Dan Harris Partner

“Keep it simple. That’s what works.”

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About Dan

harrismoure dan harris bio details XDan Harris is internationally regarded as a leading authority on legal matters related to doing business in emerging markets. Forbes, Business Week, Fortune, The BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Economist, CNBC, The New York Times, and many other major media players have looked to him for his perspective on international law issues.

Dan writes and speaks extensively on international law with a focus on protecting businesses in their foreign operations and he has had the rare honor of being designated a “Super Lawyer.” Dan started and operates the China Law Blog, which is regarded as one of the best law blogs on the web today. The ABA Journal named the China Law Blog to its Blawg Hall of Fame (a designation given to the top 20 law blogs of all time).

Celebrated Leader in Trends and Events Shaping International Law

Dan prides himself on his global connections. His indispensable network of top notch lawyers and business leaders around the world helps him stay abreast of the trends and events shaping international law today. Many of his matters have involved novel cross-border issues and a wide spectrum of substantive areas—from contract disputes concerning failed joint ventures to trade secret infringement and economic espionage, to product liability, to IP litigation. Dan is known for testing new theories internationally, including on issues of first impression related to piercing the corporate veil in Chinese and Korean courts, the attorney-client privilege in the context of a China-related matter, the Hague service and evidence conventions, PRC data laws, and the enforcement of US court judgments in China and Chinese court judgments in the United States and in Europe. Dan also has probably handled more cases involving Sinosure than any other attorney in the United States and he is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on Sinosure outside of China.

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Dan also spent part of his youth living in Aix-en-Provence, France and in Istanbul, Turkey and more recently he lived in Madrid, Spain for a year. In his free time, he works out, spends time with his family, enjoys listening to BBC World and Bruce Springsteen, and incessantly traveling the world, often with an eye to improving his Spanish.

Contact Dan

Fast Facts

Education

  • Grinnell College (B.A.)
  • Indiana University (J.D., magna cum laude)

Languages

  • French (Fluent)
  • Turkish (Basic)
  • Spanish (Basic)

Bar & Court Admissions

  • Alaska
  • Illinois
  • Washington

More About Dan

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  • Alaska State Bar Association
  • Illinois State Bar Association
  • Washington State Bar Association
  • Chinese Civil Law Forum
  • Order of the Coif
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What Clients Have to Say About Dan

I have been working with Dan Harris and the lawyers at Harris Sliwoski for many years and they have always provided us with clear and actionable international law advice. Harris Sliwoski recently provided us legal support to help us move our manufacturing out of China and into various other countries around the world. Harris Sliwoski’s international manufacturing lawyers helped us with our new manufacturing contracts, their international IP lawyers helped us with our IP matters, and their International Trade lawyers helped us with our trade, customs, and tariff issues. It was truly a pleasure to be able to use one shop for all of this, and without exception their attorneys did a great job for us. I never hesitate to recommend Harris Sliwoski to any company doing business internationally.

–  E. Benjamin Buttolph, CFO | Xentris Wireless  

I’ve been working with Dan Harris and Harris Sliwoski for more than 20 years, both as a business owner and as an executive at a large hospital system and that is because they have always efficiently provided high level and clear international law advice. Most recently, Harris Sliwoski provided legal support on procuring medical products worldwide. Their support was particularly helpful during the onset of COVID, when there was a big need for securing PPE quickly, all while navigating complicated international and domestic legal requirements. Harris Sliwoski’s team of international lawyers helped by conducting rapid-fire due diligence on potential suppliers, navigating the legal logistics for getting product from overseas and through U.S. customs, and drafting contracts to protect against various sorts of horribles. They did this by essentially providing what amounted to 24/7 service. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

– Dan Pak | Hospital Supply Chain Executive

I’ve been extraordinarily impressed with Harris Sliwoski. They have helped us with tariff related questions and hiring foreign employees. They are also well connected and they have given us many valuable people to get additional help from. Everyone I’ve worked with thus far have been experts in their niches. There is a huge difference between a good attorney and a world-class attorney. This firm is a group of truly world-class attorneys!

