Whenever my law firm is retained to represent a company that is looking to provide goods or services to a new overseas buyer. China, one of the first things we want to know are the payment terms. If our client is going to get 100% payment before it provides thegoods or services, a written contract may not even be necessary. The old expression about posession being nine tenths of the law holds true, though I'd probably update it to say that it's 99 percent of the law when it comes to selling to many emerging market countries.

Best Practices for Emerging Market Countries. The two minute version. Make the law your friend. Use good contracts. Protect your IP.

But lately our international litigation team has been seeing a vertible ton of a particularly sinster scam: The “Sha Zhu Pan” (Chinese: 杀猪盘) or, “Butchering the Pig” scam. The typical email we receive from a victim of this forex or crypto scam is usually something like this.

China-Latam ties are growing. This is an important development for businesses, and not just those in China and Latin America. For businesses in the United States and most of the global north, China presents a conundrum. The lure of its vast markets remains strong, and for many companies it remains the go-to location for manufacturing or sourcing their products. At the same time, there's increasing concern at home about China's behavior. If it was "just" a matter of human rights violations, there might be less concern overall with possible spill-on effects. However, there's also a—not unjustified—feeling that China has unfairly muscled its way to economic dominance. As a result, companies must walk a fine line as they seek the benefits of China engagement, in order to placate increasingly frustrated customers at home. But things are different in the global south.