The China Law Blog focuses on the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts foreign companies that do business in or with China. The goal is to help readers understand what works and what does not work and what businesspeople can do to use the law to their advantage. China Law Blog's aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.
As we pointed out in SaaS in China: Build a compliant Go-to-Market Plan by Looking Beyond the Regulations and again in Foreign SaaS in China: Get Off of My Cloud, the PRC does not permit foreign entities to make direct sales of SaaS products from servers located within China. For foreign software companies, this is a major
Under Chinese law a foreigner who comes to China to complete a "short-term work task" and stays no more than 90 days, must get a work visa (a Z visa). A “short-term work task” is defined as one of the following: Tasks such as those involving technology, scientific research, management and guidance at the place
As businesses are rapidly moving to the cloud, the Chinese government seems to be taking its lead from the Rolling Stones: Hey! You! Get off of my cloud. China wants to run its own private cloud, and foreigners need not apply. The primary issue for Internet businesses in China is that all commercial Internet businesses
When I spoke in Ohio last year at a China function, I met Eric McGraw. Eric lived in China for seven years and he is now based in Columbus, Ohio, where he and his company help American companies navigate China and Chinese companies navigate the United States. Eric and I talked about the increase in
January 19, 2015 marks the date of the death of the VIE investment structure in China. On this day, China's State Council issued a discussion draft of legislation setting out the plan for overhauling China's Chinese foreign investment legal regime. The new system is set out in the PRC Investment Law Discussion Draft (the "Draft"),
China's labor law provides for a 44-hour work week, but its regulations provide for a 40 hour work week and most municipalities enforce the 40-hour work week, but recognize that this workweek may not be practical for certain employees. A "flexible" working hours system is thus permitted for "senior management" as an exception to this
We have written a number of times about the need to register intellectual property in China with the appropriate authorities. And we usually put particular emphasis on registering trademarks in China, because doing so is an easy, obvious, and relatively economical first step in IP protection. But for those selling or manufacturing products in China,
Whenever I give a speech or write an article or post about what it takes to succeed in international outsourced manufacturing , I invariably list "a good partner" as item one. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am always getting asked how to find the "good partner". My initial response is usually to say "with great care."
Product manufacturing in China's coastal regions has become increasingly challenging for manufacturers and buyers alike. Wages and rent have risen dramatically over the past five years while at the same time the economies of major buyers have suffered severe setbacks. This has put tremendous pressure on the small and medium businesses that make up the
Our China lawyers have seen a spike in queries from foreign companies not getting paid by private Chinese companies without affiliates or assets abroad. The Chinese company's excuse for not paying is often "that the rules have recently changed so foreign payments are no longer possible." Another one is that the Chinese company is simply