  Mike Kaeding, CEO | Norhart 

I feel fortunate for Elara’s relationship with Harris Sliwoski. We are a leading supplier of personal protective equipment and our business has really taken off due to COVID. This accelerated our need to retain high level international counsel and the international team at Harris Sliwoski has definitely fit that bill for us. We have worked mostly with Fred Rocafort, John McDonald, and Dan Harris and each have provided us with invaluable and proactive legal assistance. What all three share though is their commitment to doing their best for Elara and an ability to always gladly and clearly answer whatever questions we might have.

– Dan Grinberg, CEO | Elara  

We use Harris Sliwoski on all our international legal matters, including on our international litigation matters. We have over the last few years been involved in a couple big international legal disputes and Harris Sliwoski’s international dispute resolution team (Dan Harris and Jihee Ahn) provided us with expert legal assistance on both matters. They were always very careful to explain to us what they were doing and why and what their actions would likely cost us in legal fees. Most importantly, we did extremely well on both cases and I have no doubt Harris Sliwoski was a big factor in that.

Kevin English, CEO | We Are Camp

We used Harris Sliwoski to help protect an international copyright matter. They were quick and efficient to work to solve the problem. They also helped protect us from having any future issues, which we have had none since. Dan Harris was always attentive and easy to work with. They are an amazing firm, and we highly recommend them.

– Clayton Custom

Proven Expertise for Challenging Legal Issues

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wall street journal

China’s Latest Problem: People Don’t Want to Go There

Dan Harris in Wall Street Journal

“Companies are very, very concerned about their people going to China. Why wouldn’t they be?

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New York Post Logo

How smugglers flood the US with Chinese fake designer bags — hidden under umbrellas

Dan Harris in New York Post

“Sometimes the bags are made [off hours] in factories that produce legitimate handbags by day.”

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South China Morning Post logo.

Hong Kong losing edge to Singapore as legal hub? No major shift, ‘stable and robust’ judiciary still strong, says lawyer in John Lee’s delegation to Asean countries

Dan Harris in South China Morning Post

United States-based lawyer Dan Harris,  a partner at Seattle law firm Harris Sliwoski and co-author of the China Law Blog, declared that “Hong Kong is over.” He said foreign lawyers had snubbed the city in contracts that did not involve parties from China.

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WDRB logo.

A Southern Indiana Woman was Killed at Work. A Chinese Company Ignored a Judge's Ruling to Pay Up.

Dan Harris in WDRB.com

In fact, judgments in American courts have “virtually no value in China,” attorney Dan Harris of the international law firm Harris Sliwoski wrote in a blog post last year, noting that China and the U.S. don’t have a treaty or other reciprocal accord on civil court orders.

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Quartz logo.

China is Sharpening its Lawfare Weapons to Target Foreign Companies

Dan Harris in Quartz

“The best way for the U.S. government to reduce CCP strong-arming against US companies is to help those companies leave China.”

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The China Project logo.

China wants to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink

Dan Harris in The China Project

“Yes, if [Musk] not doing so costs him more,”

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Forbes Logo

As China Debate Heats Up, Biggest Risk Is Shift In Focus

Dan Harris in Forbes

“I don’t see Mexico or Vietnam or India stopping to sell products for political reasons, but we live under that constant threat with China,” he said, pointing out how China hoarded personal protection gear for hospitals, things like masks and hospital gowns that are almost all made in China.

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Lexology logo.

How to Safely Reduce Your China Product Prices Because NOW is the Time

Dan Harris in Lexology

One client put it bluntly when he said that his happiness at securing an 7% cost reduction was tempered by the fact that his supplier flat-out told him that it was concerned about being able to continue getting the component parts it needed to make the client’s product because so many of its sub-suppliers were going out of business. This is the yin and yang of China’s falling economy.

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Law.com logo.

'We Are Going to Find the Money': Attorneys Brace for Hurdles in Collecting $30M Verdict

Dan Harris in Law.com

Dan Harris, a partner at Harris Sliwoski in its Seattle, Washington office and an expert on collecting international judgments who is not involved in the matter, said that initially appearing in a litigation case and then becoming unresponsive is a common tactic by Chinese-based entities.

Harris said a strategy to collect a judgment in personal injury litigation is to convey to the corporation that if it fails to pay, it will encounter interruptions in its international supply chain.

