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International Law

China Law Blog

Focuses on business law in China.
By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Post Frequency: 5.3/day

Last Entry: November 04, 2020 at 13:55:07

China Legal Issues For Business. The Ten Minute Version. Part II.

Posted on November 07, 2010
I spoke last week (for ten minutes) in Atlanta at NACA's First Annual US-China Business Conference. I posted that speech (the written version of it, anyway) in a post entitled China Legal Issues For Business. The Ten Minute Version. In going through and deleting old emails today, I came across my first, very different version of the speech...

China Retail. How Much Does China Know?

Posted on November 07, 2010
Had a fascinating conversation recently with a large domestic consumer product company that had been contemplating going into China. Very well run, very sophisticated, very successful U.S company viewed as a very solid line of mid-level priced consumer products...

China Healthcare And Education. As A Business, It's All Good.

Posted on November 06, 2010
A couple years ago, I was on a panel at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Business that was asked what we saw as the best opportunities for foreign businesses involved with China. We all agreed on the following five, in no particular order: Healthcare Education Cleantech/Greentech Food Software/High Tech Nothing shocking or earth shattering, obviously, but as time has gone on I have become even more convinced these are the top five...

Rare Earths And Polysilicon. Does China Control Our Green Future?

Posted on November 05, 2010
By Steve Dickinson Anyone with any knowledge of the energy constraints facing the modern industrial world understands that alternative energy is essential for the future of any modern society. Two critical raw materials for the key alternative energy technologies are rare earths and polycrystalline silicon ('polysilicon')...

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China QC Inspection. So Totally Worth It.

Posted on November 04, 2010
I have always thought it crazy for a company not to have a quality control inspection done of its China product before shipping. Yes, crazy. The Quality Inspection Tips blog has a post, entitled, "How much does an inspection in China cost?" that puts the need for a QC inspection into proper focus...

China's Upcoming Five Cities For Foreign Investment.

Posted on November 04, 2010
A loyal reader emailed me a Fortune Magazine list this morning of "China's 5 Best New Cities for Business" and asked me what I thought of it. If one ignores the fact that none of the five cities is new, it is a great list. The list was developed as follows: Fortune China recently conducted its fifth annual Emerging Business Cities survey, hearing from 1,278 Chinese senior managers who ranked 50 selected cities based on the overall business environment, the cost of doing business, the local talent pool, and the quality of life...

China's 12th Year Plan: The Coming Storm On Wages

Posted on November 03, 2010
By Steve Dickinson The 5th Plenum of the 17th CCP Central Committee completed its meeting in Beijing on October 18. David Shambaugh wrote a good review of the meeting for the Brookings Institute on November 2 (here). Aside from the political issues discussed by Shambaugh, the major task of the plenum was to adopt the outline for the 12th Five Year Plan that will guide China's economic development of China from 2011 to 2015...

Chinese Business Law and Practice. Santiago, Chile, November 25-26, 2010.

Posted on November 03, 2010
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Catholic University of Chile) is putting on a China law seminar in Santiago, Chile, later this month. The seminar will take place on November 24 and November 25 and I am confident it will be excellent...

China Legal Issues For Business. The Ten Minute Version.

Posted on November 02, 2010
I spoke yesterday at the 2010 U.S. China Business Conference in Atlanta. I was tasked with talking about the legal issues American businesses face in China and the legal issues Chinese businesses face in the United States. Here is my speech: I am going to be talking about the legal issues facing U...

Going To China The Coke Way.

Posted on November 02, 2010
Spent today at a really nicely put together China business conference in Atlanta put on by the Atlanta chapter of the National Association of Chinese Americans. I particularly liked the format which consisted mostly of panels where each speaker talked for about ten minutes, followed by Q & A...

China Playing Tug-Of-War On Drywall. It's Typical.

Posted on October 30, 2010
Joaquin Sapien, a ProPublica reporter has been churning out really top flight in-depth stories on the Chinese Drywall situation almost since its inception. If you have any interest at all in Chinese drywall, you should be reading his stories. In fact, if you have any interest at all in learning how manufacturing (even business as a whole) is conducted in China, you should be reading his stories...

Selling Your Product Into China. Lawyers Need Not Apply.

Posted on October 28, 2010
I am fascinated by China's consumer market, mostly because it is so damn unpredictable, at least by me. I have seen Western products go into China that I thought had zero chance of attaining success, only to see them succeed even beyond the crazy expectations of my client...

Representing Chinese Companies. I See Some Light.

Posted on October 27, 2010
Had a nice meeting last week with one of my firm's few Chinese clients. Though the bulk of my law firm's work involves helping mostly US companies go overseas, we also sometimes help foreign companies come into the United States. Our language and cultural capabilities means most of that work should be done for Russian, Korean, Spanish/Latin American, and Chinese companies, but we have done disproportionally little for Chinese companies...

Eight Big Mistakes To Avoid In China.

Posted on October 27, 2010
One of the favorite topics among China lawyers is the big mistakes they have seen their clients, rejected clients, and others make when trying to navigate China. The discussion usually transpires with one attorney telling the facts, with the others then giving a knowing laugh and nod and then trying to top it...

China Corruption By The Numbers.

Posted on October 26, 2010
I gave a talk yesterday at a China seminar on litigating against Chinese companies in which I discussed suing Chinese companies in China. At one point, while musing about the cases my firm has overseen in China I remarked that I was not aware of any cases having been decided based on corruption...

