business of exporting to China (or to anywhere else), you should check it out.

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The Aimee Barnes Blog just did a post, entitled, "Sex, Drugs, Weapons and Cash: China vs United States," comparing the United States and China on all sorts of numbers/statistics relating mostly to sex, drugs, crime and health. It makes for fascinating reading, particularly, if (like me) you are the kind of person who remembers off the top of your head, exactly what Bob Gibson's ERA was in 1968 (1.12).

Check it out.

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Despite the global recession, I remain an unabashed foodie. I figure, if I am going to eat, I might as well eat well. I am sure Eileen Wen Mooney would agree with me on that.

Ms. Mooney is the author of the books, Beijing Eats and Not Just a Good Food Guide: Beijing and the oft-cited Guardian article, "Top 10 Places to Eat in Beijing." She also has been writing a superb blog for the last few months, entitled, Eileen Eats. As you probably have guessed, its focus is on food in China, mostly Beijing. The blog does a great job discussing Chinese food history, Chinese food, Beijing food, and Beijing restaurants.

I heartily recommend it.

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KPMG recently came out with an excellent report on outsourcing to China (h/t to Experience Not Logic), entitled, "A new dawn: China’s emerging role in global outsourcing." KPMG summarizes its report as follows:

Outsourcing is on the agenda of the Chinese government as they seek to boost foreign investment into China and support the development of the services sector. Companies are also looking at China as an alternative to India, especially in light of recent security and governance concerns.

This paper looks at how China is moving up the value chain in developing the necessary infrastructure and outsourcing centers, and how that will impact the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world.

Because my firm recently started doing legal work for a very large China outsourcing company, I do not think it appropriate or even fair for me to comment on this article, but I am citing to it because it most certainly is well worth the read.

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When we first started this blog we would occasionally make fun of mainstream media's China coverage. I just realized we have not done that for years and I attribute that mostly to a huge increase in good reporting coming out of China. My firm is frequently interviewed by China reporters on China law issues and so we are able to judge up close and personal who among the media knows his or her stuff.

Tom Orlik knows his stuff.

We first started working with Tom back when he was with Morgan Stanley and would bring co-blogger Steve Dickinson in to speak on China law to Morgan Stanley clients and at Morgan Stanley functions. Before JP Morgan, Tom was with the UK Treasury and the IMF. He now now writes freelance on China, mostly on economic and financial issues, mostly for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Wall Street Journal, and the Far East Economic Review. When it comes to China finance and economics, you will be hard pressed to find better and, on top of all that, he's apparently a pretty fair ping-pong player as well.

I mention all this because I just discovered his excellent blog, entitled China Translated, which Tom describes as "Commentary and analysis on China’s economic and political situation." I have spent the last hour catching up on its posts and I love it. I like the serious posts on China's economic situation, but I like even more the Freakonomics/Malcom Gladwell type posts with a China slant. For example, one of his posts proves that, contrary to widely held (and often stated) popular belief, Shanghai males are no less macho than their counterparts elsewhere in China.

I have added China Translated to our blogroll and I strongly suggest you there for more than a peek.

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The Beijing Axis business consultancy just came out with its quarterly "China Analyst" publication and it is chock full of nicely arranged economic statistics and predictions for China. If China economics is your thing, I recommend you check it out here.

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There are those who state confidently that China will own the worldwide car market within a few years (these people have been saying this for years -- check out this post from three years ago where I rightly said NO WAY) and there are those who state it will never get there. My only qualifications are that I come from Michigan and I have represented a few auto and truck manufacturers and a whole slew of auto parts manufacturers, including many in or going into China. But like just about everyone else, I have a view and mine is that China eventually will do well selling low end cars worldwide, but that it is not yet close to selling good cars in the United States. I spent seven hours in my car yesterday (driving back and forth to Wenatchee, WA) and there is no way I would have chosen a Chinese car for that trip. And it's not just me.

I landed in Beijing last month with my wife and daughter. The first taxi in line was a very old VW. The VW driver started putting our luggage into his trunk when a Chinese woman came over and asked us in pretty good English whether we wouldn't please take the taxi behind us (a much newer, but Chinese model) because she was going on a long trip with her family. My wife asked her why she wanted the one cab and not the other and the Chinese woman gave an embarrassed look, but said nothing. I explained to my wife that this woman did not want to go on a trip with her family in a Chinese car, but she was too embarrassed/nationalistic to say so. Since we were merely going to our hotel, it was no big deal and so we allowed the switch.

On that Beijing trip, I met with Bill Russo, a former Chrysler VP in China, now head of Synergistics Limited and, most importantly, a true expert on China's auto market. One of the things Bill told me during our meeting was that the Chinese would rather buy non-Chinese cars but buy Chinese cars based on price. That has always been my sense, but since I mostly hang out with Chinese attorneys who drive Buicks and Toyotas (mostly), I am not going to claim to have a representative sample.

But the big question regarding Chinese cars is when they will make their mark outside China and Bill Russo just came out with an extremely thorough and thoughtful piece on his blog that says, "not yet." The post is entitled, "The Path to Globalization of China’s Automotive Industry," and it says that China auto must achieve various intermediary benchmarks before it is ready for the world stage. If you have an interest in China's auto industry, this post is not to be missed.

A few weeks ago, I read a blog post from a Canada-US designer, Caroline Di Deigo, who traveled to China to, among other things, see the houses at The Commune at the Great Wall. She had been very excited to see these houses after having admired them in books, but upon seeing them up close, she was disappointed by their contstruction:

For several years I had been excited by images in architectural books of the houses at The Commune at the Great Wall, so this trip I made a detour from our group to see it for myself. The Commune at the Great Wall was developed by Zhang Xin between 1998 and 2002, when she commissioned 11 Asian designers each to design a house, situated in a rugged hilly location within view of the Great Wall. These houses, while privately owned, now function as a resort. In my opinion however, it is really a monument, or series of monuments, to design. At first glance it’s very impressive, with unique expressions of ‘house’, ‘home’, ‘dwelling’. On closer inspection though, I found them somewhat disappointing. Possibly due to their ultimate function, they lack much of a ‘residence’ feel, and seem a bit barren, very much like ‘public spaces’, vaguely ‘museum-like’. And to get really nit-picky, the quality of construction is unfortunately lacking, and from what one reads, certain of the designers were in fact quite disappointed with the implementation of their visions, as indeed I might have been.

Chinese cars are in many ways the same.

UPDATE: In his post, "Detroit, not Shanghai, is still the centre of the car universe,"Malcolm Moore, blogging for the Telegraph, agrees.

What do you think? Have Chinese cars arrived or are they three, five, seven, ten or more years away? When will a Chinese car brand have the reputation of Toyota, BMW or even Hyundai?

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A few months ago I was on a China panel at Northwestern's Kellogg Business School where, among other things, we were asked to list China's best opportunities. I stressed that because I am not a China business expert, I would have to answer the question based entirely on what I was seeing of my firm's clients and, based on that, I listed health care, technology, and food.

If I had to pick just one of the three, I would pick health care and technology (I know I said one, but hey, it's MY blog). I would pick these two now because even within just the last few months, China's government has made clear, both in its policy statements and in its spending, that it is going to be increasingly emphasizing these two during the next few years.

A couple years ago I did a post listing a whole slew of top China technology blogs and I plan to do another one soon. There is a surprising dearth of really good China food blogs and, as far as I know, no blog focuses on China's food business, which is too bad.

I am aware of only one blog with China's health care. It is called Asia Health Care Blog and I have been a regular reader for months. It is written by two Beijingers, Damjan DeNoble, who has a Public Policy B.A. with a certificate in Health Policy from Duke, and James Flanagan, who has a B.Com from McGill.

If you care about health care in China (and you should), I urge you to check out Asia Health Care Blog.

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@22tweets interviewed me via twitter the other day and that interview is now online here. Because it was on twitter, I was limited to 140 character answers (actually it was even less than that as some of the 140 characters went towards the address and the hashtag). 22tweets is run by the incomparable Lance Godard and it can be found here on Twitter.

It was really great fun and I can see where in real life it would make sense to limit people (especially lawyers) to such short responses. Not sure why 22tweets chose to emphasize my television and radio appearances in my background, but, hey, if you want to think I am a television star, that's alright by me.

