Recommended Reading Archives
Posted by Dan on July 21, 2008 at 07:56 AM
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?
Posted by Dan on July 18, 2008 at 01:55 AM
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.
Posted by Dan on July 7, 2008 at 12:55 AM
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.
Posted by Dan on July 1, 2008 at 05:19 PM
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.
Posted by Dan on June 28, 2008 at 06:22 AM
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.
Posted by Dan on June 23, 2008 at 01:59 AM
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.
Posted by Dan on June 15, 2008 at 12:13 PM
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.
Posted by Dan on June 14, 2008 at 02:36 PM
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.
Posted by Dan on June 12, 2008 at 12:09 AM
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.
Posted by Dan on June 10, 2008 at 06:33 AM
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 it out.
Posted by Dan on June 8, 2008 at 09:38 AM
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?
Posted by Dan on June 7, 2008 at 07:01 AM
As regular readers know, China Law Blog loves the Danone-Wahaha dispute, having written the following posts on it:
-- China's Joint Venture Jeopardy
-- Danone v. Wahaha -- Which Of Us Is The Most China Rookie?
-- Danone and China's Wahaha: A Lecture on How (Not) to Make Allies Enemies
-- New York Times And Steve Dickinson On The Danone Wahaha China Dispute And On Avoiding Your Own
-- Danone v. Wahaha: China Business/Law Lessons To Be Learned
-- Danone vs. Wahaha. Danone vs. China Law Blog. Ogilvy vs. Steve Dickinson. Have I Missed Anyone?
-- Danone- Wahaha: An Update
-- China's Danone-Wahaha Fight -- The Law Journal Version
We love that dispute because within it lies just about every China business or business law issue one might confront. It is, as a lawyer friend of mine so succinctly put it, "China writ large." We are not the only ones with that view.
Jingzhou Tao, an attorney in JonesDay's Beijing office, and Edward Hillier, a JonesDay paralegal and loyal CLB reader, co-wrote a superb article on the Danone-Wahaha dispute for China Business Review, entitled, "A Tale of Two Companies." The article is appropriately subtitled: "The Danone-Wahaha partnership once seemed ideal, but the companies’ relationship has deteriorated. What lessons can be learned from the dispute?" Tao and Hillier see this dispute as illustrating "issues that foreign-invested enterprises may face in China and the direction of China’s development."
This article does a nice job of explaining the dispute, putting it into context, and putting forth lessons to be learned from it. It also does the best job yet in terms of listing out all of the cases around the world between the two warring companies. Who knew that in addition to cases in Sweden, France, Italy, California, China, and the British Virgin Islands, Danone and Wahaha also went at it against each other in the Samoan courts? I particularly liked the writers' sidebar of "Dispute Resolution Tips in China" (though I think they apply just about everywhere):
- Stay calm and do not get involved with personal invective. This will nearly always backfire in the PRC media.
- Say as little as possible about the dispute. Any comment can be counter-productive.
- Lobbying high-level government officials may not help resolve a dispute because it can give lower-level officials an excuse to do nothing.
- Any strategy must be carefully and pragmatically planned based on the circumstances of the dispute. There is no magic formula.
One thing I would add to this (and again, this is true everywhere, not just China), is that if you are in a litigation dispute that is being covered by the press, you must retain top quality outside public relations counsel. The company involved in the dispute is not going to be objective enough to handle the public relations' aspects (even if it has its own in-house public relations people) and we lawyers (despite thinking otherwise) are just not very good at it.
Do check it out and let us know what you think.
Posted by Dan on June 5, 2008 at 12:06 AM
Fascinating and insightful post over at Richard Spencer's blog, entitled, "When Corruption Works." The post posits that one of the reasons there were so many poorly constructed schools in Sichuan province is because there were so many schools and the reason there were so many schools was due, at least in part to corruption. Interesting analysis and well worth a read.
Post also talks about the long-held view of corruption in Asia, as opposed to in Africa:
Others who have studied these things in more detail have pointed out that, for better or worse, Chinese corruption has a distinguishing feature: because it is so long associated with bureaucratic control, local officials are rather successful at ensuring that corruption can be something of a win-win situation for all sides.
