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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

China and Political Name Calling

Posted on May 26, 2008
I pride myself on being open and honest, and I therefore readily admit that I detest Michael Ledeen, one of the chief foreign policy chest-thumpers at the American Enterprise Institute. It therefore saddens me to no end when I reluctantly say that his latest article in FEER, although kinda scary, has some elements of truth [...

Follow-up on Quake Donations

Posted on May 24, 2008
After my post the other day on quake donations, I received some comments and emails about various aspects of this issue, including transparency, posted lists, and specific NGOs. One clarification I received relates to the Red Cross and that list of approved/vetted NGOs...

The Plastic Bag Problem

Posted on May 24, 2008
Hey, if this is true, can I start getting free bags at Walmart again? (From Wired, of course.) Plastic takes thousands of years to decompose — but 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd made it happen in just three months. The Waterloo, Ontario high school junior figured that something must make plastic degrade, even if it does [...

Hello Kitschy

Posted on May 23, 2008
Sonofabitch. We are all going to hell, or at least some of us in Asia. From the FT: In what might prove to be Japan’s most inspired step on the road to better relations with China, Tokyo has appointed its most famous feline, Hello Kitty, 33, as its goodwill tourism ambassador to China and Hong Kong...

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Sovereign Wealth Funds & Income Inequality

Posted on May 23, 2008
It seems reasonable that only citizens should be the beneficiaries of any payout from the SWF as the oil belongs to citizens of all generations. Interesting piece on Sovereign Wealth Funds (mostly deals with oil producing nations) in Asia Times...

Gitmo - the China Connection?

Posted on May 23, 2008
Apparently U.S.-China relations are much better than I thought. From ABC News: U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay allegedly softened up detainees at the request of Chinese intelligence officials who had come to the island facility to interrogate the men — or they allowed the Chinese to dole out the treatment themselves, according to claims in [...

China Quake Donations - some other views

Posted on May 23, 2008
Follow up to yesterday’s post about social pressure and criticism of people who are perceived to have not contributed enough to earthquake relief, Danny posts on charitable NGOs here and the issue of transparency. Very important point to make. There are lots of possible destinations for your RMB, and some of them may not be [...

Forcing People to Be Good

Posted on May 22, 2008
This will probably get me in trouble, but what the hell . . . I’m really not too keen on the whole public shame thing with respect to earthquake relief donations. Lots of stories out in the last couple days about public criticism of people and companies that have not donated enough...

Econ Impact of Quake

Posted on May 22, 2008
I don’t know about you, but this news from the FT hit me even harder for some reason than more traditional quake coverage (I guess you get numb to that after a while). Anyway, the situation that these figures represent are quite disheartening. As the official death toll from the Sichuan earthquake hit 40,075 on Tuesday [...

China and the 911 Effect

Posted on May 21, 2008
From Asia Times: From the rubble of the killer earthquake in Sichuan province another face of China, humane and steadfast, has emerged. The disaster, despite its tragic human cost, has provided a much-needed opportunity for Chinese leaders to repair the damage done to the country’s international image in recent weeks...

Best Behavior During Olympics

Posted on May 21, 2008
Yesterday or the day before, I recall a Tweet regarding the PR fallout from a company laying off employees during our current mourning period. That’s an easy call. But what about the Olympics? Chris raises the issue in China Briefing today: During the build up to the Olympics - now little more than 12 weeks away - [...

Rich vs. Poor and the Earthquake

Posted on May 20, 2008
I’ve had an article + commentary on the income gap sitting in my drafts folder for several days. The quake has made it difficult to write about the stuff I usually cover. Most of it seems kind of mundane in comparison to the drama out there. Anyway, it occurs to me that the quake itself gives [...

Mourning vs. Merriment

Posted on May 18, 2008
The Sichuan earthquake is causing a lot of hand-wringing about what is/is not appropriate behavior for businesses and other organizations. I saw a bit of this over the weekend at the law firm retreat I attended. This was an internal group meeting of all the attorneys in our Asia offices, slightly less than 300 folks...