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The title sums up my initial reaction to the news of Jackie Chan dissing the Chinese people by essentially saying they are too messed up to ever be able to handle democracy. I was going to write a blog post criticizing Chan for his comments and noting how the same thing has been said about other countries that are now democracies (the United States, Japan, West Germany, Italy, Spain and South Korea immediately come to mind). Then I decided I am not the right person to write such a post, so I didn't.

But today, over at The Useless Tree, I saw the post I would have written, if I were a thoughtful college professor of Chinese politics and decided to simply incorporate it as though I had written it myself. The post is entitled, "Jackie Chan does the Orientalist thing," and if you want to know why Jackie Chan should pretty much be ignored when it comes to world politics (just as anyone with any brains ignores Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and the various other Hollywood types when they talk about politics as though their simply being famous gives them a clue), you absolutely should read it.

For more on this, check out the following:
-- "Jackie Chan: A little bit of oppression may be good for the Chinese," in the Poli-Gazette;
-- "Chinese shouldn't get more freedom, says Jackie Chan,"in the Independent;
-- "No 'Rush Hour' for freedom," at TigerHawk

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About a month ago, I wrote a post, entitled, "China. Friend Or Foe? Opportunity Or Challenge? Or, Why Can't We All Just Get Along?" The post was on an unnamed client of mine who had written me an email regarding a wind energy project in which he had helped an Ohio company secure necessary parts from China. My client had written me an email regarding this project and of how he thought his handling the China outsourcing had saved American jobs. My post used my client's story to make the point that outsourcing products or components is not the same as outsourcing jobs.

Forbes Magazine liked my client's story and asked me for his name. After securing my client's permission, Forbes contacted him and the story has run, aptly entitled, "One Way To Save U.S. Manufacturing Jobs." It really does make for a great story and I particularly like it as it will probably be the only time I ever see Doug Smith (now named in the Forbes story) in a suit. Doug formed the first WFOE in Jining, an industrial city in Shandong Province, and he still bases his China operations there.

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One of the best/worst things about this blog is that just about every book that comes out on China finds its way to my desk, gratis. Most sit on my credenza for a few weeks, and then get moved to my bookcase, where I look at them from afar. I'm planning to read all of them eventually, but, you know....life just always seems to get in the way.

It has taken me forever to read the book, Flowing Waters Never Stale, by Mark Anthony Jones. On the one hand, I really wanted to read the book because Mark is a long time China Law Blog reader and a very thoughtful commenter here. On the other hand, I worried his book would be too intellectual and since it is subtitled, "Journeys Through China," I thought it would be too much the travel book. So it sat.

But I spent most of this weekend at the office on a big project and I started reading it as a diversion and I ended up hardly putting it down until I finished it. I wish I had read it sooner because I actually really liked it.

It is not so much a travel book as it is Mark's very thoughtful observations on much of what he saw in China while living there from 2002 to 2007. Mark looks closely at various aspects of China and (just as he does in his comments on this blog), he looks at them from various perspectives. It has no particular agenda on how one should view China, beyond seeking that we look at it fairly and in context. It often looks at things from both a Western and a Chinese perspective, with Mark's Chinese girlfriend, helping immensely on the Chinese side.

It really does make you feel like you are in China and I heartily recommend it.

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Fascinating two part interview with Bill Russo, Chrysler's "first Regional Vice President in Northeast Asia with over 20 years in the automotive industry"on the new and very promising Aimee Barnes blog. Post is entitled, "Link Up, Learn More: Interview with Bill Russo, Automotive Industry Expert" and part one is found here, with part two here. Big takeaway: Russo sees it being 5-10 years before Chinese cars start really showing up in the United States and EU.

Definitely recommended to anyone (and isn't that just about everyone?) interested in China's automotive industry.

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Domestic US lawyers frequently call my law firm asking us to help them enforce their just received US court judgment overseas. They are seeking to turn the US judgment into a judgment of the country where the defendant is located so they can, in turn, collect the money owed under the judgment. Way too often, however, these lawyers are operating under the assumption that all we need do is take the judgment to a foreign court and ask them to enter it as a new, local judgment.

My response on taking US judgments to China is that there is no reason to do so because they have no value there. This is less true for Europe, where if one plays the cards absolutely correctly from the very beginning of the US court action, it is sometimes possible to convert a US judgment into a local one.

My law partner, Nadja Vietz (who is a licensed attorney in Germany, Spain, and the United States -- think about that for just a minute!), just came out with a cover story for the Washington State Bar Journal, entitled, "Will Your US Judgment Be Enforced Abroad." It is a great article and I highly recommend you read it BEFORE starting a US action against a foreign company.

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Earlier this week, I participated in a most interesting podcast on China with Britain's most famous, most controversial, and most beloved law blogger, Charon QC. I used to always say that if and when I am ever reincarnated, I want to come back as a QC. Now I am thinking I would just settle for having a sophisticated British accent like Charon QC and the ability to write about my quasi-fictional self in the third person like this. cool whil.

Go here for the interview.

What do you think?

Oh and for all you numerologists, what meaning should be drawn from the fact this was podcast #111 and the number of the house in which I grew up was 111?

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The US-Asia Law Institute website has a webcast entitled, “China’s Changing Courts: Populist Vehicle or Party Puppet?” It features a truly stellar panel of China law scholars, including Prof. Ben Liebman of Columbia Law School, Prof. Xin “Frank” He of the City University of Hong Kong School of Law, Prof. Nicholas C. Howson of the University of Michigan School of Law, Prof. Carl Minzner of Washington University School of Law, and Rachel E. Stern, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.

The panelists will be answering questions submitted by Wednesday, February 25, 2009 to usasialaw@nyu.edu, with the subject line "Court Panel Question." Answers will be posted by March 2, 2009.

I have yet to listen to it, but I would love to hear from those who do.

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Unable to read either Mandarin or Chinglish well enough to recharge your China Mobile card? I recommend you read the China Ginger post, entitled, "How to recharge a China Mobile card in English," with step by step instructions (in English) on how to do exactly that. If this does not work, you can do what I usually do when I am in to China -- use someone else's phone or pay around $3.00 a minute on my AT&T iPhone.

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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 means, but a piece well worth reading to get a sense of what is going on with China's factories.

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Post 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.

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The 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 must be on the lookout for "doing business well with China and getting excellent performance from your supply chain."

The article very nicely sets out the following four key challenges to address to make your supply chain China-ready and then sets out to explain how to meet these four challenges:

-- China's vast and complex market landscape. China crams its 1.3 billion citizens (estimates of China's population range from 1.2 to 1.5 billion, the margin of error being the size of the United States) into a space the size of the continental United States, and it boasts more than 170 cities with a population exceeding 1 million residents. Almost 70 percent of economic, trade and investment activity is focused in a small group of provinces along the east coast, yet China's domestic infrastructure is very inefficient. As a result, moving goods within China takes time and costs a lot of money. Transport costs can be 40-50 percent higher than comparable figures in the West. There is a shortage of railway and river transport capacity, internal toll rates can be obscenely high, and the technology of the freight movers and handlers is pathetically low.

-- Opaque financial and legal systems. Those active in China know that things are often "gray." Many Chinese firms will have two or more sets of books, with the real numbers in the head of the owner. While many new laws are being promulgated, their interpretation (not to mention enforcement) leaves much to be desired. China is still a country of "rule by man" versus "rule by law." This lack of transparency makes it difficult to know what your real costs are and certainly makes it hard to know with whom to do business and, of course, whom to trust. As a result, financial planning must be done with an uncomfortable level of uncertainty.

-- Huge cultural and business system differences with the West. In the scale of human development, China's economy would be barely out of adolescence. Business systems are immature, and Western-style management experience is hard to find. This is coupled with sharp cultural differences with the West in terms of values, communication style, organizational hierarchy and even life experience. Understanding and appreciating the differences in business culture in China is one of the most underestimated challenges faced by Western management. Intertwined with these business and cultural differences is a pervasive level of corruption, either outright graft or more subtle gray tactics in business practices that often depend heavily upon relationships (guanxi). Progress in this area is taking place, such as in intellectual property protection, but it will take generations to fully eradicate the old ways of doing business.

-- Rapid pace of change. The constant dynamism in all aspects of China's economy only aggravates the above challenges. For example, within the last two years alone, China's currency has appreciated by 20 percent, the VAT rebate on exports was reduced to almost nothing, oil reached $150 a barrel before falling back again, and a new labor law has gone into effect. The combination of these changes has cost many Chinese exporters about 30 percent of margin. (Interestingly, as this article is being written, China is again raising the VAT rebate for a number of products in response to the duress of many Chinese exporters.) The ripple effect to Western companies' sourcing strategies has been equally disruptive as costs have gone up, suppliers have abandoned ship and transport costs from China to the West make current sourcing patterns questionable. Planning for China is like shooting at a moving target.

