International Law

Another Large Drop in Foreign Direct Investment in China

Posted on August 17, 2009
Not surprisingly, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced today that Investment declined 35.7 percent from a year earlier to $5.36 billion, the Commerce Ministry said at a briefing in Beijing today. That compared with a 6.76 percent drop in June. Creatively spinning this data -- which, as with most Chinese statistics, likely represent an optimistic representation -- Commerce Ministry spokesman and advance man for the investment roadshow, Yao Jian, said: ?China?s FDI is still healthy compared to the global slump in investments...

WTO Rules Against China -- Limits Book and Media Imports

Posted on August 12, 2009
NY Times: A World Trade Organization panel ruled on Wednesday that China had violated its international free trade rules by limiting imports of books and movies, WTO Findings and Conclusions here. (Beware: although written in what appears to be English, it is generally impervious to understanding by those with graduate school education...

Guangzhou "Chocolate City" -- African Population Stages Demonstration, Large PSB Presence

Posted on August 10, 2009
A spontaneous demonstration in Guangzhou the likes of which have not been seen in China for perhaps 75 years: all foreigners. But this time, a twist: they are all black. Trapped in a police raid on illegal immigrants that afternoon, Okoro chose to leap from the second floor of a shopping mall rather than be arrested...

Asiabizblog -- Amazing Number of Backlinks

Posted on August 07, 2009
I don't usually toot my own horn, but I recently discovered that 49,080 high quality backlinks reference this website. This makes this weblog, IMHO, one of the best-known dealing with the topic of Chinese business and law.

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Martin Hutchinson at Asia Times on the Meltdown-ability of the Chinese Economy

Posted on August 06, 2009
Martin Hutchinson's piece on the Chinese economy bubble is worth your time: Savers are not permitted to take money out of China, and their huge savings prop up an overvalued stock market and a bond market that is comparable in size to the freely flowing international bond market...

Australia: Bushels of Fake Apple iPhones from China

Posted on August 05, 2009
Counterfeit sellers were asking for up to $400 for the fake units on the street, to take a margin of nearly $345 on the $55 wholesale price quoted by illegal importers. One seller said he sourced his supply from an employee within Customs. The seller, who refused to supply a name, claimed that the employee used his position to circumvent Customs' usual vetting procedures to import the contraband in shipments of 5000 and 10,000 each...

Tata Says to Its Employees, "Sue Me in India" -- Court Says Tough Toenails

Posted on August 04, 2009
As reported, this presents itself as a very curious case. Foreigners working in the United States who claim they were cheated out of their tax refunds have won the right to have their employment dispute heard in American courts, defeating efforts by India's largest conglomerate to force arbitration overseas...

More African Complaints About Chinese Business Practices

Posted on July 31, 2009
Following our 88 Queensway article comes this: At several Chinese-run projects in Windhoek, workers were not wearing safety helmets. The Namibian workers said they must pay for their own safety equipment ? for example, $3.65 for a helmet, $1.20 for gloves and $9...

Tianjin Falls to the Japanese -- July 1937

Posted on July 30, 2009
In July 1937, Tianjin (???Tietsin) and Beijing (??? fell to the Japanese. More on the event here, here and, for videos, here. Videos are in Japanese with Chinese subtitles.

Tonghua Iron & Steel Workers Kill Exec in Protest Over Layoffs

Posted on July 27, 2009
More than a thousand steel workers in China's northeast staged an at-times violent protest against the planned takeover of their state-run employer and a group of them killed a top executive at the private company that was to acquire it, Chinese state-run media reported...

Video from Hong Kong of Typhoon Molave as Eyewall Passes

Posted on July 23, 2009
This video of the southern eyewall was shot by James Reynolds in Taipo, courtesy of www.TornadoVideos.net.

China Watches the Solar Eclipse

Posted on July 22, 2009
Stunning, but, if this is any indication, how many lost vision in China looking at it through sunglasses?

The 88 Queensway Group -- A Nexus Between Chinese State Security Organs and Private Overseas Investment?

Posted on July 20, 2009
This fascinating report on the "88 Queensway Group" by the U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission details the "private" overseas investment projects of Chinese state-owned entities with substantial connection to the Public Security Bureau and Chinese intelligence...

