Sometimes, the answer will be yes, sometimes it will be no, and sometimes it will be something in between. For those for whom the answer is yes, the China they encounter (or continue to encounter) is one that is much changed from that of 2013. But many of the fundamentals remain the same. Keeping your nose clean is no guarantee of a smooth ride, but not keeping your nose clean is pretty much a guarantee of trouble.
If you buy products from China or have your products made in China, there is a good chance you are familiar with Sinosure. This post discusses how Sinosure has greatly changed just in the last few months in terms of how it treats foreign companies.
THE buzzword for the next 5-10 years will be "zero-China." It is mostly being used to describe companies seeking to re-jigger their supply chains to completely exclude China, but I think it will eventually come to mean any effort to be rid of China.
Selling a stripped down (off the shelf) WFOE seldom works. Sorry.
There are those who believe China's ongoing Party Congress will bode well for companies that do business in or with China. I am firmly convinced that the opposite is true and that it will used as yet another opportunity by China to show that it will not be cowered by the declining relations and sanctions/counter-sanctions between the United States / EU / Australia / Japan on the one hand, and China on the other. I see China using this Congress to let the world (domestic and external) know that it fully intends to fight back and fight back hard. In other words, this Party Congress will lead to China's decoupling from much of the world accelerating, not slowing down.
I am more convinced than ever that the CCP does NOT want to ameliorate COVID's impact on China because doing so would diminish its incredible power and control over its people. And I'm also more convinced than ever that COVID in China -- more accurately, the CCP's handling of COVID -- will negatively impact foreign companies there for a long, long time.
Recently, I was fortunate to attend a World Trade Center Utah event attended by Minister Jing Quan, the number three-ranking Chinese diplomat in the U.S. This was the first visit by a high-ranking Chinese official since the imposition of the “Trump tariffs”, after which a massive delegation of Chinese officials descended on Salt Lake City
At least once a day, someone — usually a client — asks me if President Xi will hold onto power. And every day, I give a much shorter version of the following half-serious, half-facetious answer: He will hold onto power, but for how long I don’t know. It’s like the stock market. I can right
Even though China private equity (PE) activity has cooled down (see here and here), our law firm has even this year been involved in many U.S. PE transactions involving China entities, employees, and assets. These deals are typically conducted at the U.S. entity level between two private equity groups, with the seller in each instance
Blockchain technologies are inherently international, and China has had its share of news lately. I have spoken on China and web3 from both business and national security perspectives. These new technologies present challenges and opportunities both inside and outside China. This post focuses on the for-profit blockchain developments and opportunities in China.