I recommend you check it out.

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Of those who comment on our blog, I never remember who agrees or disagrees with me on issues, but I always remember those who make me think. That is why I remember G.E. Anderson and that is why I was so happy to learn (from Professor Donald Clarke, the brains behind the Chinese Law Professor Blog) that G.E. Anderson has just started his own blog. Anderson's blog is ChinaBizGov and its tagline is "Highlighting interesting issues in business-government relations in Greater China."

Anderson describes himself as a "China specialist, former CFO, and PhD Candidate in Political Science at UCLA. Research focuses on state-owned enterprises, corporate governance and China's auto industry."

It took me only one post to know I was going to like this blog. The post is today's post, entitled, "Privatization of Central SASAC Assets," in which Anderson talks about a conversation he recently had with a journalist out of Beijing on whether China is moving away from privatization, without really making a conclusion one way or another. This is a great issue and one I too have been struggling with. I did a post a few weeks ago, entitled, "China And The US. Which Of Us Is The Most Capitalistic?" postulating that as the US moves away from rampant capitalism, China is moving towards it. Yet, within hours of having done that post, I started having doubts regarding China's moving toward capitalism.

Is China getting more or less capitalistic? Help me out here cause I dunno.

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"'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 most blind?"

In his post, "Is China now more capitalist than the US?" Ed Morrissey over at HotAir has written what so many have been thinking [h/t to China Challenges]. As the US economy tanks, the US moves away from capitalism. As China's economy tanks, it moves towards capitalism. There is obvious irony here, but also a pretty good petri dish(es) to test which works better when things start going really wrong.

We will see.

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Above 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 get hired in Asia, you had better have some credentials evidencing a serious Asia connection. The post is entitled, "The Asia Chronicles: Fish-Head Soup," and I recommend it to those hunting for law jobs in Asia.

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In its post, "China Not Brave Enough to Save the World," the always excellent China Economics Blog, makes the valid point that China (and by China I think we mean the China sovereign funds) is a terrible investor. Its history indicates that and according to this article, so will its future. Like so many new to the investing game, China seems to think the maxim is buy high sell low, rather than the reverse.

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EastSouthWestNorth. Is any English language China blog more influential? I don't think so.

Roland Song of ESWN was to give a speech at CNBloggercon, but was unable to attend due to a family emergency, so he has put online what he was going to say, entitled, "Reflections of a Bridge Blogger." (h/t to Lost Loawai) It beautifully sets out the evolving history of the "treatment" of China "social incidents" and the role the internet has played in this. It makes for great reading.

CnReviews does an amazing job, here, of summarizing CNBloggercon.

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David Dayton of Silk Road International has a fascinating, though disquieting post, entitled, "Another Trip to the Healthy Department." Dayton's father was a doctor and Dayton tells us (in vivid detail) why he thinks it better never ever ever to go to a hospital in China, which hospitals he describes (based on a far amount of international experience) as being the worst he has ever seen.

For what it is worth (quite little, I daresay)I have been to a hospital in Yantai, China, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia, and just about EVERY emergency room in Seattle, Washington and I would rank them in the following order of best to worst, in terms of cleanliness:

1. Seattle
2. Yuzhno
3. Dubrovnik
4. Yantai

But what do I know? My father was an English professor.

Would love to hear your hospital stories.....

UPDATE: Found in China did an interesting post recently on a trip to a Chinese hospital, entitled, "Medical Examinations In China: A Laowai Exposed."

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Elliot Ng over at CnReviews just came out with a very thoughtful post analyzing China's economy. The post is entitled, "Global financial crisis will hurt China much more than the US," and it says China's economy is based on a three legged stool, two of which are weak. The three legs are "export-led growth," "real property growth," and "government spending." Right now, only government spending is still strong. The post pulls from a number of leading economists and analysts to conclude that China's economic future will not be good and that we can expect China's economy to slow to 5-6 percent yearly growth.

I tend to agree with the analysis of this post, but whenever dealing with economic predictions, I always feel compelled to throw in the caveat that they only tend to be accurate if all assumptions hold true, which they hardly ever do. I was one class short of an economics major, which means I studied just enough to know that economist's predictions are correct about half the time.

On a somewhat less gloomy note:

An economist, a physicist and a chemist are stranded on an island with one unopened can of food. The physicist suggests they roll the can down a hill where it will strike a rock which will pierce the can and release the food. The chemist suggests they cool the can in the ocean then heat it in the sun so as to cause the can to burst. The economist suggests they assume they have a can opener.

Let's hope for the can opener.

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Google just came out with millions of photographs from the archives of Life Magazine and, as anyone who has seen Life Magazine would know, they are riveting (h/t Shanghaiist), I have been checking out photos of old Shanghai and Beijing (a/k/a Peking). I am, however, a bit disappointed at how my searches of Qingdao, Dalian, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xiamen and Tianjin all came up empty. I highly recommend you check it out.

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Fascinating post over at China Economics Blog, entitled, "The geographic similarities between China and the US." The post is on a recent Financial Times (FT) article, entitled, "How China can be more than 350 Albanias," that starts out noting all kinds of similarities between China and the US, but concludes by pointing out that China's per capita income is still less than that of Albania, though with 350 times the population. So do we view China as we view the US, or is it just Albania times 350? I say both.

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There is a strange dearth of materials out there for foreign companies seeking the nuts and bolts of how to get into selling their products online in and into China. I was recently alerted to an paper written on this very subject by Lisa Conklin, for her MBA degree at Fudan University. I enjoyed the article and thought it would be helpful to our readers and so I requested Ms. Conklin get it up on the internet to facilitate my linking over to it. That has been done and if you click here, you will see the article, entitled, "Chinese E-Commerce 2008: An Introduction and How-To for US SMEs." [pdf]

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The Green Leap Forward recently did a comprehensive overview of the Singapore-China eco-city going up on a massive scale just outside Tianjin. If you have any interest in eco-development, you should check it this post, entitled, "Creating A Better Life: A Closer Look at the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Project."

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The China Observer blog has been up for about two months now and I have already become a regular reader. The blog is written by Joel Backaler, who describes himself as follows:

Joel Backaler (周乐达) first traveled to Beijing in 2001 and has since returned to the capital city where he works as the only non-Chinese analyst for a leading multinational IT and management consulting firm. Joel has accumulated over six years of China market experience through positions in venture capital, new media entrepreneurship, independent consulting and research.

Joel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and East Asian Studies from Connecticut College. He was awarded the prestigious U.S. State Department sponsored Fulbright Fellowship to work and study in Taiwan. Upon completion of his Fulbright grant Joel studied under the academic year program at the Stanford/IUP Center intensive language training program hosted by Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

Joel is a native English speaker. He speaks, reads and writes fluent Mandarin Chinese; and is conversationally fluent in Spanish.

Joel is using his blog to chronicle what he is seeing in China, which is "the next big thing":

China is the next big thing.”

Every visit home, friends and family all make the same observation: “You’re in the right place. China is the next big thing.”

When asked why, most offer anecdotal evidence about China’s rapid economic growth and the outsourcing of American jobs. They just don’t get it.

Back in Beijing, I am surrounded by many friends and colleagues, both expat and Chinese, who do get it. Like me, these dynamic and diverse professionals live in China and understand the language, culture, and business environment. Innovators write blogs about the latest happenings, emerging businesses and all aspects of China’s ongoing transformation. Silicon Hutong, China Digital Watch, and China Law Blog are just a few of my favorites.

What is missing, however, is a bridge connecting these two groups (what I define as Outside Observers and Inside Observers). Someone to take key local observations from within China and share them with the greater global community. The China Observer Blog presents readers with the essential information on companies you need to know, best business practices and cultural factors that drive the Chinese marketplace. Only through analysis of these factors can one begin to truly understand why and how the focus of the global economy has shifted away from the U.S. and other traditionally “strong” economies.

* * * *

The ultimate goal of The China Observer Blog is to educate and offer readers a source of current and comprehensive information about the business world in China. My aim is to be an educator across borders and cultures. In today’s business world, if you don’t know about what is happening on the ground in China, then you will inevitably be left behind.