Chinese Quarantine of Foreigners For Suspected Swine Flu Continues

Posted on July 20, 2009
China has quarantined 107 British students for swine flu precautions. Quarantine of foreigners for suspected swine flu has reached surprising proportions. U.S. Embassy Spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said the embassy didn't have a total number of Americans quarantined in China, but said they were "aware of several cases at the moment...

Not China: For Attorneys Whose Clients Want Your Services, But Don't Wish to Pay

Posted on July 17, 2009
How many attorneys have heard something like this from clients?

Posted on July 14, 2009

Guest Post: Lin Bai on China?s Generation Y Consumers

Posted on July 10, 2009
[Editor's Note: Much has been made of China's potential for a consumer, rather than export, driven economy. The potential has caused marketers to salivate in expectancy for centuries. However, estimates of 40 to 50 million Chinese consumers with sufficient disposable income equate China to roughly the size of the Italian market...

North Korea TV Shows First Beer Ad

Posted on July 06, 2009
The first person to send me a bottle (can't be empty) of this brew wins this blog's Annual Champion Reader Award!

US University Researcher Sentenced to Prison for Violation of Export Control Act

Posted on July 02, 2009
Further to this September, 2008 post, a Tennessee University researcher has been sentenced to four years in prison for violation of the Export Control Act. Doug Jacobson writes about it on his excellent trade law blog, here. The court did not assess any monetary penalties...

China Law Bibliography -- 2009 -- Now Available for Free Download

Posted on July 01, 2009
Knut Pissler, researcher in law at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, and his co-editors, have graciously allowed us the opportunity to make available for download their China Law Bibliography. An excellent tool for researchers both in academia and law practice...

Sony PCs and Green Dam Filtering Software

Posted on June 30, 2009
Sony seems to have shipped PCs with new filtering software, with interesting instructions to consumers.

Formaldehyde Found by Vietnamese in Clothes Made in China

Posted on June 30, 2009
Given our prior posting on dangerous imports and reader reaction, this may be of interest to readers. The Hanoi Market Control Sub-agency has affirmed that China-made clothes contain formaldehyde, a substance which is harmful to human skin, with the content ratio of less than 2 percent...

Hong Kong/Mainland China Cross Border Trade to Be Settled in Yuan By Next Month

Posted on June 30, 2009
It appears that cross-border trade between Hong Kong and mainland China may be settled in yuan as early as next month. [Thanks to Frank Caruso at the Chinatex blog.] Note the limitations: The State Council said early in April that it would allow traders in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan to settle their cross-border business in yuan...

Legal Trade Mission to China, Privately Sponsored

Posted on June 29, 2009
Now here is a new idea, or at least something I've not heard of before. A legal trade mission to China, organized by Brian Su, who is not himself an attorney, as far as I know. Brian tells me that a good number of law firms and companies in China have committed to meetings with any attorney who might wish to drum up business in China...

A Further Twist to the Old Attorney Email Scam

Posted on June 24, 2009
Asiabizblog is becoming something of a repository for attorney scam e-mails. Many Google searchers have come to Asiabizblog through keywords associated with scam e-mails they have received. Good for you! I receive at least one a week. Here is the latest -- and the first one to come from a Gmail address, which cannot be tracked any further than the Gmail origin itself...

Asiabizblog is Twittering

Posted on June 19, 2009
http://twitter.com/Asiabizblog

Law Firm Loses $400,000 to Scammers

Posted on June 12, 2009
$400,000 lost to overseas scammers in what should by now be a well-known modus operandi to American attorneys. Bradley Arant Boult Cummings has reportedly fallen victim to a sophisticated debt collection scam, to the tune of more than $400,000. The Nashville Post...

Audio Event: Bob Compton, Win In China Filmmaker

Posted on June 08, 2009
Bob Compton, producer of Win in China, talks about his film and the business plan competition it documents. See below for a video clip from the film: Win in China (www.wininchinamovie.com)

Video: Win In China -- A New Documentary on China Business

Posted on June 08, 2009
A clip from the documentary film, Win in China (http://www.wininchinamovie.com):

Peter Hitchens on the "Wicked Chinese Empire" in Africa

Posted on June 01, 2009
Quotes like those below make for great reading. The proclamations of friendship between China and African nations, common in the 1960s and 70s, based upon on a common penury and "revolutionary ideals," have long since vanished, replaced by mountains of cash...

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