No sooner than President Trump signed the Hong Kong human rights and democracy act into law, China announced retaliatory measures, banning U.S. warships from Hong Kong and restricting the work of American NGOs. These responses were narrowly tailored—perhaps in part because China is wary of rocking the boat too much, in a way that
Events
On the Meaning of Hong Kong’s Recent Election
The results of Hong Kong’s district council elections have added a new twist to the city’s ongoing saga, as pro-democracy forces square off against the Beijing-backed authorities. Just days after the apocalyptic violence at the CUHK and PolyU campuses, we watched citizens guzzling Dom Pérignon as they joyfully celebrated the democratic parties’ landslide victory. Considering…
Happy Thanksgiving to the Best Readers in the World
On this Thanksgiving Day, we want to take time out to express those things related to China for which we are thankful. Just to be clear, we are focusing on China, not because we think China takes priority over everything else (because it does not), but because this is a China blog. So with that…
Hong Kong’s Demise
This blog has not minced words when it comes to describing the grim situation in Hong Kong, which, as one of my former colleagues at the State Department puts it, “will get worse before it doesn’t get better.”
Signs of Hong Kong’s demise as an international business center are plentiful. The city is in recession…
Investment in China and Hong Kong’s Legal Role: A Hong Kong Lawyer Seminar on November 15

This coming Friday, November 15, our law firm will be hosting a CLE seminar in Seattle, titled Investment in China and Hong Kong’s Legal Role. The seminar will be sponsored by the International Practice Section of the Washington State Bar Association.
The seminar will be led by Claudio
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Tariffs Against China Increase China IP Problems

Earlier this week I spoke at and attended the 2nd Annual Berkeley-Tsinghua Conference on Transnational IP Litigation at Berkeley Law School, put on by the Asia IP Project of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and Tsinghua University. Before I get to the point of this…
Hong Kong for International Business: Stick a Fork in It, Part 2
Three months ago, in Hong Kong for International Business, Stick a Fork in It, we predicted the slow demise of Hong Kong as an international business center. Many wrote us to say they agreed. Many wrote us to say they vehemently disagreed. Those who disagreed argued that we had underestimated the grit and the resilience…
China Employment Law: What HR Needs to Know. An October 22 Webinar
Our law firm’s lead China employment lawyer, Grace Yang, will be leading a 90 minute webinar on what HR departments need to know about China employment law. China is getting a lot tougher on how foreign companies (especially American companies) in China treat their employees and staying in compliance has never been more important. See
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China’s Banned Entities: Exporters BEWARE
As has been well reported, on October 9, the United States’ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 28 Chinese entities to its Export Administration Regulations banned entity list. For the official federal register notice of this banning go here.
The reason given for placing these Chinese entities on the banned list relates to…
BREAKING: Alleged US-China “Micro” Deal Does Not Mean a Thing for Most
Since the very beginning of US-China trade negotiations we have been unequivocally negative on the likelihood of a deal and we have just kept saying that foreign companies (especially those that sell their products to the United States) need to work on reducing their China footprint. Today’s micro-deal between the United States and China has
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