The big story in the China business/legal community this week is the back and forth between Muddy Waters and Sino-Forest (see here).I will reserve my comments on the specific situation until things develop further, but I will add my two-cents about something called a “Reverse Merger” or “RTO,” the corporate structure at the center of
About a week ago, I did an article, The Five+ Best Books for Understanding China [link no longer exists]. The article was a public response to a request that I reveal “3-5 good books to read to understand China that are contemporary, but also something providing some historical perspective to current doings.” I listed the
Earlier this year, I was on a slow highway on the outskirts of Hanoi when my daughters said something like “look at those dogs being prepared for eating. Eewww.” Without looking, (and thinking they were referring to live dogs in cages) I tried to put the best spin on things for my 13-year old by
Muddy Waters is a hedge fund company that targets dodgy US-listed Chinese companies, shorts them, and then documents the fraud in which those Chinese companies engage. Muddy Waters has an impressive list of Chinese companies it has exposed, including China Media Express, Duoyuan Water and RINO International. These companies appear to have two things in
In Evidence Collection and Alternatives to “Discovery” in P.R.C. Litigation, China Law Insight discusses the lack of pretrial discovery in China court cases and why American companies and lawyers tend to be so ill-prepared for this. To grossly summarize and oversimplify the article, foreign (especially American) companies need to know the following three things about
Fascinating article by Matthew Robertson, Fellowes, American Stationary Giant, Brought to Its Knees in China. A couple of readers sent me the article and both commented on how it proves what “you are always saying about Chinese joint ventures.” I am not so sure it does. The article is about Fellowes, one of the leading
One of the things I love about blogging is how I get my stories. This one came to me via an international lawyer in Portugal who sent me a link on Buddha Steel (more on that later) from the China Accounting Blog. First, I am going to briefly discuss Variable Interest Entities (VIE) and how
The 19th Session of the 11th National People’s Congress last week revised the criminal code to make it a crime for a company to intentionally withhold employee wages. A company that does this is subject to criminal fines and the responsible individuals are subject to imprisonment for up to seven years. This is a significant
I just read an article by Shaun Rein, entitled, “Why A Fast Appreciating Yuan Won’t Help US Economy,” and I have bones to pick with it. Let me start out by saying that I “talk China” pretty much every day and I have never spoken with anyone who believes all of the United States’ economic
It sometimes seems all of our clients from China possess both a China and a United States passport. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but an increasing number of Chinese businesspeople appear eager for dual citizenship, especially as China makes it more difficult to leave. Though many in China covet a second passport, they often underestimate