Yes, I agree: China really is “the next big thing.” I don’t feel this way because of what I have heard from the mass media, or because of the stories I’ve been told by friends impressed by China’s dramatic growth. I base my opinion on first hand observations made while living here in China. The China Observer Blog presents these local observations to you and gives you the opportunity to see what today’s China is really all about.

Despite Joel's gargantuan ambitions for his blog (ah, youth), of which I do not believe any one blog can achieve, the blog does fill a very nice niche. Many of the posts start with Joel's observing a China business or industry, then explaining how that industry works in China and what we can expect of it in the future. He does this with China's online gaming industry, China's plastic surgery industry, and China's beauty products industry, among others. To complement his industry observations, Joel also throws in an occasional post on what I would call the cultural ramifications of technology in China.

I urge all readers to check out The China Observer.

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Very thoughtful piece on The Hypermodern on how China cannot take its position and status in the world for granted. The post is entitled, "The Loss of Soft Power," and it is well worth a read.

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The Joint US - China Cooperation on Clean Energy Forum (JUCCCE -- Is that pronounced Juicy?) recently ended and China Environmental Law was there and has posted on it, in its aptly named post, "The Morning After." This post nicely summarizes went transpired and links over to various other sites for those who just can't get enough clean with their tech.

The post includes the following money quote, which near as I can tell from the many clients of my firm that are in the China cleantech business, could not be more true:

China will continue to be a “pilot program” heaven: if you have a technology, product, or service, you would like to test in a low-cost environment, you will probably be able to find a partner in China (as long as it doesn’t cost them anything) to help you test it. But remember, China still doesn’t have that IP protection thing down pat yet.

Do check it out.

UPDATE: In its post, "JUCCCE Clean Energy Forum–Closing Summary," The Green Leap Forward,' provides a transcript of the excellent and inspiring (that is the first time I have used that word on this blog) closing speech by Julian Wong, who is the author of The Green Leap Forward.

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The Wu Way blog, provides the best analysis I have seen on how China views last night's election of Barack Obama as America's next president. The post is entitled, "How does China view an Obama Presidency…what does China think of Obama?" and it sees China (to the extent one can generalize about 1.3+ billion people) as "excited about the election as a historic moment, but also cautious in their concern that he may be more protectionist."

It is well worth a read.

UPDATE: China Beat also does an excellent job on this in its post, "Obama Elected, China Reacts."

FURTHER UPDATE: This does not exactly fit here, but I liked it so much and it is election related, so here goes. I just read an excellent article over at Spot-On, by Jeanne Jackson, entitled, "The Day After." The article, and, in particular, the following paragraphs, summed up better my feelings than even my own feelings, and certainly better than anything I could write myself:

Perhaps you are celebrating today. Or, perhaps, you are annoyed. I certainly hope, whether you backed the winner or loser, you are being gracious about the outcome. I will almost sell my first-born to purchase a one-way ticket for the first moron who sneers about moving to Canada because his candidate lost.

It is, perhaps, an old-fashioned idea, but I've always had a certain amount of respect for the office of the presidency, no matter who occupies it. Granted, over the centuries we've had our share of . . . um. . .characters. And, believe me, I've been a victim of presidential policy more times than I've benefitted.

But I am in awe of the process and its relatively peaceful outcome. I am in awe of the fact that there are two people willing to risk the biggest, most public of all losses and always do so with class and dignity. For that reason, I can't hate a president (though I can pray to a merciful God for deliverance from incompetence).

Damn, that's some good stuff.

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As good a foreign policy article as you will find in a US newspaper is a piece is by Washington Post "World Columnist," Robert Kagan, entitled, "Still No. 1." I learned of this article from foreign policy expert Thomas P.M. Barnett, who stated he agreed "with it 100%." I do too.

What do you think?

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Laurel Delaney of The Global Small Business Blog was on blogtalkradio the other day talking about 10 ways to take your business global. Ms. Delaney is one of the foremost experts on taking small businesses global and she shares a lot of good information in her thirty minutes here.

Ms. Delaney then summarized and added to her talk on her blog, as follows:

Reasons for going global (not covered on the show): • Increases sales and profits. • Augments competitiveness. • Earns a greater return from a set of core competencies. • Generates economies of scale in production. • Enhances local competitiveness and opens up the way to larger, more lucrative customers. • Create jobs, productivity growth, and wealth. • Enlarges the pie of potential investors. • Insulates seasonal domestic (local) sales by finding new foreign markets and selling excess production capacity. • Cuts costs through global outsourcing. • Reduces dependence on existing markets. • Capitalizes on tax advantages.

Ways to go global:

1. Build a website.
2. Create a blog (Blogger.com, Wordpress, Typepad).
3. Start a wiki (PB Wiki or Wetpaint).
4. Launch a social media platform similar to Facebook but outside of Facebook (try Ning.com)
5. Offer lots of free stuff -- meaning, best practice PDF files, white papers or articles covering what you are good at -- and place it on all your media platforms.
6. Start communicating with business reporters (WSJ, NY Times, International Herald) who cover your business beat.
7. Join like-minded social media platforms (Small Business Trends blog or OPEN Forum by American Express or here!) and comment wherever and whenever you can in areas that touch on your expertise.
8. Work-it. You have to really work-it as they say. Nothing comes easy. Dedication breeds passion, enthusiasm and people wanting to connect with you to buy whatever it is you are selling (books, products, services, etc.).
9. Partner with the big guys. Once you are established, think of ways to partner, or form a strategic global alliance (SGA), with a business that has already penetrated an overseas market you want to enter.
10. Look to your customers for referrals to other parts of the world. After all, without them, there is no global business.

Places to go for help:

www.globetrade.com
www.exim.gov/smallbiz/index.html
www.ups.com/globaladvisor
www.buyusa.org
www.us.smetoolkit.org/us/en

Also important but not mentioned:

Before you go global, establish a BOGA: Board of Global Advisors who comprise of:

International lawyer
International tax accountant
International logistics expert

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China Business Blog and Podcast has a great post up on what it calls China's pre-consolidation stage. The post is entitled, "Signs: Observing the pre-consolidation stage in China," and its gist is as follows:

But I think there are some signs that are quite clear that are telling us what stage we are at in China’s growth — and one of the defining features of this stage is what I call “pre-consolidation,” meaning, generally, that many industrial sectors in China are still very diverse, fragmented and messy but are in the process of becoming more aligned and streamlined. Instead of trying to further describe this stage, I would like to look at four “signs” that define what I am calling “pre-consolidation” and signal that we might be coming to a crossroads.

First of all, the biggest sign — and the easiest to recognize — is simply the number of players in many market sectors in China. One of the features of a more mature economy is that there have emerged several large players in a particular sector and other players have either fallen away or have been gobbled up (and that’s how the big players got that way, growth by acquisition). The auto industry is a good example — in the early 1900s, there were dozens and dozens of car companies in the U.S.; today, there are only three (and if the talks GM is reportedly having with Chrysler come to fruition, there will only be two!). China is on the other end of this spectrum. There are over 54 different car companies operating in China and well over 100 brands. Given time, consolidation will happen, but for now, China is in the “pre-consolidation” stage.

This post does a superb job explaining China's economy from a business perspective and I strongly recommend anyone with any interest in China business read it (or listen to the podcast) -- it is that good . . . .though quoting Billy Joel really ought to be verboten.

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Chris Carr over at Cal Poly MBA Blog just did a post on trade shows in China, with a lot of really good and helpful links regarding the same. The post is entitled, "Visting a Trade Show in China," and in it, Chris rightly points out how "trade shows are a much, much more prominent marketing and promotion channel [in China] than in the US" and how "when that day comes when you have the opportunity to attend a trade show in Asia, you MUST grab that opportunity.' All I will say is that I have done my time.

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There are two kinds of people. Those who hate going grocery shopping, and those who love it. I fit into the second category.

I love it for various reasons. I love food. Going to the grocery store is for me what going to a stereo store is for an audiophile or going to a book store for a bibliophile.

But I also like grocery stores for what they reveal. A Whole Foods executive once told me that Whole Foods chooses locations with a high level of educational attainment. So just seeing a Whole Foods tells you there are a lot of people with advanced degrees living nearby. But going into one will tell you a whole lot more. My "home" Whole Foods here in Seattle has a massive seafood selection. The one in my brother's Houston neighborhood has a smaller fish section, but a much larger meat section. From this I conclude that educated Seattleites eat more fish than educated Houstonians, while the reverse is true for meat.

