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Promising China Blog: Mei-Zhong Guan-Xi
2008-07-18 08:55:00
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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The Rules Every Foreigner Entering, Exiting Or Staying In China Must Know.
2008-07-18 06:59:00
HR in China has come out with an English language translation of the "Legal Guidelines For Foreigner s Entering, Exiting, and Staying in China During the Olympics." and my firm's China based staff has, after a five minute review, decreed it "fairly accurate." It starts out proclaiming China to be ruled by law, but beyond that, it actually is quite helpful on the legal dos and don'ts for foreigners in China.
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F-ck China Culture Lessons. Give Me Anthony Bourdain With No Reservations
2008-07-16 15:43:00
Tips to Build and Manage a Guanxi Network The best way to strengthen a guanxi network is to stay connected. Send small gifts or ask for small favors to keep a relationship active. Host an occasional get-together. Remember the major Chinese holidays and send greetings. Get to know your colleagues' outside interests and find ways to support them, like getting tickets to a sporting event or concert. From "China 's Changing Culture and Etiquette" Whatever. I love watching the TV Show, No Reservations . The show involves Anthony Bourdain (of Kitchen Confidential fame) touring a country and sampling its restaurants and foods. Despite constant (at the beginning and at every commercial) warnings of adult content (there is usually massive swearing, drinking and smoking), I always watch it with my ten year old daughter because I know of no better or more interesting way to learn about foreign cultures. Every show leads her to ask a torrent of questions, with none on swearing, d...
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Take That Funky Passport With You White Boy
2008-07-15 01:51:00
One of the things I always want to know about every foreign country to which I travel is whether I should keep my passport on my person at all times. Until around six months ago, I would have said no need regarding China, unless you are travelling between cities. That has certainly changed. As made clear in the AmCham-China Daily blog post, "Word to the wise, carry your passport or risk having a hassle," the best advice for China now is to carry your passport with you at all times, or, at minimum, have a copy of it. Co-blogger Steve Dickinson, whose Shanghai apartment complex is mostly foreigners, reports that the police recently knocked on all doors there requesting all necessary documentation. This has become somewhat of an old story by now for most, but if you are heading to China in the next few months for either business or pleasure, make sure you have all necessary documents readily accessible for police inspection because the chances of needing those documents today...
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China Pre-Olympic Shutdowns. No Juice = No Product.
2008-07-14 03:36:00
An auto parts client called me today regarding a deal on which we are working, but quickly got off the line and did not call me back for another hour or so. He apologized and then explained. On Friday, "all" factories in Shandong province (China 's second richest and second most populous province) were told to close for two to three days each week until after the Olympic s. "Pollution?" I asked. "No, electricity," my client replied. After a brief discussion, however, we both concluded this has to be due more to a shortage of electricity than to the Olympics. More to the point, however, this client was extremely concerned about not being able to get the product he needed when he needed it and he was already thinking/talking to me about alternatives. He then admitted his China factory counterpart who told him about the factory closings spoke pretty poor English and maybe this closure only applied to really high energy using factories. His parting shot was that _____[big name] ...
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You Saw Me Do What? Privacy In China.
2008-07-12 15:57:00
Two interesting articles just out on privacy in China . One, a Seoul Times article written by US trained attorney, Yuho Kim, entitled, "Data Security, Privacy in Asia," nicely compares the privacy laws of Korea, China, and Japan. The other, a Forbes article, entitled, "Who Will Be Watching You In Beijing?" discusses some of the ways China spies on foreigners and what can be done to minimize the repercussions of that. There are widely differing views regarding the extent of Chinese spying on foreigners, in large part because nobody really knows. I have always assumed this goes on to a certain extent in just about every country I visit (there are some countries where I KNOW this has gone on), including China, and I try to act accordingly. I have clients (from Russia, in particular), who will reveal nothing at all important over the phone and who when travelling internationally bring "second" laptops that have been scrubbed clean for the trip. For most people none of this is r...

China Corruption By The Numbers. With Your Help, Coming Soon To An Interne
2008-07-12 00:57:00
Received an email the other day from TRACE International asking us to plug their excellent BRIBEline website that seeks to document global corruption. The website records anonymous reporting of bribe demands: Bribeline is a secure, multi-lingual website through which companies and individuals can anonymously report the bribe demands they receive. Making a report on BRIBEline is quick and easy. The online survey is available in Chinese and 20 other languages. Completing the survey involves answering no more than ten multiple-choice questions. No names are requested or collected, the individual is not asked if the bribe was paid, and reports made to BRIBEline are not used for investigations or prosecutions. From the reports, we hope to get a grip on what groups are demanding bribes, where they are demanding them, and under what circumstances. I am not aware of any other websites or organizations attempting to collect this data and I urge all of our readers who have experienced such...
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Staying With Friends In China: You Have 24 Hours Or You Are On The Lam.