Take off too big a percentage of any given project to which you apply your government chop, and you discourage investment and growth: this is precisely what happens in too many less successful countries in Africa and Asia. Projects get run into the ground as the money supposed to pay for them gets siphoned off into foreign bank accounts.
Reminds me of the following parable:
An Asian and an African Minister of Infrastructure ... become friends during their conferences. The Asian minister invites to his home the African, who marvels at its beauty and asks how the Asian could afford it. “See that bridge over there?” said the Asian minister. “That’s right. 10%. 10%.” In the next year it is the Asian minister’s turn to visit the African and to marvel at his even more grandiose home. “See that bridge over there?” the African minister asks, and the Asian replies, “What bridge?” “That’s right,” the African answers, “100%. 100%.”
[taken from
Scriptorium]
Anyway, do check it out.
Posted by Dan on June 4, 2008 at 02:20 PM
Brendan O'Kane is widely regarded as one of the brightest and best writers in the China blogosphere and I regularly check out his posts for their bon mots. Today, however, Brendan's post consists of a picture about which all I can do is repeat the by now trite phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words and urge you to go see it here.
Posted by Dan on June 1, 2008 at 05:00 PM
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
Janis Joplin
Stupid Pig's China Blog has a very interesting post, entitled, "Freedom in China," on how the Chinese typically view the meaning of freedom differently than those in the West:
The west has generally perceived China to be a country without freedom. That’s why there’s always this talk about no human rights, police brutality, and government regulations over every little thing you do. When someone says this to a Chinese person, they would generally get a reply about how China is free and they never feel repressed.
So what gives? Is the west just stupid and know nothing about China or are the Chinese people brainwashed into believing that they are free?
I think the reason why there cannot be agreement between the two sides is because they’re talking about different types of freedoms. When the west criticizes China on this issue, they basically point to censorship, restrictions on public assembly, limited freedom of speech, and the repression of independent religious groups. However, when the Chinese people talk about the freedoms that they have, they’re thinking of how they can talk about whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes, how they can go out and walk around in the streets of Beijing at night without fear of getting killed, and the ability to go out and spend their money however they want.
Stupid Pig sees China's increasing wealth as eventually leading to greater "higher" freedoms and I agree.
Posted by Dan on May 31, 2008 at 10:28 PM
The always worthwhile China Beat has a great post up by Leslie T. Chang. Ms. Chang is a former WSJ reporter who just wrote a book called Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, due out in October. This post both previews the book and highlights the differences between writing for the Wall Street Journal and writing a book.
If these two paragraphs from the book are any indication, I expect the book will be riveting:
When you met a girl from another factory, you quickly took her measure. “What year are you?” you asked each other, as if speaking not of human beings but of the makes of cars. “How much a month? Including room and board? How much for overtime?” Then you might ask what province she was from. You never asked her name.
To have a true friend inside the factory was not easy. Girls slept twelve to a room, and in the tight confines of the dorm it was better to keep your secrets. Some girls joined the factory with borrowed ID cards and never told anyone their real names. Some spoke only to those from their home provinces, but that had risks: Gossip traveled quickly from factory to village, and when you went home every auntie and granny would know how much you made and how much you saved and whether you went out with boys.
The post certainly is.
Posted by Dan on May 29, 2008 at 10:05 PM
Whenever I come across a really good China blog that has been around for more than a few months, I get irritated. I get irritated at myself and at those who are supposed to be assisting me on this blog for not having discovered it sooner. I also get irritated at the Chinese blogosphere for not having linked over to it. The known is always easy.
I am irritated today because I just came across an excellent China-ish blog that has been around since late last year and, as far as I know, has yet to be cited. Whoops. I just ran a Google blog search and I see that my friend Richard over at Peking Duck beat me to it on this. Kudos to Richard for reducing my irritation a bit.
