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International Law

China Hearsay

Commentary and analysis of law and business in China.
By Stan Abrams

Post Frequency: 8.4/day

Last Entry: May 03, 2010 at 11:04:24

Friday Photos: Tiantan

Posted on May 08, 2009
I first came to Beijing in the beginning of 1999, and at the time, my wife and I made the rounds of the usual tourist attractions: the Great Wall, Tiananmen, etc. With some chagrin, I will admit that I haven’t been back to many of those places over the past ten years...

U.S. Double Standard on China Military Spending

Posted on May 08, 2009
This post could apply to any country’s military spending, I suppose, not just China. However, since China is the favorite “foreign menace” for American right-wing nutjobs these days, let’s limit the discussion to just the one scary rising military behemoth...

China Law Humor

Posted on May 08, 2009
A h/t to Danwei for this nugget o’ gold, although I don’t think the story they picked up was meant to be humorous: When asked if state-owned companies were exempted from antitrust review, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau under the MOC responded in writing that the Law was applicable to all companies in China, and that both domestic [...

Whither Family Names?

Posted on May 06, 2009
A light, throwaway post, but thought provoking nonetheless (h/t Foreign Policy): Germany is renowned for fighting inflation, but the battle extends beyond money and into the realm of names. In a split decision on Tuesday, the German Constitutional Court upheld a ban on married people combining already-hyphenated names, forbidding last names of three parts or more...

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Fiscal Stimulus and China Bashing

Posted on May 05, 2009
I was just listening to the Bill Moyers program on iTunes (this is a U.S. newstalk show with a very left-leaning point of view). The discussion was on the economy and the challenges of the recovery. What got my attention was talk of the fiscal stimulus and the need to spur consumption...

Yes, Diplomacy Seems Like A Good Idea

Posted on May 05, 2009
WASHINGTON (AFP) ? Chinese fishing boats engaged in “dangerous” maneuvers near a US Navy ship in international waters off China, the Pentagon said Tuesday, in the latest provocative encounter with American surveillance vessels. Spokesman Bryan Whitman said a pair of Chinese vessels last Friday approached the USNS Victorious, which he said was engaged in “routine operations,” [...

Swine Flu Nationalism, or How I Spent Labor Day

Posted on May 04, 2009
The one article that jumped out at me this weekend while I was enjoying the Labor Day holiday was this report on the origins of Swine Flu from Wired: Scientists have traced the genetic lineage of the new H1N1 swine flu to a strain that emerged in 1998 in U...

China?s Muscular Competition Law

Posted on May 04, 2009
Excellent article in the Financial Times on the still-relatively new Anti-monopoly Law. Part of the article is a standard “You (foreign companies) really need to sit up and take notice of this new law,” complete with quotes from foreign lawyers about why this is so important — and, I suppose, why you need to consult [...

Special 301 Report Out ? China Still on Priority Watch List

Posted on May 01, 2009
Today is Labor Day, the first day of a three-day holiday in China. I wasn’t planning on doing much blogging, but if I wait until Monday to report on this, I may just blow it off entirely, and it’s too important. This is perhaps the most important government document of the year with respect to [...

The Next Big Thing in the Swine Flu Story

Posted on April 30, 2009
Any day now, I expect to be hit with spam from a China consultant who is selling his services to foreign-invested enterprises here to help them prepare their operations for the coming pandemic. The consultant, I assume, will be selling in-house training to management and the HR team, will be more than happy to speak to [...

Shanzhai Gets Its Own MMORPG?

Posted on April 30, 2009
Somehow, I don’t think this is going to end well (h/t WSJ blog): Is a battle brewing in China over ?World of Warcraft?? Last week, the Web site wofchina.com went online, advertising a familiar-sounding game called ?World of Fight.? ?WoF (World of Fight), a new game by The9 Ltd...

Reports of a PRC ?Virtual Court? Are Highly Exaggerated

Posted on April 29, 2009
Can’t tell you how excited I became when I saw this headline from JLM: E-Disputes to be Settled in Virtual Court Images ran through my mind of virtual courtrooms designed for online games such as Second Life, with plaintiffs, judges and defendants attending with bizarre avatars...

Pig Panic Even More Stupid Than I Thought

Posted on April 29, 2009
From Countdown to Beijing: Nevermind that the H1N1 ?swine? flu, which has killed more than 150 people in Mexico, is not directly caused by pigs and has so far not led to any outbreaks among pigs. Nevermind that the World Health Organization has ruled out any risk of infection to humans from eating pork...

The Ambitious RMB

Posted on April 29, 2009
Can’t say I agree with this Caijing commentary on the future of the RMB: The yuan is expected to gain popularity as a regional currency as China expands trade with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau[.] China?s trade already surpasses Japan?s in the region...

About That Rebalanced Economy . . .

Posted on April 29, 2009
One of the “must do” goals these days is to shift China’s economy from being export based to being consumption based. This has been a goal for many years, as pushed by academics, but has not really been taken all that seriously by the government until recently...