I went into "my" Whole Foods this evening and I noticed two things. One, it was less crowded than probably any other Sunday at around that time, and two, there seemed to be more of an emphasis on the "value" of items and their sale prices. Shucks, if I hadn't gone shopping this evening, I would never have known we are in the midst of a financial crisis.

Seriously though, whenever I go somewhere new, I love going to the grocery store. It gives me a better feel for the local culture and the local economy.

So I was delighted to learn of a relatively new blog out there that feels as I do regarding grocery stores and food in general. The blog is Beijing Gourmand and its subtitle is just perfect: "Understanding China through its stomach and my own." It further describes itself as looking "at not only what and where to eat in Beijing and China, but also examines the social and economic aspects of our food and where it comes from." I like that and I like the blog. I also know have known "Benjamin," the force behind this blog, for years and know him to be a very thoughtful guy and an excellent writer.

Some of my favorite posts:

1. "Like a (kaoya) Virgin," which waxed so poetic (along with photos) about a Peking Duck restaurant that it had me momentarily reconsidering my decision to give up meat more than 15 years ago.

2. "China's Crops Challenge," which does an excellent job explaining why China's agriculture policies are progressive.

3. "Lau Kin-Wai: Decline of Chinese Cuisine Since the 1950s," explaining how the old ways of cooking were better, yet are fading out due to it being so time consuming.

I just added Beijing Gourmand to our blogroll.

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Absolutely excellent article on the Council for Foreign Relations website on China food and drug safety. The article is entitled, "China's Troubled Food and Drug Trade" and it does a superb job explaining the food safety issues surrounding China food and drugs.

The lawyer in me sees the following as the "money" quotes:

Some families have moved to sue the companies involved, though China's tort system only allows for direct economic damages. Such amounts are likely to be far smaller than the massive punitive damages allowed in the United States that often serve as a deterrent to companies. Market forces can still play a role in China. People's unwillingness to buy milk products over fear of which producers to trust has been a huge blow to the country's dairy industry.

* * * *

Liability issues for international companies using Chinese supplies are a growing concern. Jerome A. Cohen, a CFR adjunct senior fellow, writes that the liability for New Zealand firm Fonterra, a major investor in the Sanlu Group, is unclear. Cohen says the case offers a lesson for other foreign investors. Experts are also quick to point out that China's food problems mirror those that other nations have experienced, including the United States. They add, however, that China's massive growth in trade and the realities of globalization makes the country an exceptional case, increasing the urgency for Beijing to tackle its food problems.

The US consumer in me sees the following as the key:

In the United States, consumer groups have called for greater scrutiny of food imports by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA currently inspects only a small portion (PDF) of food and drug imports. An FDA official told Congress in 2008 that the agency was moving to improve safety measures (PDF), particularly against terrorist threats from those who might purposely adulterate food. The official added that the FDA is working with the Chinese government to increase inspections.

Of the inspections the FDA does conduct, food from India is more likely to fail than food from China. Illnesses from food in the United States more often originate domestically, U.S. congressional investigators said. The United States allows no imports of meat and poultry from China because U.S. law requires importers to meet the same standards as U.S. producers. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee investigative report concluded that such a standard could not be imposed on all imported food but notes the import process can be made safer. The report also points to Japan and Hong Kong's import models as possible alternatives to the U.S. system. Japan, for example, inspects up to 16 percent of food from China and allows in food that originates only from a small number of certified farms and plants. But more stringent inspection regimes are not fool-proof. In 2008, hundreds of people in Japan fell ill from Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticides, and Hong Kong found melamine-laden in milk products imported from the Chinese mainland.

The law firm marketer in me sees the need to call out the following paragraph as well:

In the United States, food safety is also enforced through a variety of other means, including a punitive torts system, independent media, and vigorous civil society organizations. These institutions in China are not nearly as powerful, though some analysts see signs of change. Steven M. Dickinson, a partner in the international law firm Harris & Moure who has spent the last five years in China, says local media played an unprecedented role informing the public during the 2008 milk scandal. Some critics, however, say the milk incident could have been dealt with months earlier and blame the country's focus on the Olympics for stifling early warnings.

It is truly a must read.

And for those (like me) interested in food safety, I highly recommend the Barf Blog, which describes itself as "Musings About Food Safety and Things that Make You Barf." It makes salmonella and e.coli fun. I also recommend the MarlerBlog, written by renowned Seattle food safety litigator, Bill Marler.

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David Wolf of Silicon Hutong has a very thoughtful post up on innovation in China. The post is entitled "Searching for China's Soul of innovation," and it nicely takes us through China's interrupted history of innovation and posits whether China will become a great innovator again, what it might take for that to happen, and what that might mean if it does.

I agree with Wolf that China innovation is going to be with Chinese characteristics, not just some knock-off of US methods:

So much of what is written about China and innovation today, whether by foreign or Chinese observers, is patronizingly prescriptive. If China wants to innovate, it must imitate - it must recreate the conditions that exist in high-tech hothouses of Silicon Valley, Boston's Route 128 corridor, Austin, and Seattle. There is some truth in that, but there seems something unnatural about trying to graft San Jose onto Shanghai, or Federal Way onto Tianjin.

* * * *

Perhaps the answer for China is to search for an answer to the independent innovation challenge in its own history, applying foreign lessons where appropriate.

Federal Way? Here in Seattle, Federal Way (a small city located between Seattle and Tacoma) is known more for its Wild Waves Theme Park and used car lots than for any innovation. Did you mean Redmond, home of Microsoft and many other tech companies?

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I am just so glad James Fallows is writing about China. One hundred years from now, when the West is looking at why China is where it is, historians will read Fallows.

In the most recent issue of Atlantic Monthly, in an article entitled, "Their Own Worst Enemy," Fallows does a great job explaining the disconnect between how the West sees China and how it really is. The article's subtitle is "As China prepares to take its place as the world’s dominant power, it faces confounding obstacles: its insularity and sheer stupidity in delivering the genuine good news about its own progress."

China PR guru, ImageThief, in his post, "The tragedy of China's international communication," has this to say about Fallows' article and about China's lack of PR prowess:

Fallows' point --and I agree with it-- is that the great tragedy of this is that there is much positive happening in China and many good stories to tell, but that they often get lost among the time-warp rhetoric, self-destructive mistakes and ham-fisted attempts at total control. That's a shame, because the essence of good PR is to find the good stories and tell them well. Fallows also points out that the government's domestic communication abilities far outstrip its international ones. As someone who lives in China and likes it, I sympathize with the need for better external communication. As a PR man, however, I often cringe at the attempts.

I agree and will raise both Fallows and ImageThief one by pointing out how ultimately dangerous Western misconceptions of China can be. The US needs allies in the world right now and we should be making nice with countries that are seeking to build, rather than destroy, seeking to grow their wealth, rather than to terrorize others, and seeking to move towards freedom, rather than towards increasing repression. For all its faults, China is moving (yes, slowly) on the right path and we should be working WITH it as it does so.

Oh, and the reason I titled this post as I have is because I have yet to speak with someone who has gone to China who was not shocked at how much "better" and "freer" it is than they expected.

Please read Fallows and then let us know what you think.

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Benjamin Joffe of Plus Eight Star has put up his Powerpoint presentation from the recently completed OpenWebAsia08 conference in Seoul. The Powerpoint is entitled, "Collaboration Beyond Culture" and it is on innovation in Asia and the tendency of the West to ignore it, at its own peril. The presentation is quite persuasive, and as a sushi addict, I particularly appreciated Benjamin's inclusion of sushi as one of Asia's top inventions. Check it out.

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McKinsey is just out with a new and very comprehensive survey and analysis of the Chinese consumer, entitled, "What's new with the Chinese consumer" (free registration required). Its subtitle is that "It’s hard for brand managers to keep pace with the shifting attitudes of Chinese consumers. But some trends can be discerned amid the noise."

The upshot is that brand loyalty seems to be weakening in China and word of mouth is more important than television ads. Unfortunately, this survey was before the Sanlu milk scandal which must have impacted consumer sentiment.

Go here to learn all.

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The fastest I have ever gone on ground was in the Shanghai Maglev. It really is pretty amazing to be going past cars on a highway as though the cars are standing still. In its post, "Ride with me on the Shanghai Maglev," the Little Red Blog, shows us video of a Shanghai Maglev ride. It really is the next best thing to being there. Check it out.