Inside-out China is written by Xujun Eberlein, who describes herself as follows:
Xujun Eberlein grew up in Chongqing, China, and moved to the United States in the summer of 1988. After receiving a Ph.D. from MIT in the spring of 1995, and winning an award for her dissertation, she joined a small but ambitious high tech company. On Thanksgiving 2003, she gave up tech for writing. She has since won many literary awards. Her stories and personal essays have been published in the United States, Canada, England, Kenya, and Hong Kong, in magazines such as AGNI, Walrus, PRISM International, StoryQuarterly, Stand and Kwani. Her debut story collection Apologies Forthcoming won the 2007 Tartt Fiction Award and will be published in May 2008. She hosts the literary and cultural blog Inside-out China.
She is the author of the recently published book, Apologies Forthcoming, which is described as follows:
Four decades ago China was embroiled in the Cultural Revolution, a period that turned the country on end and defined the generation of Chinese now coming to power. This collection of stories opens a different door to life during and after that time.
When I recommended Blogging for China just last week, I talked about the dearth of well written China blogs in English by those with a China perspective:
One of the things that has surprised me about this blog (China Law Blog) is how seldom people seek to take us to task on our blogroll. If I were a reader, I would have long ago complained about our failure to include China blogs with more of a Chinese perspective. My explanation is that I tend to be pretty intolerant of blogs that are not well written and, let's face it, it is very difficult to write well in a foreign language. Blogging for China is an exception in this regard because it is plenty well writtten. From whence do its writers come?
Inside-out China, though about way more than just China, is both insightful and well written and I have added it to our blogroll.
Just as an aside, Ms. Eberlein has a Chinese saying on her site that I just love: "As long as the green mountains remain, don't worry about firewood."
Posted by Dan on May 28, 2008 at 12:24 AM
Heart of Beijing has a good post up, discussing the changes the Sichuan earthquake has brought to China and, in particular, to how China views itself and how China views how outsiders view China. The post is entitled "Time's Cover Story," and it uses Time Magazine's article, entitled, "Helping Hands," as its springboard. Both the post and the article itself are well worth a read.
Posted by Dan on May 27, 2008 at 11:24 PM
Law Professor Donald Clarke, of Chinese Law Prof Blog fame, has compiled an extremely helpful compilation of views on the pros and cons of Westerners' securing an advanced law degree, or LLM, from a Chinese law school. The compilation can be found here (h/t to China Esquire).
What do you all think?
Along these same lines, Above the Law just did a post, entitled, "The Asia Chronicles: Picking a Firm," describing what to look for in an Asian international law firm at which to work.
UPDATE: Stan Abrams over at China Hearsay has just weighed in with what sounds to me like excellent advice regarding Chinese LLMs, in a post entitled, "The Value of a China LLM."
Posted by Dan on May 23, 2008 at 01:27 AM
My friend and fellow Grinnell alum, “Sunny” Seong-hyon Lee emailed me the other day to express his regrets for having been out of both Beijing and Seoul (where he usually is) when I was in both cities last month. More correspondence revealed he had just returned from Chengdu. Sunny wrote an amazing account of what he saw there for Harvard Magazine, (where he got his masters degree) The article is entitled "Hope amid destruction in Chengdu," and though I am sure most of you have already read countless articles on the quake, I urge you to read one more.
Much of the article chronicles what Sunny sees at a makeshift hospital for new and expectant mothers, but it also veers off into discussing the politics:
One reason why the Chinese government has proactively provided candid disaster information and allowed media access to the site is to prevent unfounded rumors from wreaking even more havoc, a taxi driver, Mr. Liu, explains. “Besides, this is such a big disaster that people will find out about it sooner or later. If you suppress information, rumors will be rampant,” he says. “Besides, given the massive financial loss here, the government will need to turn to the public to raise money,” he says.
Overall, Mr. Liu gives the government high marks for its disaster response. “Premier Wen Jiabao rushed to the disaster-stricken sites early on to oversee rescue efforts. That was a good move,” he says. “The radio is also doing a good job of providing information 24 hours a day. Yesterday, I was listening to FM 91.4 and the radio announcer kept talking for more than four hours straight in the evening. I am sure she didn’t have dinner. It was touching.”
By the time the taxi arrives at Xinhua Park, a voice on the radio says: “Dear comrades, please don’t panic. Please don’t listen to groundless rumors. Trust what the government says.”
Check it out.
