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
By Lucas Blaustein* U.S. agricultural exports to China have increased by 120% since 2008, to nearly 28.9 billion dollars in 2013 and agriculture now accounts for nearly 24% of US-China trade . Since China's admittance to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China and the United States have increasingly traded their comparative advantages. Daily, Chinese made
My friend Kent Kedl co-wrote an article for the Moscow Times today, entitled, Why Russia Is Just as Good as China, claiming businesses should be just as interested in Russia as they are in China and that corruption in Russia is no better or worse than corruption in China: For some reason, investors find Russian corruption
Our China company formation lawyers spoke with a software company the other day with fifteen "independent contractors" in China they view as "part of the corporate family." This company was looking to form a WFOE in China, but they said they were in no rush. The first thing we did was tell them that what
VIE stands for variable interest entity and they are entities used to allow a company in China to technically be a Chinese domestic company, but be de facto controlled by a foreign-owned entity or entities. VIE structures are usually used to allow foreign companies to get involved in various sectors of China's economy forbidden to
Ever since the New York Times did an article, Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia, on companies leaving China for Cambodia, there has been media and play and real life discussions on how "everyone" is leaving China for places like Cambodia or Thailand or Vietnam or Mexico or Indonesia or Taiwan. First, let's look
We have been drafting an increasing number of contracts for foreign companies licensing their concept or technology for use in China. In the old days, this type of licensing was primarily in the industrial sector. These days, much of our work has involved licensing agreements for companies that want to capture China business without having
Danwei ran a story, University Diploma Scandal in Jinan [link no longer exists], on a fake Chinese university. This story is directly relevant for those doing business in China. Let me explain. The story is from the Jinan Times. Jinan is the capital of Shandong Province. I have been there a couple of times and
One of our clients recently asked for our help "making sure" it could get a U.S. visa for one of its China-based Chinese managers. The client wanted this manager to come to the United States for two months of training. Our client had heard from a friend in a similar situation that it was "getting
Just read a CNN article, When will workers share in Apple's wealth? This article was written by Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a "labor rights-monitoring organization that investigates working conditions in factories around the world." Nova attacks Apple on many fronts in his article, but it is the following that really