2008-07-09 15:47:00
AmCham-China Daily (whom I am happy to plug because they gave me two pretty cool t-shirts) just did a post, not so grippingly entitled, "Advisory to foreign employees from chamber member company." The advisory is on the need for foreigners to register with the police within 24 hours of their arrival in China, if they are not staying in a hotel. I think this requirement has always been in place, but we (and others) are getting reports that the police are beginning to strictly enforce this rule now. As someone who once spent far too many hours in an ice cold police station in remotest Russia for having failed to do this, my best advice is that registration is worth it.
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How To Get From Airport To Town In Beijing
2008-07-07 09:56:00
There are two kinds of people. Those who enjoy figuring out exactly how to get from one place to another and those who just want to know how best to get from one place to the other. David Feng of CNReviews is of the far rarer first category and he just did a post, entitled, "Beijing Capital International Airport Express(way) Guide (PEK)," setting forth how to "get from A to B — in this case, from Beijing Airport into “the Jing”, as they say." It is a very helpful post and since there will soon be a new express train (16-25 minutes from airport to CBD), I urge everyone who will be flying into Beijing Capital Airport to check it out.
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Who Is Chinese? Who Is Not?
2008-07-07 07:55:00
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.

China: The People's Republic Of Capitalism
2008-07-06 22:58:00
Beginning Wednesday, July 9, and for four straight nights, the Discovery Channel will be running Ted Koppel's "People 's Republic of Capitalism ." The series will focus on China 's economic growth and what this means for the United States. Much of the filiming is in Chongqing. Koppel is a good and fair minded journalist, so I would expect this series to be at least decent. To learn more about it, go here and here.
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The CCP And China's Courts. The World Is Getting Darker.
2008-07-06 17:15:00
Dr. Willy Lam of the Jamestown Foundation just came out with an extremely incisive and disconcerting article on the increasing politicization of China 's courts. The article is entitled, "The CCP Strengthens Control over the Judiciary," and to grossly summarize, it very convincingly argues that Hu Jintao is moving to ensure even greater political control over China's judicial system. The courts are to "perpetually uphold the political orientation of being loyal to the party, loyal to the country and the people, and loyalty to the law." For simplification purposes, I have always divided China legal matters into three categories. Commercial/civil cases, criminal cases, and political cases and, for obvious reasons, I have always focused on the commercial/civil side. My question is whether these recent edicts regarding China's judiciary and how courts are to rule will impact rulings in civil cases. More particularly, does being loyal to "the country and the people" mean we will...
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Putting The China Labor Law Cart Before The Horse
2008-07-05 18:26:00
Every month or so, a client comes to me in a panic with a "brilliant" idea for avoiding some short term problem. Examples abound: 1. One company with revenues of about $200 million a year was being sued for around $2 million by a hated competitor. The brilliant idea was to shut down the business during the slow season and reopen it as an entirely new business a month later, presumably rendering the first business judgment proof. When I told him we would charge him at least $2 million to do all this from a legal and tax standpoint and asked what he thought doing this would do to his company's truly excellent reputation, he quickly realized he had gone through a moment of temporary insanity. 2. One company came to me with over 50 offshore companies in complete disarray. Seems some lawyer (presumably a very rich one by now) had convinced them these structure made sense from a tax standpoint. I asked if this structure was saving them on taxes and their response was that they...
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China Versus India Versus Vietnam At A Gut Level
2008-07-05 16:36:00
Interesting post on This is China , entitled, "My Beer With Andre," documenting a conversation with a Fortune 500 CEO who "had just made the rounds through" China, Vietnam and India "to gain impressions of the investment environments of the countries." As This is China puts it, the CEO's "observations were gut-level, and not given to rigorous research methodologies; still, they have their uses." Yes they do, as it is quite possible this company will choose to locate its Asia business based on this CEO's initial observations. Also, as anyone who has read the Malcom Gladwell's book, Blink, knows, there are worse basis on which to make decisions than initial, gut-level, reactions. The CEO saw the following: Vietnam. Not a big country. 85 million inhabitants. Inflation already a problem. Not many people speak English. India. "Nearly everyone speaks English....People take care of shit out there. It’s not the same as China, where everything is driven into the ground with ve...
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How To Get What You Want From The Chinese Government, Part II. Make It Win
2008-07-03 10:23:00
In The Subtle Art of Lobbying the Chinese Government , Alistair Nicholas of Off The Record posted on our post on how to lobby the Chinese government. Nicholas noted something very important I left out in my post. Our post focused on who to lobby and the logistics of lobbying, but it left out what to say to get the government to go along. Off The Record filled in that missing element rather well: My key learning over 20 odd years of lobbying both successfully and, sometimes, unsuccessfully across three countries are that politicians the world over are all the same. If you want them to support your cause you need to figure out what’s in it for them and offer a deal they can’t refuse. I’m not talking about delivering brown paper bags stuffed with cash or other bribes. * * * * Before you approach a politician for help you need to (with apologies to John F. Kennedy) ask not what your government can do for you but rather what you can do for your government. This is the s...