Posted by Dan on May 18, 2008 at 10:17 PM
New blog out there of which CLB readers should be aware. It's called Blogging for China and it usually takes a decidedly pro-China view on most issues.
Though pro-China, it is not at all ridiculously so and that means it puts forth very well reasoned and thoughtful arguments and is duly respectful of opposing viewpoints. Pro-China, but not strident or jingoistic.
In particular, it has written often and well on T1b*t, and I particularly urge anyone who thinks this is a simple issue to read those posts. Blogging is at its best when it creates a true marketplace of ideas and, without exception, all the top China bloggers who take on the tough issues (blogs like The Peking Duck, Image Thief, Danwei, Shanghaiist, China Hearsay, Cup of Cha, Mutant Palm, and Zhongnanhai succeed both because they strongly express their own views and because they are respectful of (and I suspect even sometimes impressed with) the views of those with whom they diverge. Though none of these blogs are lacking in forceful opinions, their strength comes from focusing on quality and import, not on relentlessly pounding out an ideology.
The bloggers for whom I have no time are those who believe they have a lock on the truth and any deviation from their truth is an abomination. I will refrain from mentioning those blogs because the last thing I want to do is drive traffic to them, particularly since, as far as I can tell, none of them get more than a few viewers a day, and (judging by the comments) those few viewers seem to consist of the already anointed. These are the blogs written by "ends justify the means" type zealots who purport to have the answer to every question regarding China and believe any blogger who does not enthusiastically toe their line on every single China issue deserves vilification. To quote Ali G. "There is so little respek in the world that if you look it up in the dictionary, then it's not even there."
One of the things that has surprised me about this blog (China Law Blog) is how seldom people seek to take us to task on our blogroll. If I were a reader, I would have long ago complained about our failure to include China blogs with more of a Chinese perspective. My explanation is that I tend to be pretty intolerant of blogs that are not well written and, let's face it, it is very difficult to write well in a foreign language. Blogging for China is an exception in this regard because it is plenty well writtten. From whence do its writers come?
Do check it out and let us know what you think.
Posted by Dan on May 14, 2008 at 10:38 PM
China Financial Markets (a very serious and numbers oriented China economics blog) has a fascinating post, entitled, "Demographic projections and trade implications," on the interaction between China's birth rate and age demographics and its economic and trade future. Marketers and futurists ought to be able to have a field day with this information and I urge anyone interested in these topics to check it out.
Posted by Dan on May 14, 2008 at 09:24 PM
Cn Reviews has the most comprehensive guide for donations to earthquake victims I have seen. (h/t to Black and White Cat) The post is entitled, "China Earthquake Donation Guide: 24+ ways to give," and it lists more than 24 charities involved with the China earthquake, along with descriptions and links. It is all very impressive and for those interested in assisting, I urge you to check it out.
Posted by Dan on May 11, 2008 at 11:27 PM
Uber reporter Tim Johnson over at his perennially superb China Rises Blog has a post up entitled, "China By The Numbers," which consists nearly entirely of a list of interesting numbers from this Independent article highlighting China's rapid change. Both the post and the full article are well worth a read, particularly if you are a numbers geek like me.
What's the deal with The Independent anyway? I don't remember noticing it until a year or so ago and now I am finding all kinds of interesting China and non-China articles in it?
Posted by Dan on May 11, 2008 at 10:07 AM
US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) did a pretty good (though somewhat bombastic as is PBS's wont) series a while back, entitled, "China From the Inside." For those of you who did not have access to it or missed it, All Roads Lead to China just put up (via YouTube) the episode on China's environment. Nothing terribly new or earth shattering in it, but it does do a really good job in bringing China's environment to life, in a way television can and should. Go here to watch it.
Posted by Dan on May 8, 2008 at 10:16 PM
China Daily has an article that nicely summarizes the evolution of China's environmental laws, entitled, "A Legal Leap Forward." Makes for a good primer on the basics. (h/t to The Green Leap Forward).
