Sourcing product from China just got even riskier. Theses risks have never been higher and they just keep increasing. The Russian war and COVID in China are the key causes for this increased risk and both are nearly certain to get far worse.
Scammers love operating internationally because it makes them more difficult to track and it also makes suing and collecting more complicated as well. They also seem to work better than domestic scams because the person being scammed too often thinks this is just how things are done in foreign country X because they do not actually know how things are done in foreign country X. Crossing borders increases confusion stemming from a lack of knowledge regarding language, culture, and regulation. All this combines to make international scams widely popular. In this post we discuss some of the more common scams and, most importantly, we discuss how to avoid getting scammed.
As the Chinese government continues to expand its power and get more concerned about its slowing economy and how it is viewed by its citizens, it just keeps getting tougher on foreign businesses that are not 100% abiding by its laws. China is right now in one of its perpetual crackdowns on foreign companies doing business in China. This makes now a good time for foreign companies doing business in China or with China to determine their China risks. The following questions are a good starting point for making that calculation.
One of the more sophisticated and costly scams we see is what we call the "investing in your business to steal your IP scam." We see this scam maybe 4-5 times a year, mostly before they happen and mostly before the company realizes a scam is about to take place.
Russia's war will impact your China business. We live in an interconnected world and what is happening with Ukraine will impact doing business with China. It's just a question of how and by how much. In this post and in its follow-up post, I will discuss how Russia's war against Ukraine is likely to impact doing business in and with China and what you can do to try to minimize that impact.
For a variety of reasons, many brands (and not just American ones) include U.S. state names in their trademarks. However, registering state name trademarks in China is an uphill battle for most applicants. Brands doing or planning to do business in China should keep this in mind when crafting their brand protection strategies. Why Won’t
Biden's decision to extend solar trade wars and modify tariffs shows climate change is as important as protecting US manufacturers.
Is China too big to fail? Evergrande’s insolvency shows that state control over China's banking system does not eliminate systemic risk in the Chinese economy.
For reasons that ought to be apparent to anyone who reads the news, our China lawyers have of late been getting many emails from foreign companies looking at shutting down their China WFOE or just flee from China. Reduced to their essence, these emails usually focus on one of the following questions: 1. How do I do it correctly? 2. If I don't do it correctly, what are the possible repercussions? Will I be safe in China? We answer both questions in this post.
China cyber hacking obviously affects companies that do business in or with China but it is becoming increasingly apparent that it also impacts companies with no direct business connections to China. This post explains the Chinese government's cyber hacking goals, how it does its hacking, and why it is virtually impossible for foreign companies to avoid being hacked by the Chinese government or to fight back against it.