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Foreign Businesses In China And Illegality Per Se
2008-07-02 11:02:00
When I would judge mock trials at the University of Washington Law School. One of the things on which I always criticized the lawyers-to-be was for talking like a lawyer. I would ask if they described a guy getting out of a car as "a person descending from a vehicle" and before they started law school. Is "lawyer language" one of the reasons why everyone (except my dear mother) hates lawyers? This is my long handed way of apologizing for using Latin in the title, but I figure regular readers know I usually prefer Bob Dylan. But I digress. Knife Tricks blog has a post entitled, "Chinese Law Relating To Publishing By Foreign ers: No, on my recent post on how foreign companies are allowed to operate illegally in China until the day they are not. As I said in that post: The problem with operating a business illegally in China is that past history is simply not a good indicator of future performance. We know foreign businesses that have operated illegally in China for 15 years ...
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How To Get What You Want From The Chinese Government
2008-07-02 00:19:00
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 the...

China's New Labor Law: Results Still To Be Determined
2008-06-30 06:33:00
Yale Online just came out with a very thorough and objective article on China 's new labor law. The article, entitled, "An Uncertain Victory for China’s Workers," is written by Lyle Morris, of China Economist Magazine. This article gives sets forth a very plausible analysis of the cost impact of the new law: Karen Lin, a senior fund manager at Paradigm Asset Management Co. in Taipei, predicts the law will add roughly 25 percent to the cost of labor in China, which typically accounts for 10 percent of total manufacturing costs. The article sees the big issues as whether workers will seek to enforce the new laws and whether courts will enforce them. Based on what I am hearing from our clients, my firm's people in China, and the Chinese lawyers with whom we work, the answer is a tentative yes to both questions. For more on China's new labor contract law, check out my last post on this topic, earlier this month, entitled, "China's New Labor Law -- Just Deal With It." That...
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Everything You Wanted To Know About Nuclear Power In China
2008-06-28 13:22:00
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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Piss Off China To Please Europe
2008-06-27 16:27:00
Blogging for China asks a great question in its post, "Is Fiat Too Clever?" The question posed is whether Fiat used Richard Gere (of acting and T1b*t fame) in its ad to garner publicity and EU love? All seems very plausible to me, except might not Fiat's apology itself engender EU anger? What do you think? Fiat's Gere ad, marketing genius or just plain stupid?
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China Real Estate. Does What Goes Around Come Around?
2008-06-26 20:12:00
When China 's real estate market started heating up a few years ago, Beijing tightened the rules for foreigners buying property. I just read an interesting and quite convincing article, entitled, "Shrinking House Sales and the Fear of 'Deep Adjustment' Across China," the thesis of which is that the value of residential real property in China is declining and the tea leaves say it may well start tanking even more soon. I buy that. Might declining China real estate prices lead Beijing to revert back to the old rules and make it relatively easy again for foreigners to buy property in China? What do you think? Of course, nothing will happen until after the Olympics, but then what?
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China's Service Sector Will Reign, Part XVII -- Pets, I Say.
2008-06-26 13:50:00
"Dealing with the animals was always fun, but I could no longer stand dealing with their owners." --- Explanation for retiring given to me by a retired veterinarian I know Back when we first started this blog nearly three years ago, I felt somewhat like a voice calling in the wilderness whenever we would tout how companies needed to look at China as more than just factories. Now, this idea has pretty much become common currency and so, though this is Number 17 in our series, this is the first we have done this year. The reason for bringing this series out of its quasi-retirement is that I just read a very interesting Bizcult post, entitled, "Zeroing In on the Pet Niche." The article is on "a state-of-the-art 5,000 square foot veterinary hospital with 15 staff members in Chaoyang District," Beijing. I am guessing most of this hospital's clientele (the human side anyway) are ex-pats, but the fact that such a hospital is succeeding speak volumes about what is happening in ...
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On Getting Your China Cargo/Freight/Product
2008-06-26 13:06:00
DHL just came out with its 4th (and probably most important) volume in its "Olympics Memo And Contingency Plan." (h/t to All Roads Lead to China ). This memo does an absolutely amazing job of listing out the rules and changes applicable to cargo and freight and automobiles and trucks and ports and traffic and airports and polluting factories arising out of or relating to the Olympics. And if you think all of this only matters if you are in the cargo or freight forwarding business or doing business in Beijing or running a factory in China, think again. Just about everyone who does any sort of business in China will be affected in some way by the various changes that have happened or will soon happen as China (and again, not just Beijing) gets ready. Even if you do nothing more than buy product from China, I urge you to read this memo.