Posted by Dan on May 8, 2008 at 08:54 PM
Very good Washington Post article by very good WaPo reporter Ariana Eunjung Cha on the impact of China's new labor contract law. The article is entitled "New Law Gives Chinese Workers Power, Gives Businesses Nightmares" and it presents a fair and balanced view of what this new law is doing to the employer-employee relationship in China. (h/t to Thomas P.M. Barnett)
Posted by Dan on May 8, 2008 at 01:38 PM
This Washington Monthly article, entitled, "Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector" does a really good job conveying what really goes on in China's factories. (h/t to All Roads Lead to China) I admit to having spent very little time in Chinese factories, but this article certainly jibes with what I have been told by those who have and with what I have read on the subject. If you are outsourcing product manufacturing to China, it would behoove you to read this article.
Posted by Dan on May 7, 2008 at 12:20 AM
Every so often I will get an email from an English teacher in China who is owed money by the school for which he works. Typically the letter will state the case and then ask "do I have a case." I nearly always answer by saying that "based on the facts you have conveyed to me, it certainly does sound as though you have a case," but you really need to ask yourself whether it is worth your time and money and all the hassle and stress to pursue your case for $300 to $700. These emails are the sum total of what I know about teaching in China.
Despite this, I every once in a while also get emails from people asking me what I think about teaching English in China. I respond to these by saying that I think it is a good thing for everyone to learn English. Next time I will also mention this post, "Teaching English in China," on the Stupid Pig's China Blog because it is the only thing on the web of which I am aware that talks about teaching English in China. If you are interested in teaching English in China, please do not email me, just check out this post.
Posted by Dan on May 6, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Kevin Brown has a post up on the OpenDemocracy site that is either brilliant or completely tongue in cheek and I am too dense to tell which. Anyway, the post is entitled, "China's Olympics -- the lull after the storm," and it posits that China has been doing a heckuva good job with Olympics public relations by following the basic PR rule of getting the bad news out first. Brown sees the Olympics running smoothly from here on out and the Chinese just kicking back and enjoying it.
I vacillate between thinking Brown is dead on and thinking he has lost his mind. What do you think?
Posted by Dan on May 6, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Second year SMU law student, Jing "Brad" Luo, recently had an article of his on China lawyer ethics published in China Law & Practice Magazine. A law student getting an article published in such a prestigious magazine (in his second language, no less) is really quite a feat. The article is entitled, "Chinese Law on Lawyers Amended: Progress Made and to Be Made," and though a subscription is required to see the whole article on the China Law & Practice site, Brad nicely summarizes it on his own blog, with a post, entitled, "Legal Ethics, In Chinese Style."
My gross summary of Brad's summary is that China's new ethical rules for lawyers expand a bit on both the scope of confidentiality of client information and on what constitutes a conflict of interest, but on neither front have the rules gone far enough to make Western clients feel terribly comfortable. I previously wrote on why this discomfort is necessary in a post, entitled, "China Lawyer Ethics -- Perils And Pitfalls For Foreign Companies," which post, in turn, was based on two of Brad's previous posts (here and here) on China lawyer ethics.
Now I know you non-lawyers (if you have even gotten this far) are thinking that none of this has anything to do with you, you are going to just have to trust me that if you have ever hired a Chinese lawyer or law firm or are even contemplating doing so, you need to read the above posts.
Posted by Dan on May 5, 2008 at 10:23 PM
Professor Donald C. Clarke of George Washington University Law School (a former law school professor of CLB's own Steve Dickinson and the prof behind the Chinese Law Prof Blog) recently had his paper published, entitled, "China: Creating a Legal System for a Market Economy."
The abstract describes the paper as follows:
Since the early 1990s, China has come a long way in legislating the foundational rules for its reformed economy. Virtually all of the important areas-contracts, business organizations, securities, bankruptcy, and secured transactions, to name a few - are now covered by national legislation as well as lower-level regulations. Yet an important feature of a legal structure suited to a market economy is missing: the ability of the system to generate from below solutions to problems not adequately dealt with by existing legislation. The top-down model that has dominated Chinese law reform efforts to date can only do so much. What is needed now is a more welcoming attitude to market-generated solutions to the gaps and other problems that will invariably exist in legislation. The state's distrust of civil-society institutions and other bottom-up initiatives suggests, however, that this different approach will not come easily.