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Asia Logistics Wrap is on part two of a very thoughtful seven part series on Asian supply chain challenges. For those involved in moving products into, within, or out of Asia, I strongly urge you to start reading this series. Part I is here and Part II is here.

Asia Logistics Wrap's post stems from this post on Bob Ferrari's Supply Chain Matters Blog.

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Very interesting article in Esquire Magazine, entitled, "The New American" and subtitled, "Young entrepreneurial Americans are doing something they have not done much before. They are leaving. And even more than our government, our military, or our movies, they are expanding American influence in the world. Even in a crazy place like Shanghai." (h/t to All Roads)

The article is about Barrett Comiskey of the Nicobar Group, (full disclosure: Nicobar is a long-time client of my firm) and how he and his company have adapted so well to China. The article does a great job conveying Shanghai's excitement (both good and bad) and explaining why so many young Americans/Westerners are going there to make their mark.

It's Esquire Magazine and it makes for a great read.

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Not for anything he has said or done on the bailout, on which even those of us who agree it was necessary cannot truly be happy about. No, I like him for his opinions on what the United States must do in terms of its relations with China.

Paulson just came out with a very thoughtful piece in Foreign Affairs Magazine, entitled, "A Strategic Economic Engagement: Strengthening U.S.-Chinese Ties." The summary nicely summarizes the article as follows: "The prosperity of the United States and China depends on helping China further integrate into the global economic system." (h/t to The Black China Hand)

Paulson says that no matter how one views China, engagement is the best policy:

Some people suggest that China is a threat that must be countered or contained. Others argue that its growth is an opportunity for the U.S. economy and that Washington should manage this rising power through engagement. I believe that engagement is the only path to success.

This is the kind of article that can and should change minds.

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Interesting Washington Post article by Ariana Cha, on how Shanghai might eventually replace New York as a world financial center. The article is entitled, "Financial Hubs See an Opening Up at the Top: Wall Street's Long, Dominant Run Is Fading, Global Financiers Say," and it talks about how Wall Street is falling and others are rising, and it devotes much of its ink to Shanghai. Trendsniff also has a good post on this.

I do not see Shanghai becoming a top tier financial center within the next ten years. In ten years, New York and London will still be the World financial centers and Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo will still be the big three in Asia. I could write a long post on why I think this is true, but it would be far easier for me to simply state that I see knocking New York and London off their thrones as the equivalent of knocking Mercedes and BMW off theirs -- it is just too difficult.

Will Shanghai be a top one, two or three financial center within the next ten years? What do you think and why?

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I admit it. I think I like China Smack. I know I drop by there every once in a while and though I often feel like taking a shower afterwards, I keep going back. Truth From Facts does a good job describing what China Smack is all about and, in doing so, explains its appeal:

ChinaSMACK is one of my favorite new China blogs. It translates some of the hot topics in China’s online forums and bulletin boards, complete with pictures, video, and numerous reader comments translated from the original Chinese posts. The author seems to favor the more lurid stories, such as a confrontation in Wuhan between a Wuhan bus driver and several passengers.

Half of me feels like I am learning more about real life in China by reading China Smack, but the other half just flat out finds it fascinating. Its most recent post is on a handicapped street artist and like so many of its posts, the comments are equally riveting. The commenters bemoan the lack of opportunity for the handicapped in China.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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China Comment tells us, here. Problem is that what is happening right this minute may not be what happens next week. If the US bailout fails to occur or to stick, I fear we are all going down.

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China Financial Markets Blog poses this question in its post, "Is China Safe?" Go there for both the post itself and for its long list of very thoughtful comments.

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ImageThief is just out with a great post on the Sanlu melamine crisis. The post does an amazing job giving a history of China's food safety problems, dissecting the current one, and discussing in real world terms Fonterra (the New Zealand company involved in a joint venture with Sanlu) has handled it, and how Fonterra should have handled it.

The post is entitled, "Melamine in Sanlu milk powder? Now that's a crisis!" and it is a must read.

UPDATE: Peter Ford over at the Christian Science Monitor did an excellent story, entitled, "Behind bad baby milk, an ethical gap in China's business."

I know this is not what non-lawyers want to hear, but unless and until any and all companies tied in with incidents like this are forced to pay by way of huge court verdicts, this sort of thing is going to continue.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE: Will Lewis over at Experience Not Logic (a really good blog, BTW) tries to explain the whys of this in his post, "Why the %$#@ is Melamine Added to Food?!?"

Why aren't US and EU food producers doing this? If China's analogue is the US in the late 19th/early 20th century, check out The Jungle. Basically, we've got stricter regulations, better testing equipment, and, in the US, a tort system that will make you pay dearly for these failures. These are just things that come with time and the maturity of the legal system. And, if you look at US jurisprudence from the good 'ole days you'll find that industry, especially railroads, got a lot of breaks in the days before judges determined that industry was robust enough to pay for its mistakes. China, of course, has a heavy-handed criminal judiciary, but I'm hoping somebody's filing some torts on behalf of the, at least, 1,253 families in China that have suffered.

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I bring this to our readers as a public service, along with the warning that if you read either one while lying down, odds are you will fall asleep before you get to the second one. Anyway, I give you McCain and Obama, in their own words, on China, written for AmCham.

The summary of both is that China has done great things (duh!), still has a ways to go (duh!), and the US should cooperate, except where it does not make sense to do so (duh!). Yada, yada, yada.

One can hardly blame America for focusing more on Sarah Palin's glasses?

UPDATE: Check out China Rises for an in depth review of the China policies of McCain and Obama.

FURTHER UPDATE: Asia Logistics Wrap does an incredible job analyzing the positions of the two candidates on Asia, including China, in a post entitled, "US Presidential Candidates on Foreign Affairs/Trade with Northeast Asia."

FURTHER UPDATE: China Esquire weighs in and says that because of Obama's overheated rhetoric he thinks McCain is the better choice for those favoring improved US-China relations.

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Leave it to Fouad Ajami to put out the best article I have yet seen on the differences between McCain and Obama on foreign policy. Entitled, "The Foreign Policy Difference," it makes no claim as to which foreign policy framework is better, nor do I, but if you want to get to the heart of the very different ways in which McCain and Obama see America's role in the world, you should read this article.

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The Useless Tree has a very long, very thoughtful post on what constitutes Chinese and where China is going in terms of becoming a multicultural society. The post is entitled, "Can A Black Man Become Chinese?" and it is well worth a read.

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You have to check out Danwei's post, entitled, "It's not easy for a migrant worker in the legislature." I don't even want to tell you what it is about, because I see it being about so many things, some of which go well beyond China.

You just will have to trust me that this is a must read.

What do you think?

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China Comment has a nice piece up, entititled, "China and the American Election," analyzing which side (Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin) would be better for US-China relations and concludes McCain likely would be, by a slim margin.

What do you think?

NOTE: Silk Road International just came out with its own advice regarding the candidates' positions on China: don't believe "anything" you hear. Will Lewis over at Experience Not Logic, in a post entitled, "Obama's Acceptance Speech & China," calls himself an Obama supporter, but dissaproves of Obama's China comments at the Democratic convention, but notes that "this political race has greater implications than trade with China and I'm mostly willing to overlook what Obama is currently saying about China, and hope that it is still just campaign rhetoric."

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Black and White Cat does a great job showing how China's media sanitizes foreign media articles on China, in its post entitled, "How the New York Times (should have) covered the Olympics." I am "speechless" not because I am surprised (I am not), but because the post speaks volumes all by itself. Read it. (h/t to Peking Duck)

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Very good article on China Success Stories on why and how to sell and market in and to China. Article is written by Beijing-based advertising guru Dan Mintz and is entitled "Sagging Markets? Look To China: Wealthy Chinese consumers are ripe for the pitching, but approach with caution." Selling and marketing in China 101. Check it out.

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"If you want to make an omelet, you must be willing to break a few eggs." Vladmir Lenin

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.." Lord Acton

Phillip Pan, former Washington Post Beijing bureau chief has written a great book on China, entitled, "Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China." The book profiles 11 Chinese, mostly present day, and by doing so, it very nicely provides a not very pretty snapshot on China's political development.