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China Banking: I Have Two Words For You.
2008-06-25 06:32:00
A year or so ago, I was talking with a good friend of mine who has a fairly high level position with one of the big American banks that has spent huge money buying into Chinese banks. I was saying I could not understand why American banks were so willing to put so much into China 's banks, particularly when it would be impossible to achieve any sort of clarity regarding their bad loan risks. (Please note this was before the sub-prime mess and so I at that point actually viewed banks as generally somewhat conservative with their money). His response was, "Dan, I have two words for you: credit cards." Yes, I thought. The Shanghai Daily reports that the number of credit cards in China has nearly doubled in the past year. Nearly doubled. Had my friend been a bit more literary and succinct, he would have said, "Dan, I have one word for you: plastic. [video]"
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Foreign Diplomacy, Beijing In 1974, China Business, Respek, And My Friend G
2008-06-25 01:53:00
Tom Plate wrote an interesting column the other day, entitled, "George I: American internationalist," regarding George Bush's (the elder) stint in China as Chief US representative to Beijing . The column actually focuses on the book "The China Diary of George H.W. Bush," recently published by Princeton University Press, which Plate describes as "balanced, prescient and helpful:" During the one year (October 1974 to December 1975) that George H. W. Bush served as the chief U.S. representative in Beijing, the future president thoughtfully scribbled down little jottings of his experiences and worries about the all-important U.S.-China relationship. The jottings have now been strung together into a coherent diary and with deft commentaries by Jeffrey A. Engel, an up-and-coming assistant professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Policy in Texas. The result is a quite readable, most likable and oft-illuminating set of yearlong musings about China and the U.S., about inter...
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China To Prices. "Get Real."
2008-06-23 05:06:00
For years, whenever someone in the United States would complain about how China was "taking our jobs," I would mention China was also subsidizing our products. That is changing rapidly. In, "Paying the China Price, The Full Price," All Roads Lead to China writes on how the real, non-subsidized, price of Chinese goods is starting to reveal itself. All Roads sees the removal of the following subsidies increasing China product prices: -- Corporate Tax law - gone are the days of 3 years 100% tax holiday, 2 years 50%. -- VAT rebate reduction - Reducing the VAT rebate from 17% to, in many cases, 0, removing a large export subsidy -- Labor Law - increased the protections of labor with respect to wages, contracts, and welfare -reduced the intangible subsidy that had been a lack of labor protection -- Environmental laws - reduced the subsidy whereby GDP came first, and now firms are being forced into compliance -- Energy Pricing - as we just saw today, energy subsidies are being r...
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Skateboarding With Chinese Characteristics
2008-06-23 03:59:00
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 ...

Is China Going Green, Part XV -- Environmental Liability Clarified: Be Afra
2008-06-22 20:03:00
Very important article in today's China Daily, entitled, "Government targets land pollution to ensure food security." Far more important than the reason for this targeting is the who and what of the targeting. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has announced that the "company which inherits the debts and rights (of the polluter) should shoulder the responsibility for providing financial assistance to restore the productivity of polluted land." The article notes that the previous policy on this "was unclear." This jibes with what we have been telling our clients for years: when buying a Chinese company, your due diligence must include reviewing its potential environmental liability. We have been saying this both because the law on this has been unclear and because this is the case in the United States and (as far as I know, in many other countries as well) and this will likely eventually become the case in China as well. I tend to be paranoid about this because a...
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Suing For Access To China Government Information
2008-06-20 10:35:00
The Chinese Law Prof blog has a fascinating (at least for legal geeks) post on the first Beijing lawsuit to access government information under the Regulations on Open Government Information which came into effect on May 1. Such a case would have been unthinkable even five years ago and the court's accepting the filing of this case is progress. The underlying facts of the case are also fascinating because it involves someone seeking to trace what had happened to family property during the Cultural Revolution. My firm has assisted in lawsuits seeking compensation for property taken by Eastern European governments, but I have always been under the impression such lawsuits would be pointless in China . Am I right or wrong about this?
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China Investigating Microsoft For Antitrust Violations. We Don't Thin
2008-06-19 11:07:00
By Steve Dickinson Both the English and the Chinese web have been rife with news of a Chinese government antitrust investigation of Microsoft 's pricing of its software products. The reports initially stated the PRC State IP Office was investigating foreign software companies for selling software at higher prices in China than in their home jurisdictions. This has been a common complaint in China and many foreign software companies have been concerned China's new Anti-Monopoly Law would be used to attack legal IP monopolies obtained through copyright, patent and trademark law. However, to use the anti-monopoly law to attack high prices would undermine the foundations of IP protection. The news of such an investigation therefore raises serious concerns. It appears these reports may be false. Microsoft has stated it is unaware of any such investigation and the PRC State IP Office has issued a statement to the effect that it was not conducting any investigation and such reports were...