China Consumer Contracts. Read This Or Risk A Fine.

Posted on October 24, 2010
The basics of contract law tends not to vary all that much from country to country. For example, as far as I know, it is the law of every country in the world that if you agree to pay someone for a product and that someone gives you the product on time and in perfectly fine condition, you owe for that product and your failure to pay for it will constitute a breach of contract...

China Law Blog: Who You Calling A Geek?

Posted on October 24, 2010
Since even Hollywood is now Geek-chic, I am honored that China Law Blog made it into the Legal Week article, "New ideas in law: The geek shall inherit..." The article is by Alex Aldridge and it calls out a nice list of (mostly British) law blogs (a/k/a blawgs) impacting the legal world and puts China Law Blog right into the mix...

On Buying Product From China. A Run-Through On The Legal Basics.

Posted on October 22, 2010
Just received a very typical email from someone looking to manufacture their product in China: A bit of background on our company; we are a supplier and installer of _______ and following 18 months of design and development have finally completed a prototype model of ___________ which we now want to manufacture in China...

Shutting Down A China Rep Office Without Going To Jail.

Posted on October 22, 2010
The absolute strangest thing just happened. I was about to write a blog post on what it takes to shut down a China business, but I wanted to read my emails first. In my emails was the following email, which I have not changed even one bit: I've just been browsing your Chinalawblog which is an invaluable source...

On Leasing A China Factory. Get WFOE.

Posted on October 21, 2010
We received an email today from a China consultant with who we have worked in the past. This consultant has a client who wants to lease a factory in China:We have a client whose business is exporting ___________ materials from China mostly to Eastern Europe...

China's Rare Earths. We Called This One.

Posted on October 20, 2010
There are reports out today of China either planning to reduce its exports of rare earths by 30 percent or ending its exports entirely. I am betting it is the former, but either way, this should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog. For way back a year ago, in "China U...

China Employment Contracts. Get Them In Writing Early.

Posted on October 20, 2010
China's "new" Labor Law has now been around long enough such that most companies doing business in China have at least some understanding for its basic requirements. At least I thought that until recently, when I received a phone call from a client who told me that he had just heard from a second "fairly savvy" China person that there are "real advantages" to not having a written contract with your employees...

How We Really Feel About China, Part II: Joint Ventures. We Love Them AND We Hate Them.

Posted on October 19, 2010
This is part II of our relatively new series setting forth how we "really feel" about the issues that have generated controversy on our blog over the years. Part I dealt with guanxi and the comments to that post alone have made it a great read. We started this series because "we have taken many strong positions over the years, but in some cases those positions have been at least somewhat misunderstood and this new (and irregular) series will aim to clean up misconceptions...

Son Of Chinese Government Official Uses Car To Mow Down Innocent Student. There, I Said It.

Posted on October 19, 2010
I love 99.9% of our readers and loathe the other one percent. That other .01 consists pretty much of two people whose comments I get just about every day and whose comments I always delete. One of these people constantly complains about our lack of India coverage and attributes this to my disliking Indians...

China's 2nd Tier Cities For Business.

Posted on October 19, 2010
A while back Patrick Chovanec did a post on China's second tier cities, entitled, "China Radio: China's Nine Nations and 2nd-Tier Cities." In that post he discussed his radio interview in which he had talked about how companies like Retailers like Wal-mart, Carrefour, Pizza Hut and KFC have been "among the most aggressive in reaching" beyond China's first tier cities...

How To Start A China Business -- Representative Office

Posted on October 18, 2010
I am always saying that for every 100 China WFOEs and Joint Ventures my firm helps set up in China, it does one representative office. Why so few, when it is generally agreed that representative offices are the easiest type of offices for foreign firms to set up in China? Because the inherent limitations on China Rep Offices mean they seldom make sense...

Spies Among Your China Employees? It's Possible. Your Other Employees? That's Possible Too.

Posted on October 18, 2010
The New York Times is out with a story today, entitled, "U.S. Companies Are at Risk of Spying by Their Own Workers." It is a fascinating and downright chilling story. Though there will no doubt be many who believe the story is over-dramatic, I think it actually grossly understates the problem...

China Trademarks And Litigation And Speed As The Enemy Of Accuracy. Get Me Goldilocks.

Posted on October 18, 2010
I did a post the other day implicitly complaining about how long it takes for Chinese trademark registrations to go through. In response to that post, Stan Abrams over at China Hearsay, in a post entitled "China Trademarks: That Pesky Perennial Pendency Problem," wrote of the opposite concern: what will happen to accuracy if China's trademark office does manage to increase its speed: Talking to folks I know that do a large volume of registrations (including the head of my firm's TM group), they have seen some real changes [in terms of additional personnel at the Trademark Office]...

Eight Tips For Your China Licensing Agreement.

Posted on October 17, 2010
Santiago Cueto of the International Business Law Advisor Blog did a post, entitled, 6 Key Provisions You Should Include in Your International Licensing Agreements. I borrow extensively from that post for this one, which is more tailored towards China...

China Trademarks. Rumors Of Speed Are Greatly Exaggerated.

Posted on October 16, 2010
Recently gave some China trademark advice of somewhat universal applicablity. The first was for a client getting ready to register a couple of its trademarks in China. They asked how long "it would all take" and I gave my standard answer. We typically take a week or two to get everything set up and filed, but China's Trademark Office itself typically takes two to three years (yes, years) to go from the filing to actual registration of the trademark...

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