As a business lawyer who specializes in international transactions, I spend about half of my time working on legal strategy with my clients. I describe legal strategy as figuring out what the right way is to get from A to B, and those are often separated by international borders, vast oceans, and language and cultural
Many Chinese factories are hurting right now. Badly. This should come as no surprise. First they went through months of closures due to the coronavirus, and just when they opened they faced massively reduced demand. Chinese factories are closing left and right and many of those that are open are facing reduced demand and falling
China manufacturing has gotten riskier and more difficult. Our China manufacturing lawyers hear this pretty much every single day from our own clients. On the one hand you have rapidly rising harassment of foreigners going on in China. Not a day goes by anymore without a long media story on the growing xenophobia in China.
The uncertainty surrounding products manufactured in China is causing many foreign companies (especially those that sell their products to the United States) to ask us what they can do to mitigate their risks and where else they could look for getting their products made. See Has Sourcing from China Become too Risky? Decisions about leaving
The issue of forced labor in China has been in the news recently. In part, this is due to the connection between this issue and the larger human rights crisis in Xinjiang. However, forced labor is hardly a problem confined to Xinjiang, as a recent scandal involving British supermarket chain Tesco shows. Last month, Tesco
A few days ago, in China Manufacturing: "Elvis Has Left the Building", we mentioned a South China Morning Post article suggesting the manufacturing exodus from China will not abate, regardless of any patches trade negotiators manage to place on the overall, strained U.S.-China relationship. That article included some sobering stats on the giant sucking sound we
Christmas morning and I find myself responding to companies that recently got worthless product from China, in what is typical pretty much at the end of every year. I think these things increase at the end of the year because the Chinese company that sends the worthless product has decided to shut down at the
In China Factories Are Exporting Lower Prices Around the World, Bloomberg News wrote this week about something our internmational manufacturing lawyers have been seeing: Desperate Chinese factories are lowering their prices. Are all Chinese factories desperate? Absolutely not. Are all Chinese factories lowering their prices? Near as we can tell, a great many are, especially
Got an email the other day from a good-sized company the other day asking about the benefit of having manufacturing contracts with companies in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The email went something like this (I say "something" because I've changed it so nobody will ever be able to identify it): I am
Contents of this Article BRI countries will need increased economic activities to pay back Chinese debt Africa's greatest opportunities in business How is Africa reacting to China's increasing presence through its Belt and Road Initiative? Does Africa present a viable alternative to companies that want to move manufacturing from China? Which African nations are most