Pan was in China from 2000 to 2007 and one gets the distinct impression he was working on many of these profiles the entire time. Pan clearly views the people of whom he writes as markers on where China is now and where it likely will be heading. Pan takes a decidedly pessimistic view of the party's ability to reform from within and is overall rather negative on the idea of China's growing economy automatically leading to a corresponding growth in the political arena.

I agree and I disagree. I too do not consider the party capable of instituting full on reform, but at the same time, I believe as China's economy continues to grow, continuing reform is inevitable.

The Washington Post, in an article entitled, Battle Lines: Portraits of people seeking, and resisting, change in China, accurately describes the book:

The 10 or so intersecting stories he tells here are gritty and real. This is not a big-theme book about the "true" China but a concrete, closely observed encounter with particular people, places and events.

* * * *

Yet some big truths emerge.

Read this book for its beautifully crafted and moving profiles of 11 individuals and to garner big truths about China.

UPDATE: Richard over at Peking Duck, the best China book reviewer on the blogosphere, just came out with an absolutely glowing review.

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Foreign Policy Magazine is out with a fascinating and very well done list of China's 10 worst laws (damn, why didn't I think of that). (h/t to Jeremiah over at Peking Duck)

I certainly agree with most of those on the list, but I hardly think it fair to put the New Property Rights Law on there. Here's what Foreign Policy has to say about it:

What it says: A first, this law granted the right to property ownership by private persons.

What it does: Although one can own buildings and fixtures on land, the land itself still belongs to the state. The Chinese government also has a right to seize private property for “a public purpose,” a vague standard that is often exploited by commercial interests. The state must “provide compensation” for such seizures, but it usually offers a menial amount. Some analysts think that giving peasants in particular the right to sell their land would have tamped down rural unrest and helped millions find work and overcome poverty, but such a dramatic step was apparently too much for the Communist Party.

Though this law is not perfect, it is a giant advancement for China.

For an in-depth examination of that law, check out the following:

Part I, Introduction, is here. Part II, General Principles, is here. Part III, Rules Of Real Property Ownership, is here. Part IV, Real Property Use Rights, is here.

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Nothing new here (near as I can tell), but nice collection of facts and figures regarding China's internet can be found on Trendspotting by going here. (h/t to China Venture News)

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As regular readers well know, I am not a big fan of predictions regarding China or its economy. Their overall accuracy is too low. But I am linking over to one now, entitled, "Chinese and Starbucks Late Stage Growth Obesity," for two reasons. First, I know the author, Vitaliy Katsenelson, and he is one smart dude. Second, it does a nice job of analyzing the situation. But while I agree with much of the analysis (though I sure as hell would not describe Singapore as a lower cost country than China!), I aggressively take absolutely no position on the conclusion: China's economy is going to fall and fall hard.

It does make for interesting reading.

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I wasn't going to do it, I swear. I had told myself not to say anything about the Olympics, figuring all those who are interested could watch it themselves, but Brendan O'Kane's post on it is just too damn funny and snarky (I am using that word for the first time on here just to seem hip) to pass up. I recommend you read it.

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Really excellent article by John Kamm over at the Washington Post, analyzing the reality behind the recent Pew Survey numbers on China. The article is entitled, "Blinded By the Firewall: Why the Chinese Think The World Loves China," and if you want to understand how China views itself and why, you should check it out.

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Too damn funny to pass up: Today's Doonesbury on Beijing (h/t to Boulder2Beijing)

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Very well done blog post over at MNBC's World blog on the current state of religion in China. The post is entitled, "Exuberance at One of Beijing's State-Sponsored Churches," and it is well worth a read. UPDATE: Just came across this China Herald post with a very interesting video setting out how the glass is still half empty.

Speaking of half full glasses, President Bush's deft handling of China and the Olympics has to go down as one of the few things he has done right on foreign policy.

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Simon Elegant has a great post up over at the Time China Blog, entitled, "A Reporter's Guide To Covering The Olympics." The post is a tongue in cheek guide on how to hit every cliché when reporting on China. Sadly, much of it does read almost line for line of what passes for coverage in so many Western publications. Fortunately, the entire Western daily press does not follow this guide and if you want coverage of China that consistently goes beyond this guide, I suggest you read the following newspapers:

1. Wall Street Journal;
2. Washington Post;
3. Financial Times;
4. New York Times. (though its headlines seem oftentimes tend to follow Elegant's guide).
5. The Times (Thanks FOARP)
6. The Guardian (Thanks FOARP, again)

Any others? FOARP has helped on the British side. What about Canada and/or Australia?

Oh, and one more thing, Beijing's air is that bad. Sorry.

UPDATE: Kaiser Kuo at Ogilvy China's Digital Watch does an absolutely masterful job listing the cliches reporters in Beijing would do well to avoid, in his post, entitled, "Forbidden Cliches: A Guide for Visiting Journalists." May we live in interesting times.

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China Business Blog and Podcast just did a post on a CNBC television appearance this morning by Technomic Asia's Steve Ganster. Because so many of my firm's clients are in the international food business and because I see China as a tremendous market for Western food companies, Steve's analysis is of particular interest to me.

The key takeaway from Steve's interview is this from the China Business Blog post:

As companies are learning that what works at home won’t necessarily work abroad in the Chinese marketplace, they’re finding new ways to cater specifically to the needs and desires of Chinese people — rather than shoe-horning American products into a distinctly non-American set of tastes.

Check it out.

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I am usually not interested in trying to divine whether or not China is going to become a superpower. My lack of interest stems both from the inherent vagueness of the term "superpower" and from the fact that all such predictions are based on today's facts, rather than on some supernatural ability to predict the future. Having thrown out these caveats, I have to admit there is a really interesting and thoughtful "debate" going on right now between John Pomfret (whose knowledge of China I greatly respect) and the China Comment blog (whose knowledge of China I also greatly respect.

Pomfret is in the China will not be a superpower corner, while China Comment says it will. Pomfret puts forth his views in a recent Washington Post article, entitled, "A Long Wait at the Gate to Greatness" and China Comment rebuts them in a post, entitled, "A Weak China?"

What I see as important is not so much their positions on the will it or won't it issue, but rather their excellent analysis of China's situation today and how that situation may shape its future. Greatly simplified, Pomfret and China Comment disagree on the following:

Demographics. Pomfret says China's demographic situation is dire. China Comment says China's labor force has plenty of room to expand.

The Economy. Pomfret says it is overrated. China Comment says look at purchasing power growth.

The Environment. Pomfret says it is bad. China Comment says it can improve.

Ideology. Pomfret says China has none. China Comment says China is in the process of developing its mission.

The glass is both half full and half empty and both are worth a read.

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+8* blog (a consistently interesting Asia/China tech blog written by Benjamin Joffe) just posted on Asian internet and mobile companies seeking to go global. The post is entitled "From Asia to the world: going global in a digital world," and it describes what it will take for Asia to go "global in a digital world." Great stuff for those interested in innovation or high-tech and I urge you to check it out.

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Okay, so I didn't really write this, but I have thought this so many times in my head that somehow my thoughts must have transferred nearly 1 to 1 to this post. The post is "Utter Idiots and Why the United States Will Not Boycott the Beijing Olympics" and with two very minor variations, it conveys my thinking, exactly. The two changes are that I would use a word weaker than idiot so as to offend a bit less and I am not as frustrated as the actual writer, Kai Pan. I also should credit Kai Pan for the history lesson regarding China's role in the 1984 Olympics; I have to admit I was not aware of that.

During my first year blogging, those who accused me of being a Panda licker or a China hater angered me. During my second year of blogging they frustrated me. I am now indifferent, figuring those who make such comments either know not whereof they speak or simply have not been reading this blog long enough to know our actual views. Once I achieved indifference, I realized the overwhelming majority of our readers (I would guess something close to 99%) do want to listen and debate, not just hurl invective. So the word "idiots" is not directed at any of you.

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Maybe I have been watching too much Lost (all that remains is the Season 4 finale), but in response to a barrage of demand (one email suggestion around a year ago), I have decided it is time I come out with my list of the five China blogs I would want to be able to read were I to be stranded on a deserted island for the next year or two. Now remember, this list is not meant to be the best five blogs or the most enjoyable five blogs or even the most important five blogs. It is a list of the five blogs I would want were I to be stranded without any other reading material. That all of these blogs have daily or near daily postings (oftentimes multiple postings per day) is a big plus as I figure I will have plenty of time to fill. It would be a cop out were I too list anything even resembling a blog aggregator (like Chinalyst or China Digital Times or Virtual Review China) so I will not.

