The Wall Street Journal just published an article on the threat the proposed PRC foreign investment law poses for companies that used the VIE structure to enter into prohibited business sectors in China. Among the companies in the cross hairs are a number of major foreign businesses such as Amazon, Pearson and CBS. Add to
Under Chinese law a foreigner who comes to China to complete a “short-term work task” and stays no more than 90 days, must get a work visa (a Z visa). A “short-term work task” is defined as one of the following: Tasks such as those involving technology, scientific research, management and guidance at the place
China Contract Formalities Contracts with Chinese companies often generate a unique set of legal and procedural intricacies. China’s legal landscape differs significantly from that of American, European, or Australian jurisdictions, primarily due to its distinct regulatory frameworks and business culture. These differences require a China-centric approach to both the drafting of China contracts and to
Under China’s employment laws, terminating a China employee who has completed his or her probation period is virtually never easy. Termination usually requires good cause and a severance payment. Most importantly a China employer must be able to show that any unilateral termination was based on statutory grounds. In this post, I lay out some basic
January 19, 2015 marks the date of the death of the VIE investment structure in China. On this day, China’s State Council issued a discussion draft of legislation setting out the plan for overhauling China’s Chinese foreign investment legal regime. The new system is set out in the PRC Investment Law Discussion Draft (the “Draft”),
Media reports state that online gambling in China soared during the recent World Cup. The punters put their money into online gambling on the World Cup, with revenue at China’s government run lottery site increasing by over 80% during this period. The general ban on gambling in China is subject to one exception. The Chinese
Many of our clients that went to China years ago to have their products made there are now interested in selling those same products within China. One way to do that is to form a WFOE for selling the products, but oftentimes the cost and the hassle of doing that is not worth it, especially
China’s labor law provides for a 44-hour work week, but its regulations provide for a 40 hour work week and most municipalities enforce the 40-hour work week, but recognize that this workweek may not be practical for certain employees. A “flexible” working hours system is thus permitted for “senior management” as an exception to this
There are three rules for making contracts enforceable in China: Make the jurisdiction a China court. Make the governing law Chinese law. Make the governing language Chinese. Foreign companies routinely insist on contract provisions that effectively render their contracts unenforceable in China. By their own efforts, they make their contracts worthless, much to the amusement
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) enforces U.S. economic and trade sanctions. OFAC sanctions generally block all U.S. individuals and entities – including in some cases U.S. companies’ foreign subsidiaries – from transacting business with comprehensively sanctioned countries, such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Syria, or sanctioned