Harris provided an example of a North Pacific company that intended to deliver $10 million worth of crab to a foreign port of a Chinese corporation that owed the attorney’s client $5 million. Ahead of the delivery, Harris would connect with a contact from the North Pacific company.

“I’d say to Jim, ‘How about you tell us right before you are about to send over that $10 million, and we can seize $5 million of it,’” Harris said. “For your help, we’ll pay you $100,000, and he’s like, ‘Sure.’ So, you can get into their faces all around the world. You can do a lot to recover the judgment, but you need to know how to do it.”

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Near-Shoring: Can Manufacturing Move From China To Mexico?

Dan Harris in Forbes

Mexico’s business culture is more risk averse and less open to newcomers, according to a recent podcast with international lawyer Dan Harris and supply chain expert Andrew Hupert. They emphasized that companies can succeed in Mexico, but finding suppliers and negotiating agreements will be more challenging than in China. The number of potential suppliers will be smaller, in addition to them being harder to find.

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wall street journal

China Spy Law Adds to Chilling Effect of Detentions

Dan Harris in Wall Street Journal

The revised legislation expands protected information to include all “documents, data, materials or items related to national security” from simply “state secrets and intelligence” beforehand. It didn’t elaborate on what sort of materials would fall within the scope of these revised provisions.

“The key terms are not defined and are so vague,” said Dan Harris, partner at Harris Sliwoski, a law firm that advises on investments in China. “The old law basically covered state secrets and now it covers national interests.”

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Supply Management logo.

Is Mexico set to overtake China as the world's factory?

Dan Harris in Supply Management

“People are terrified of three things with China,” adds Dan Harris, attorney at law firm Harris Sliwoski: tensions between the country and Taiwan, its Covid-19 response, and rising prices and shipping costs. “And those three together have caused people to say, I’ve got to diversify. I’ve got to get out, and they’re willing to pay more to be in Mexico.”

Harris says: “People are finally waking up to the idea of Latin America. Even in the last six months, people are saying, I want to go into Mexico because I want to be selling more into Latin America. Or I want to go into Colombia, or Peru. People are starting to look at Latin America as a market.”

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Plastics Today logo.

For Manufacturers Fed Up with China, Some Roads Lead to Mexico

Dan Harris in Plastics Today

To be clear, there are certain downsides to leaving China that experts Dan Harris and Andrew Hupert of the international law firm Harris Sliwoski detailed in a Feb. 23 webinar titled, “Moving Your Manufacturing from China to Mexico.”

Chief among those dangers is the very real possibility of losing access to your company’s assets and intellectual property (IP) if you announce plans to leave China before moving all molds, tooling, and personnel out of the country, Harris cautioned.

“I’m here to dispel the notion that leaving China involves basically pushing a button — it’s a lot more than that. There are risks involved in leaving China. To quote one of my clients: ‘Hell hath no fury like a Chinese factory spurned.’”

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South China Morning Post logo.

China eased Covid rules to spur economic growth, but US companies still plot manufacturing shifts

Dan Harris in South China Morning Post

Still, the government’s Covid policy shift and its efforts to reassure foreign investors have not swayed American manufacturers to reconsider exiting China, according to Dan Harris of the law firm Harris Sliwoski.

“They want out of China because they do not believe China is any longer good for business, and they are also worried about China’s relations with the rest of the world,” said Harris, who advises American companies doing business overseas.
Even companies that have profited handsomely in China were trying to reduce their footprint in the country to minimise their risks, he added.

Harris painted a bleak picture next year for foreign entities with China-based manufacturing, saying the country’s immunity to the coronavirus was not strong and that it lacked “good vaccines” for it.

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New York Times Logo in black

How TikTok Became a Diplomatic Crisis

Dan Harris in The New York Times

“If you look at the people who draw the analogies between Google and Facebook and TikTok, they’re either unsophisticated or they have an ax to grind in favor of TikTok,” said Dan Harris, a lawyer who works with foreign companies in China and writes the China Law Blog. “Most serious people see a difference. It doesn’t mean they’re all great or all bad, but there is a difference.”

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Fast Company logo.

China first: The untold story of how Starbucks has cozied up to the Communist Party in pursuit of explosive growth

Dan Harris in Fast Company

The whiplash is just part of doing business with Beijing. “What China giveth, it can taketh,” says Dan Harris, a lawyer whose firm, Harris Sliwoski, has counseled U.S. companies on business in China for nearly two decades. (Harris advised Fast Company’s parent company, Mansueto Ventures, on a matter several years ago.)