Twitter Updates for 2008-05-17

Posted on May 17, 2008
Notes from conference: lawyers who are not naturally funny should not attempt stand-up comedy. Ugly. # More notes from conference: even worse than bad jokes is blatant self-promotion. I don’t need this from my colleagues. #

Twitter Updates for 2008-05-16

Posted on May 16, 2008
Amazed at the lawyer bashing comments received re: conf I am attending. Why are all lawyers considered "ambulance chasers"? #

China Quake and Business

Posted on May 15, 2008
"The quake’s effect on the stock exchange" — why do I have a visceral, negative reaction to stories like this? Certainly lots of them out there pontificating on the financial repercussions of the quake. And yet it still seems crass...

Off to Shanghai for a Few Days

Posted on May 15, 2008
No laptop, so probably no blogging. On the other hand, I think I might just adjust Twitter Tools to allow me to post to the blog via Twitter (from my phone using WiFi). This will no doubt annoy the hell out of all you blog readers, so if I actually figure out how to get [...

Steve Dickinson: Media Critic

Posted on May 15, 2008
Steve Dickinson on quake coverage: The Chinese media response to yesterday’s Sichuan Province earthquake has been unexpected. When these sorts of things happened in the 80s or the 90s or even two years ago, there was a virtual media blackout. Not true for this disaster...

More Quake Coverage

Posted on May 15, 2008
Danny asks a fair question about the media coverage of the quake: [W]hat is causing so much more foreign attention about the earthquake now versus the low amount of attention the devastating annual floods in China cause in the foreign press? Is it because of the Olympics? Or because of attention already on China over the [...

Twitter Updates for 2008-05-15

Posted on May 15, 2008
Nice Twitter coverage re: earthquake, plus a reality check — http://tinyurl.com/4y35l6. # "China: Temblor - Test of Openness" http://tinyurl.com/5m4mlu. Why does it always have to be about politics? #

Yes, I?m A Twit

Posted on May 14, 2008
Right. Well, I was planning on doing this anyway, but since the earthquake and the great efforts made not only by the local blogging community, but also by the Twitterati, I have decided to take the plunge and do a bit of micro-posting on Twitter. Just went live today and already integrated all of this with [...

U.S. Reaction to China?s Use of Soft Power - III

Posted on May 14, 2008
The earthquake (and work) has sidetracked me on this, but you will be pleased to hear that this is my last post on "China’s Foreign Policy and ‘Soft Power’ in South America, Asia and Africa," a report prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U...

Twitter Updates for 2008-05-14

Posted on May 14, 2008
1st tweet: my first-ever tweet is a simple reaction to the weather here in Beijing. Just turned pitch black outside - scary . . . #

Personal Thoughts on the Earthquake

Posted on May 13, 2008
Several folks posted their experiences on the earthquake and how they felt at the time. In Beijing, these descriptions have lost a great deal of interest, I suppose, during the past 24 hours or so as we have learned more about what is going on closer to the epicenter...

More Earthquake Relief

Posted on May 13, 2008
Here is an appeal from Dezan Shira on earthquake relief - Care for Children. You have a lot of options now - no excuses.

China Earthquake Relief

Posted on May 13, 2008
I’ve been out of commission for a bit (from a blogging standpoint), but first thing’s first. Below is some information I received this morning at work (DLA Piper) regarding a couple of charitable organizations we work with, and the ways we/you can donate to earthquake relief...

U.S. Reaction to China?s Use of Soft Power - II

Posted on May 09, 2008
OK, here’s more on "China’s Foreign Policy and ‘Soft Power’ in South America, Asia and Africa," a report prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Senate. My last post dealt with some basics about U.S...

U.S. Reaction to China?s Use of Soft Power - I

Posted on May 09, 2008
Spent my insomnia hours last night reading "China’s Foreign Policy and ‘Soft Power’ in South America, Asia and Africa." This was a report prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Senate (download .PDF here)...

Making Fun of Activists

Posted on May 07, 2008
This is a slightly old story by now, but it gave me a giggle, so it’s worth running with it. I really don’t like self-important activists, particularly actors/singers who get involved in geopolitical issues. They almost always simplify things, have gigantic egos, and do not have either the education or training to really know how [...

Renovating a Cesspool

Posted on May 07, 2008
Almost missed this nugget of info in the news. Shanghai Hongqiao Airport has gained government approval for its 13.93-billion yuan (US$1.99 billion) expansion project. The National Development and Reform Commission approved the addition of a 3,300-meter-long, 60-meter-wide runway and a 364,000-square-meter terminal to boost annual capacity to 40 million passengers...

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