Professor Clarke is absolutely right. China has come a long way in passing a whole slew of really well crafted business laws, but once these laws get enacted, Beijing so often becomes paralyzed and cannot seem to come out with regulations fast enough to tell those of us in the field how we are actually supposed to work within the "big laws." So instead of businesses knowing exactly what they need to do to comply, they are oftentimes left wondering when the regulations will come out and what exactly they will say. This is absolutely typical of nearly every law referenced in the abstract above and is true of the new labor law as well. In other words, "what is needed now is a more welcoming attitude to market-generated solutions to the gaps and other problems that will invariably exist in legislation."
Professor Clarke's article makes for very interesting reading.
Posted by Dan on May 4, 2008 at 01:42 PM
Craig Maginness at the Going Global Blog has an extremely thoughtful post up analyzing the global trade positions of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barrack Obama, entitled, "Presidential Primary Edition -- The Candidates, the Parties and Their Positions on Global Trade." His somewhat upbeat conclusion:
Fortunately, each of the 3 remaining serious candidates seem to be bright worldly people. I have to believe that whatever they may say in the nominating process to appeal to their party's extremes, when faced with the responsibility of leading the free world, they will recognize the benefits to the US of being fully engaged in international commerce and global competition.
Check it out.
Posted by Dan on May 3, 2008 at 08:25 PM
The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society has come out with a report (free online here) entitled, Regulating Enterprise: The Regulatory Impact on Doing Business in China. (h/t to AsiaBizBlog)
The report is described as follows:
This special report adopts an interdisciplinary, socio-legal approach to reveal the actual encounter between law and the social environment, exploring problems of implementation, and the implications for China’s future policy initiatives and economic development. Collectively, the briefs demonstrate that while China’s transition to a market economy governed by the rule of law is far from complete, the dynamic reform process is, on the whole, producing a more secure and transparent environment for investment.
It consists of the following chapters, written by the following people:
Introduction: Randall Peerenboom
Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
Policy Brief 1: Andrew Mertha
Recent Policy Changes in China’s Real Estate Sector
Policy Brief 2: Lou Jianbo
The Making of China’s Corporate Bankruptcy Law
Policy Brief 3: Terence C. Halliday
Competition Policy and Law
Policy Brief 4: Mark Williams
Development of a Legal and Policy Framework on Competition
Policy Brief 5: Peng Xiaohua
Labour Law: Trends and Practices in China
Policy Brief 6: James Zimmerman
Courts as Legislators
Policy Brief 7: Randall Peerenboom
The Impact of the World Trade Organization on the Chinese Legal System
Policy Brief 8: Yuka Kobayashi
The Foundation has also come out with a report entitled, Developments in Dispute Resolution in China, which can be found here, described as follows:
There have been dramatic changes in the nature and incidence of disputes, conflicts, and social disturbances, and the mechanisms for addressing them over the last twenty-five years in China. Drawing on recent empirical work, these policy briefs and reports examine the ways conflicts are addressed across a range of public and private fora, while exploring the development and limitations of mechanisms that seek to address citizen complaints and concerns. The briefs shed light on ongoing debates concerning the role of law and dispute resolution with respect to economic development (efficiency) and social justice (equity), and provide feasible policy recommendations for enhancing both justice and efficiency.
This report consists of the following:
Dispute Resolution in China: Patterns, Causes and Prognosis
Report: Randall Peerenboom and He Xin
Constitutional Conflict and the Role of the NPC
Policy Brief 1: Wang Zhenmin
China Labour Dispute Resolution
Policy Brief 2: Ron Brown
The Enforcement of Commercial Judgments in China
Policy Brief 3: He Xin
Shareholders' Litigation and Anti-Dumping Investigation in China
Policy Brief 4: Wang Jiangyu
CIETAC as a Forum for Resolving Business Disputes
Policy Brief 5: Cao Lijun
Popular Attitudes Towards Dispute Processing in Urban and Rural China
Policy Brief 6: Ethan Michelson
I confess I have yet to read either book, but because both are written by such highly regarded China law scholars, I have no doubt both will be well worth the read. I fully intend to read both books, but in the meantime, I would love to hear back from anyone who reads either.