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Los Angeles Times logo.

Foreign businesses want out of China. But breaking up may be tougher than ever

Dan Harris in Los Angeles Times

“Every single one of our clients would like to stop manufacturing in China, and people say, ‘Why don’t they?’” said Dan Harris, a founder of the law firm Harris Sliwoski, which advises American companies on doing business overseas. “There’s a million reasons why it’s just not that easy.”

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The Guardian logo.

NBA owners have combined $10bn invested in China, study shows

Dan Harris in The Guardian

“Nobody really wants their name associated with China, but what can they do?” attorney Dan Harris of firm Harris Sliwoski told ESPN. “They’re sort of betwixt and between. If they say what Americans want them to say, it’s death in China. If they say what China wants, it’s death in America.”

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Voice of America logo.

Chinese Companies in Dilemma Over Russia

Dan Harris in Voice of America

Dan Harris, a trade lawyer who specializes in doing business in emerging markets and co-authors the China Law Blog, said the business calculus has changed because of the sanctions imposed on Russia.

“Companies that are not sanctioned … they are saying ‘I’m out’ because of reputational reasons or because it’s not worth figuring out and risking getting in trouble to sell a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of product to Russia. It’s just easier and safer to get out,” he told VOA Mandarin by phone.

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Financial Times logo.

Foreign businesses in China need to heed the lessons of Russian exodus

Dan Harris in Financial Times

Corporate lawyers such as Dan Harris of US-based Harris Sliwoski are advising clients to start thinking about “asset light” strategies, such as licensing or franchising where appropriate. At the very least, diversification of manufacturing elsewhere in Asia, or even further afield, should be a priority.

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bloomberg

Russian IP Animus Fuels Risk, Uncertainty as Firms Recalibrate

Dan Harris in Bloomberg Law

“It’s going to be terrible,” said attorney Dan Harris of Harris Sliwoski Sliwoski LLP, who helps companies do business in emerging markets. “There will be no IP protection in Russia.”

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Japan Forward logo.

Attending the Beijing Winter Olympics? Use a Burner Phone

Dan Harris and Arlo Kipfer in Japan Forward

In an article entitled “China Cyber Hacking: The Full Story” posted on the China Law Blog website, Dan Harris and Arlo Kipfer, two attorneys at the international law firm Harris Sliwoski, spell it out in simple terms: “The government seeks to ensure all network activity conducted within China is transparent to the state.”

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China’s Xi Jinping A Danger To American Business

Dan Harris in Forbes

Nearly a decade ago Dan Harris, an attorney who works with American companies doing business in China, wrote, “The key to weathering China’s slowdown will be … to go back to basics: think afresh about what a company contributes to China’s economy and how that is likely to shape policy makers’ opinions; focus on scrupulous regulatory compliance; and renew focus on due diligence at a company-to-company level. Above all, no Western company doing business in China should blithely assume that a slowdown won’t affect it.” That’s wise advice today.

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Foreign Policy Logo

Another Win for China’s Hostage Diplomacy

Dan Harris in Foreign Policy

Dan Harris, an experienced China business attorney, said Beijing’s future use of hostage diplomacy depends on the global reaction to this case: “If the world is silent, I think the risks will go up across the board for all types of China hostage-taking, but especially for smaller countries China doesn’t like.”

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Chinese companies seek to reopen path for New York IPOs

Dan Harris in Nikkei Asia

The highlighting of such risks is vital, according to Dan Harris, founder of U.S. law firm Harris Sliwoski.

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Chinadown

Dan Harris in National Review

Dan Harris, attorney at Harris Sliwoski, an international law firm that has warned clients on the legality of VIEs for more than a decade, said the Chinese Communist party had “lashed out at big companies and now all signs point to them going after VIEs”.

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Financial Review logo

Why Beijing’s latest crackdown should worry foreign investors

Dan Harris in Financial Review

Dan Harris, attorney at Bricken Harris, an international law firm that has warned clients on the legality of VIEs for more than a decade, said the Chinese Communist Party has “lashed out at big companies and now all signs point to them going after VIEs”.