Swine Talk is So 2003

Posted on April 28, 2009
The swine flu panic is getting annoying. Sure, if this turns out to be a huge deal, I’m going to look pretty stupid. On the other hand, I remember 2003, when an admittedly nasty bug, SARS, made everyone crazy without even killing that many otherwise healthy individuals...

Why I Don?t Care About World IP Day

Posted on April 27, 2009
I have long railed against public awareness campaigns designed to educate people about intellectual property rights infringement. My basic problem with such campaigns is that they are all fluff. People will buy fakes and download/buy pirated copyrighted works for one major reason: they can...

Wangzhihe Trademark Case: More Media Sins

Posted on April 27, 2009
I was a bit critical last week regarding the Financial Times’s reporting on the Wangzhihe trademark case in Germany. My problem was their suggestion that cases of IP infringement between two Chinese companies was somehow a new development (it isn’t)...

SIPO Pats Gov?t on Back for Protecting Olympic IPR

Posted on April 25, 2009
China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has issued a White Paper on protection of Olympic IPR last year. It is self-congratulatory, giving kudos to other government agencies, such as AIC, Customs and the PSB. As I wrote last year, my big “take away” from the whole Olympics period with respect to IPR protection is the standard [...

Belated Friday Photos: Liu Li Chang

Posted on April 25, 2009
Excellent weather this weekend so far, apart from the (very normal) Beijing Spring wind. I’ve been living in Beijing off and on for 9 years and never paid a visit to Liu Li Chang culture street (??????), a/k/a Liu Li Chang market. Today was the day...

Unveiling Warships is Sign of Transparency, Not a Show of Force?

Posted on April 24, 2009
You will rarely see me comment on a military topic. It’s something I know little about. However, sometimes the news reporting on, or PR spin of, a military issue makes it too tempting. Case in point. China is getting ready for the 60th anniversary extravaganza this year, and I guess military parades are being ramped up...

Rolls-Royce Knockoff Makes Splash at Shanghai Auto Show

Posted on April 23, 2009
I’m not really a car guy, so this story would have sailed right by me if not for the IP angle. You be the judge whether the term “knockoff” applies in this case (h/t CDT): 1. The real deal, a Rolls: 2. The alleged knockoff, the Geely GE (great name, that): To my untrained eye, I see two [...

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don?t: China Airlines Criticized for Fuel Hedging

Posted on April 22, 2009
You gotta feel sorry for these guys. Just consider the volatility in oil prices over the past couple of years. Hedging, a tool used by airlines to stabilize jet fuel costs, has been blamed as the culprit behind huge losses for China’s biggest airlines...

Who Knew There Was a Market for Ebooks in China?

Posted on April 22, 2009
This is all news to me: Pearson PLC’s book publishing division Penguin said Tuesday it has signed a deal to make a number of its English books available in electronic book format to readers in China, as the company prepares itself for the rapid rise in the use of electronic book readers like Amazon...

Financial Times Seems to Think Chinese Infringement of Chinese IP Is a New Trend

Posted on April 22, 2009
Chinese companies are falling victim to Chinese trademark pirates in foreign markets ? a twist to the intellectual property problems frequently suffered by foreign companies in China. In one of the most dramatic cases, two Chinese individuals have applied for trademark registration in Canada for the names and logos of more than 60 Chinese companies...

Entertainment Industry Makes New U.S. Commerce Secretary Its Bitch

Posted on April 22, 2009
Well, that didn’t take long. Scant days after assuming his position as Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke is already kissing the ass of the entertainment industry. From IP Watch, referring to a Washington, D.C. industry meeting: The Obama administration will fight for the movie industry and work to aggressively enforce its intellectual property protections both at home and [...

More Indications that Obama Will Have Reality-based Trade Policy

Posted on April 21, 2009
This sounds reasonable and might bode well for the US-China bilateral trade relationship: The administration has no present plans to reopen negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement to add labor and environmental protections, as President Obama vowed to do during his campaign, the top trade official said on Monday...

Short or Fat Need Not Apply to PKU Med School

Posted on April 21, 2009
This story from Danwei is highly entertaining. Here are the particulars: The Peking University Health Science Center, the university’s medical school, recently released admission standards that disqualify applicants deemed overweight, short (1.6m for men and 1...

National Service: G2 Seems to be In Sync

Posted on April 21, 2009
Interesting that we see the following on the same day: Obama to Sign National Service Bill Today The AmeriCorps program started by President Bill Clinton will triple in size over the next eight years, and tens of thousands of other Americans will soon see new opportunities to give back to their communities...

China?s Other Demographic Time Bomb

Posted on April 21, 2009
The world?s third-largest economy is aging so rapidly that by 2050, there may be only two working-age people for every senior citizen, compared with 13 to one now. That increases the urgency of the government?s pledge to expand the Chinese social safety net and make retirement benefits and health care accessible to as many of [...

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