So without further ado, and in no particular order, and with just a bit of explanation, here goes:

1. Peking Duck. Why? Because this blog best captures the zeitgeist of China's expat community. Plus, it is fun.

2. Danwei. Why? Because there is something worth reading on there every day and every week or so there is something on there that is completely original and of critical importance.

3. EastSouthWestNorth (a/k/a ESWN). Why? Because it tells exactly what is happening in China and when it really matters, it gets in depth with it.

4. Shanghaiist. Why? See Danwei explanation above.

5. ImageThief. Why? Because it deals with the big issues as well as anyone and the writing is just so damn good.

What do you think?

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Just came across a very interesting new blog, entitled, Mei-Zhong Guan-Xi (h/t to Danwei), which accurately describes itself as follows:

Analysis and translations published by an American living in Shanghai.

The goal of this site is twofold. First, through translations, allow non-Chinese speakers access to editorials in China’s domestic media in order to increase understanding of the Chinese viewpoint. Second, through analysis, express my own views on certain China-related issues.

On average, I will try to publish one translation each weekday, and one analysis piece each week.

Mei-Zhong Guanxi is Chinese for US-Sino relations.

All posts by Anton Lee Wishik II

Check it out.

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Fascinating discussion over at Blogging for China on what makes one Chinese. Post is entitled, "What Does it Mean to be Chinese," and it and its 161+ comments, unflinchingly address what is required to be Chinese.

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Well, within limits.

Bizcult has an interesting post up on the basics of lobbying the Chinese government. The post is entitled, "How to Lobby the Chinese Government," and it is based on Scott Kennedy's book The Business of Lobbying in China.

According to Kennedy, Chinese policy arises from three things:

1) bargaining between elite politicians and various bureaucracies, 2) expertise provided by intellectuals that include economists, lawyers and researchers in government-sponsored research institutes, 3) National People’s Congress legislation.

To lobby effectively, you need to concentrate on these three processes and the policies they create. Lobbying by foreigners is commonly done in China and the most successful lobbyists are those who communicate and make personal visits regularly. Kennedy has the following to say about where and how to lobby:

"Lobbying via Chinese trade associations can have mixed results." There are many such associations, but only some of them have any real power.

"Forget about the Communist Party." Kennedy sees the party as "unimportant" for business purposes and he suggests lobbying "the ministries and commissions responsible for daily management and regulation of business policy" where regulation actually occurs.

"Don’t cultivate clientelist relationships (read: don’t bribe bureaucrats)." Buying the influence of one local official probably will not help.

I agree with all of the above, particularly the point about constant contact with government officials. If you are going to impact Chinese governmental officials (and this is true of government officials outside China as well), the best way to do it is through a real relationship, not just by running to them with your latest immediate problem. Regular readers of this blog know our position on bribery is to just say no. No both because the person you bribe today may be out of power tomorrow and no because you could get caught and put in jail, either in China or in your home country.

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Or "nucular," as President Bush calls it.

China Comment (an excellent, relatively new blog) did a pretty amazing post, entitled, "China's Nuclear Power," detailing (and that is the right word) China's nuclear power industry. If you want to know about nuclear power in China, I recommend you read it.

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Very interesting and insightful article on skateboarding in China, dude. The article is written by college junior, Jonathan Chow, and is entitled, "Skateboarding With Chinese Characteristics." Its money quote and why the article itself is important is as follows:

"Forget soybeans, aircrafts, and pharmaceuticals. Popular culture is America's most influential export."

It's tagline is that "As extreme sports emerge in China, skateboarding leads the way." BTW, am I the only person over 25 who both watches and loves Rob & Big?

More than once, someone from Russia has told me that despite all the anti-American propaganda to which they were constantly subjected, they never hated the United States because they liked our music so much. I have a very close friend (the guy who sent me to Papua New Guinea, actually) from Sakhalin Island, Russia, who taught himself English by listening to US and British Rock & Roll on Japanese radio stations.

On a barely related note (I cannot resist the plug here), one of our gaming clients will this week be releasing an unbelievably cool video game based on the TV show, The Deadliest Catch. The game [check out the video at this Amazon link] involves crab fishing, but I mention it here because though crab catching is obviously a very serious business, the game itself plays more like an extreme sports game, which should be no surprise because the people behind it were also behind the award winning and hugely popular Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball MAX'D game.

It is a good article.

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Travelpod has the most comprehensive analysis of China's present visa situation I have seen (h/t to ImageThief). It explains the current situation with respect to all sorts of China visas. If you have any questions regarding what it takes these days to secure the various types of China visas, I urge you to check it out.

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Matthew Harrison of B2B International China has a nice post up on China Success Stories, entitled, "Marketing and Selling to Chinese Businesses." For me, the big takeaway (and surprise) was the importance of conferences and exhibitions. Now of course I knew that China puts a big one of these on just about every week, but I did not realize how truly important they are for securing business. I do not purport to be an expert in marketing to Western companies, but I have to believe such events are of far less importance than in China. Anyway, it makes for a very informative read.

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When two preeminent China techno-geeks (Kaiser Kuo at Ogilvy Digital Watch and David Wolf at Silicon Hutong) tell us we should be looking to newly created OpenWebAsia.com for sources on China and Asia tech, all I can do is listen and repeat.

OpenWebAsia describes itself as follows:

The OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup is a network of premium blogs focus on Asian Web industry. These sites build efficient channels between Asia web and global industry, and also enhance the inter-communication of local Internet markets. If you would like to subscribe to all of these blogs, you can download and import the OPML file into your favorite RSS reader.

Check it out.

While on the subject of excellent sites that "build efficient chanels," I also highly recommend Alltop.com, an excellent blog aggregator with a China section. Alltop is the brainchild of Guy Kawasaki, who himself has a great blog on tech and more.

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Mega consulting firm AT Kearney just came out with its 2008 Global Retail Development Index and China came out as the fourth most attractive country, behind India, Vietnam, and Russia. The report has all kinds of fascinating statistics, rankings and graphs and I would urge anyone either in or thinking of going into international retailing to check out.

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Two excellent posts on Confucianism as THE ideology for China. The first, by Xujun Eberlein, writing at China Beat, is entitled, "China: Democracy, or Confucianism?" Greatly oversimplified, its thesis is, essentially, as follows:

It seems typical of American thinking to regard either a republic or parliamentary democracy as absolutely the only right model for all countries. For a political system to succeed, however, it needs to be rooted in the particular country's cultural history. Throughout thousands of years, China has never lacked great thinkers, political or philosophical. Which poses an interesting question: why does China need to adopt a Western model for its political system, be it Marxist communism or capitalist democracy?

Ms. Eberlein then goes on to call out Confucius as China's last great folk thinker in "quite some time."

Professor Crane over at The Useless Tree responds to Ms. Eberlein's post by, among other things, making three very strong points. The first point, and one on which I whole-heartedly agree, is that it is unfair and dismissive to refer to democracy as "simply a 'Western' thing":

Two things come to mind here, by way of critique. First, while it is true that certain institutions and practices of modern democratic politics can be said to have arisen and developed in something called "the West," it is not true that democracy is simply a "Western" thing. "West" is as problematic a construction as "East" or "Orient." It operates on too abstract a level of historical analysis to be very useful in analyzing and understanding political dynamics. And it is as politicized as any other such generalization. It is used by critics of democracy to link popular demands for more open and participatory politics with imperialism. It thus frames Chinese or Vietnamese or North Korean democrats as unpatriotic (I do not mean to suggest that his is Jiang Qing's intention; but the broader discourse of "The West" creates this effect). A further ramification of the use of "The West" is to distract attention away from historical and contemporary democratic practices in Asia (are Taiwanese not "Chinese"? Are Koreans not "Easterners"? Are Indians not "Asian"?) and also glosses over the history and current manifestations of anti-democracy in the "West." Overall, a high cost to pay intellectually for a fatuous over-generalization.

His second point is that China is too diverse and too globalized to become harnessed by a "singular state ideology:

Confucianism cannot serve as the singular state ideology because no system of thought or philosophy can so serve. Confucianism can provide us with a unique perspective on modern issues but it cannot capture the totality of modernity. Neither can socialism or liberalism (which is not, by the way, the "state ideology" of the US) or conservatism or whatever have you. Globalization, which brings constant movement of ideas and cultural practices, makes this even more impossible.

Why not democracy with Chinese characteristics?

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