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Financial Times logo.

Beijing’s threat to VIEs triggers Wall Street angst over China stocks

Dan Harris in Financial Times

Dan Harris, attorney at Harris Sliwoski*, an international law firm that has warned clients on the legality of VIEs for more than a decade, said the Chinese Communist party had “lashed out at big companies and now all signs point to them going after VIEs”.

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Voice of America logo.

Genetic Data Collection by Chinese Company Poses Global Policy Challenge, Experts Say

Dan Harris in Voice of America

Dan Harris, an international lawyer and author at the China Law Blog, told VOA Mandarin that he believes democratic entities, such as the United States, Japan, Korea, Australia and the European Union, are going to realize they “need to enact special laws to deal with China and China’s hoovering of data.”

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South China Morning Post logo.

Republican members of US Congress focus more on China in social media posts, study says

Dan Harris in South China Morning Post

“Nearly all Democrats assume Trump was making stuff up about China for political reasons – which is not so crazy, as he did that all the time,” said Dan Harris, a partner in the Harris Sliwoski law firm and author of China Law Blog.

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bloomberg

Sound On: Mayor Bowser on Infrastructure

Dan Harris in Bloomberg Sound On

Bloomberg Washington Correspondent Joe Mathieu delivers insight and analysis on the latest headlines from the White House and Capitol Hill, including conversations with influential lawmakers and key figures in politics and policy. Guests: Dan Harris, founder of Harris Sliwoski

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The Korea Times logo

US Justice Department self-lauds its Beijing-countering 'China Initiative'

Dan Harris in The Korea Times

One of its problems, some legal experts said, is that its success has been difficult to quantify. “I don’t know what the measure would be,” said Dan Harris, a partner at Seattle’s Harris Sliwoski law firm and co-author of China Law Blog.

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South China Morning Post logo.

Outgoing US Justice Department officials call their ‘China Initiative’ to counter Beijing a success

Dan Harris in South China Morning Post

One of its problems, some legal experts said, is that its success has been difficult to quantify. “I don’t know what the measure would be,” said Dan Harris, a partner at Seattle’s Harris Sliwoski law firm and co-author of China Law Blog.

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Foreign Policy Logo

Why Does Trump Have a Chinese Bank Account?

Dan Harris in Foreign Policy

The details remain sketchy, but it seems that the Trump account was set up for business purposes—either as a wholly owned foreign enterprise or as a joint venture with an unknown Chinese partner. In that case, having a bank account would be not only legitimate but also advised, Dan Harris, an experienced China business attorney, wrote in a text message.

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Why Does Trump Have a Chinese Bank Account?

Dan Harris in Foreign Policy

“Maybe he was operating 100 percent legally in China,” Harris said. “But he simply didn’t reveal it (as he should have done) because the optics were so bad for him.”

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Is Reshoring Here To Stay For Manufacturers?

Dan Harris in The National Law Review

For some, the reshoring discussion often begins and ends with China.  One of my favorite blogs is the China Law Blog that is authored by Dan Harris and the lawyers at Harris Sliwoski.

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Voice of America logo.

China Considers Toughening Rules for Foreign English Teachers

Dan Harris in Voice of America

Dan Harris, a leading authority on Chinese law and an attorney at the same law firm, wrote an op-ed in 2019 urging Americans not to teach English in China. He said that since 2018, there has been a huge increase in emails from foreign teachers in China seeking legal help with visa, employment contract, medical and landlord issues.

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The Atlantic Logo

Why America Is Afraid of TikTok

Dan Harris in The Atlantic

By this reckoning, TikTok, or for that matter any Chinese company, can’t be trusted, because China can’t be trusted. “There are probably many people at TikTok who just want to run a profitable company. But they can’t,” said Dan Harris, a founder of the law firm Harris Sliwoski, which specializes in business in China. “If you know how China works, you cannot claim that TikTok is secure.”

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wall street journal

China’s New Tool to Chase Down Fugitives: American Courts

Dan Harris in The Wall Street Journal

“They’re going after these people not because of a business dispute in China. They’re going after these people because they violated Chinese criminal law,” said Mr. Harris. “They’re not only doing an end-run around the State Department and the DOJ. They’re really doing an end-run around U.S. law.”

