Everyone is talking about the Wall Street Journal article Did Xie Zhikun’s Nearly $1 Billion Go Missing? A Private-Equity Mystery. To grossly oversimplify this terrific article, Xie Zhikun claims to have invested $1 billion into a U.S. based private equity company via a “share entrustment agreement” that specifies he is the actual owner in a
China’s copyright laws have been in line with the United States and the EU and other developed countries since China became a signatory to the Berne Convention in 1992 and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in 2001. But it’s hardly news that you can get a pirated copy of pretty
Chinese companies have recently started showing great interest in purchasing advanced equipment from foreign manufacturers. That China is now Germany’s largest trading partner is good proof of this. The Chinese businesses that have made China the factory of the world have pushed their manpower and outdated tools to the limit and for them to continue
When drafting manufacturing agreements our manufacturing lawyers used to send our clients a six-page questionnaire to tease out the client’s China manufacturing plans. But no matter how hard we tried, there were almost always important questions our client either did not understand or simply could not answer. We eventually realized dumping six pages of questions
I was talking with one of our China lawyers the other day about how we get the same emails and phone calls from companies with China legal problems that either cannot be solved or cannot be solved at a fee that will make sense. We then discussed how so often these problems could have been
When I was in Shenzhen last month, I had a long lunch with China manufacturing guru, Renaud Anjoran of Sofeast. During our lunch, we talked extensively about what we are seeing in China manufacturing, particularly in the electronics and Internet of Things sectors. As we always do, we shared horror stories and from those the lessons
Many believe that forming a China WFOE consists mostly of filling in lines on an application and submitting it to a China government office and then sitting back and waiting. If you share this belief, you are, among other things, ignoring all that goes into deciding how to manage the WFOE once formed. I was
For the last few months, I alone have been averaging a call or email a day from someone inquiring about getting money out of China. Yesterday’s calls were typical. One was from a realtor wanting to know how the Chinese buyer of a two-million-dollar house could get her money out of China to pay for it.
This post focus on two commonly held misconceptions regarding “partnering” with Chinese companies in deals that involve foreign technology. Due to a partnership relationship, the foreign side often wrongly believes it is somehow better protected against IP theft. The foreign side then lets down its guard, only to learn that its China partner has appropriated
China Working Hours and Overtime Issues Navigating the complex landscape of China’s employment laws is a crucial task for foreign companies operating in China. Among the many challenges these businesses face, understanding and complying with China’s employment laws, especially those pertaining to working hours and overtime, are paramount. Misconceptions about these regulations can and do
