Earlier this year, “Univar USA Inc. paid U.S. $62.5 Million to Resolve Allegations that it Evaded $36 Million in Antidumping Duties on Imported Chinese Saccharin.” My law firm profited handsomely from this case because we brought it to the government’s attention and then assisted on it. The United States Department of Justice describes this case
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 August, in The Top 14 China Wild Cards/Future Risks, we listed what we saw as the top 14 risks for foreign companies that do business in or with China. We first listed what we saw as the top six risks “right now,” and we then listed eight more risks we thought might rise to
Hello Macau, goodbye Hong Kong. This has been the main theme surrounding Chairman Xi Jinping’s visit to Macau to mark the 20th anniversary of the former Portuguese colony’s transfer of sovereignty to China. Besides sending a not-so-subtle message to “bad student” Hong Kong, Xi is “expected to announce new policies aimed at diversifying the casino
There is an old saying how lawyers do well in good times and in bad times; just not when everything stays the same. Times are mostly bad right now with China, and our China lawyers have in 2019 seen and likely will continue to see in 2020 a lot of the following: 1. China is cracking
No sooner than President Trump signed the Hong Kong human rights and democracy act into law, China announced retaliatory measures, banning U.S. warships from Hong Kong and restricting the work of American NGOs. These responses were narrowly tailored—perhaps in part because China is wary of rocking the boat too much, in a way that could
Had lunch yesterday with two long-time friends, both international lawyers who have spent many years living and working in China. During a discussion about an international real estate matter on which one of the lawyers was working, someone asked if we remembered back when foreigners were able to freely buy real estate in China. We all
A lawyer’s job is to discern their clients’ risks and help them avoid them. We are both trained and paid to be paranoid. Years ago, when I was in Tokyo on a particularly sensitive international law matter, I left my hotel room as I had done pretty much every day for the last 7-8 days and
The numbers coming out of China continue to amaze. There are 855 million digital consumers in China and they have more than twice as many internet users as the US has people. The Chinese are spending an average of 358 minutes per day online. They spend 8% of their online time streaming video content. A
