Smart Chinese manufacturers know that with their costs rising, they need to be able to distinguish themselves from their peers. One of the ways they are choosing to do this (even more frequently than in the past) is by copying and selling products they are making for their foreign customers. See Your China Factory as
1. China Prohibits Foreign Investment in Online Game Publishing Goreign companies are not allowed to invest in online game publishing in China. Reiterated in the 2016 Administration Rules for Online Publishing Service (2016 OPS Rules), online games are considered online publications and offering such publications via information networks is providing online publishing services. According to
Companies often use share incentive programs to motivate their employees. It is possible for a PRC employee of a foreign company’s Chinese subsidiary to participate in the foreign company’s employee share incentive plan (“SIP”). However, due to China's currency controls, whether such an employee can actually “cash out” on the benefits of such a program
The PRC National People’s Congress last week promulgated a second discussion draft of the PRC E-Commerce Law (电子商务法草案). This statute is an attempt to gain greater control over China's online consumer markets, which have exploded with little regulation. The lack of regulation has not slowed development of e-commerce in China. The success of online marketing
China has many special laws/rules related to protecting female workers, especially those who are pregnant, nursing, or on maternity leave. For example, Chinese law generally prohibits employers from unilaterally terminating the employment contract of a pregnant or nursing employee or an employee on maternity leave. The only exception to this is that the employee may be unilaterally
You should have a China-centric contract when doing business in China or even with China. See China Contracts: Make Them Enforceable Or Don’t Bother. This holds doubly true for employment contracts with China employees because those agreements are highly local. And though I should not have to say this, translating your existing employment agreements into
Your company is a service provider. Let's say your business assists domestic and foreign entities register drugs with the FDA. You are contacted by a Chinese entity to do a registration. You submit a written, signed invoice to the Chinese entity and you require payment in advance. Within five days, you receive payment. But you
According to the Hong Kong Free Press (and a number of other newspapers) The Shanghai government this week "ordered the closure of one of the city’s top maternity hospitals saying it was illegally built on land owned by the armed forces, according to an official notice." According to the article, the hospital, Shanghai International Women’s
China does not like direct marketing and its direct marketing laws are so restrictive the direct marketing industry has little in common with direct marketing in the United States or even Europe. The other day, one of my law firm's international corporate lawyers received an email from a potential client with a link to a
Hong Kong courts are world class and most companies would rather have their disputes against their Mainland China counter-parties resolved in Hong Kong instead of in Wuxi or Harbin. Hong Kong as jurisdiction of choice is alluring. But for all sorts of reasons, it's a trap. Let me explain. In 2008, China and Hong Kong