Posted by Dan on May 3, 2008 at 12:57 AM
The One Eyed Panda attended AmCham's very recent seminar on China visas and he left with a whole slew of good notes. So if you are wondering about the latest regarding China visas, I urge you to go his post, China Visa Update as it is very helpful. Note that the word is that this "new" system is going to remain in place even after the Olympics. In other words, if you want to make sure you can stay in China for business, you need a Z visa. For more on Z visas, check out, "China Visa Certainty: Z (employee) Visas Are Z Best."
Posted by Dan on April 29, 2008 at 02:57 AM
Go ahead and call me a Luddite, but I generally am not a big fan of podcasts because they take too long. We lawyers can read (or skim) documents at a much faster speed than mere mortals. Podcasts take away that edge.
But for those who like podcasts....
Rick Martin over at The Little Red Blog just compiled a great list on the top China podcasting sites, entitled, "China in your ear."
Rick's list consists of the following:
The Cool Aid, which describes itself as being about "surprising personal experiences in China business." Cool Aid is part of BizCult, which is a very good blog.
CBC Search Engine. CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and this show is about "how technology is affecting society, and understandably, the conversation often includes a discussion of China."
The China Business Network. This one is excellent.
Danwei.fm. This one is part of the rightfully venerated Danwei blogging empire.
MarketPlace Public Radio. Rick advises us to "see its Asia category, which is dominated by stories on China." Scott Teng, npr's lead guy in Shanghai does always keep it interesting.
China Business Blog and Podcast. This is done by Kent Kedl of Technomic Asia and I too am a huge fan.
Any others deserving mention?
Posted by Dan on April 24, 2008 at 05:46 PM
The China Economic Review is just out with an article by CLB's own Steve Dickinson on the wholesale changes China has made to its VAT (Value Added Tax) system. The article is entitled, "VAT’s all folks: How changes in the tax system reflect an evolving approach to foreign investment." The article is on how China has changed its VAT rebate system to bring it in line with its policy of encouring higher value, lower pollution, industries, or as Steve puts it,“quality not quantity.”
Check it out.
Posted by Dan on April 11, 2008 at 07:02 AM
Until a few weeks ago, I actually thought there was little need for a blog focused solely on the upcoming Olympics. Silly me. For those seeking a one stop blog on China's Olympics, I heartily recommend the Beijing Olympics Blog, which describes itself as "An unofficial look at China & the Beijing Olympic Games." It is nicely done and, hey, it has even become somewhat relevant.
Posted by Dan on April 10, 2008 at 08:44 AM
There is so much great stuff out there on the Olympics; I could devote the next few months to nothing but that on this blog. Though I have studiously sought to avoid covering these issues too often, I could not resist saying something about this post on Shanghai Scrap, entitled, "The Protests, the Olympics, and Race." It is damn good and it is hugely thought provoking.
So what do you think? The comment lines are open, but please confine yourself to commenting on the issues raised in the article itself.
I will start it off by saying I am troubled by how quickly people are willing to just write off 1. 3 billion people as "brainwashed" and I think that is ignorance at best, racism at worst.
I will be getting on a long airplane flight shortly so please be patient in waiting for your comments to appear.
UPDATE: Just came across another "damn good" and "thought provoking" piece along these same lines. This one is by Brendan O'Neill on his personal blog and it is entitled, "Invasion of the robotic thugs," with this explanatory byline: "The attacks on the 'horrible, ominous, retarded' Chinese men guarding the Olympic flame are historical prejudice repeated as farce."
Posted by Dan on April 9, 2008 at 11:31 PM
You want to know the reality about the evolution of human rights in China? Go here.
Posted by Dan on April 9, 2008 at 08:18 AM
I hate the title, "Ten Reasons Why China Matters to You," and I also think some of the ten were tossed out just to get to ten.
But because Thomas P.M. Barnett is one of the best international strategists out there, and because the analysis behind the items is so good, I am recommending you check out this list on Good Magazine (h/t to Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog)
Posted by Dan on April 8, 2008 at 05:06 PM