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Wired Logo

‘Everybody and His Dog Is Trying to Sell Medical Equipment’

Dan Harris in Wired

Dan Harris, a lawyer in Seattle who advises on business deals in China, said that he recently got a call from one company that ordered a shipment of protective masks. Instead they got Halloween masks. (He didn’t know what type.) “You’re wondering, why do they bother sending Halloween masks rather than nothing at all?” Harris said. The answer, he said, is that it buys them time. When an order ships, a buyer gets proof of shipment, and in the weeks that the Halloween masks are on the water the factory can scam other buyers.

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South China Morning Post logo.

South China Morning Post

Dan Harris in South China Morning Post

On a single day in March, the founder of law firm Harris Sliwoski, Dan Harris, spoke to three separate people who had each lost north of US$1 million on mask export deals.

In one case, an American businessman had taken out a million-dollar loan to advance to a long-term Chinese textiles supplier, who wanted to make masks, but needed the capital to do so. The supplier disappeared with the money, leaving the businessman “all but catatonic with depression”, Harris said.

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Los Angeles Times logo.

Faulty masks. Flawed tests. China’s quality control problem in leading global COVID-19 fight

Dan Harris in The Los Angeles Times

“It’s a complete mess,” said Dan Harris, a lawyer whose firm Harris Sliwoski has advised companies on sourcing from China for more than 15 years. He called the current situation “unprecedented,” especially as frenzied Chinese suppliers attempt to recoup losses after months of quarantine.

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wall street journal

Faulty N95 Masks Hamper Hospitals on Coronavirus Front Line

Dan Harris in The Wall Street Journal

Dan Harris, a lawyer in Seattle who is helping hospitals verify mask sellers in China, said he has reviewed the same “proof of verification” certificate more than a dozen times, indicating it is fake or copied.

“They are either hucksters or con artists,” Mr. Harris said. “Normal safeguards are being ignored right now.”

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The Japan Times

Dan Harris in The Japan Times

Dan Harris, a Seattle lawyer who represents companies in emerging markets, wrote on his blog that he recently heard from three companies that were each scammed out of more than $1 million after placing N95 mask orders from China — with one firm receiving “dusty, moldy Halloween masks.”

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The Economist logo.

Chinese firms use obscure legal tactics to stem virus losses

Dan Harris in The Economist

Dan Harris of Harris Sliwoski, an American law firm, worries that today’s trickle of mainland suppliers declaring force majeure (fm), an obscure legal manoeuvre used to get out of contracts, could turn into a tidal wave.

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Forbes Logo

COVID-19 Coronavirus And Complex Supply Chains

Dan Harris in Forbes

Chinese legal expert Dan Harris emphasized supply chain risks based on questions his firm’s attorneys are hearing about production in Chines factories.

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The washington Post logo

Global companies scramble to respond to coronavirus in China

Dan Harris in Washington Post

Smaller manufacturers that lack multinationals’ global support staffs are scrambling to assess the threat to their operations. “They are freaking out,” said Dan Harris, a Seattle-based attorney whose clients operate in China. “It’s extremely difficult to plan because nobody knows what’s going to happen.”

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The Times

Dan Harris in The Times

Dan Harris, an American lawyer and founder of the China Law Blog, said CGTN edited or cut interviews that were unfavourable to Beijing. “Its goal is not to provide information,” he said. “Its goal is to protect the Chinese government.”

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BBC Logo

US-China trade deal: Five things that aren't in it

Dan Harris in BBC News

This could indicate that even though there is an agreement in place, Beijing might ignore it, as Dan Harris of the China Law blog points out.

“The problem isn’t the law,” he says. “It’s that when something is important to China – some cutting edge technology that it wants – then those laws don’t have any use at all.”

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wall street journal

Businesses Say Trade Deal Is a Good First Step but Want Tariffs to End

Dan Harris in The Wall Street Journal

“It all sounds great in theory,” said Dan Harris, a Seattle lawyer whose firm advises companies of all sizes on operating in China. “The problem is, China has a long history of putting very-good-looking things into law, especially its intellectual-property laws, and then not following through when it doesn’t want to.”

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South China Morning Post logo.

China says US sanctions have no ‘legal effect’ in Hong Kong or China, but analysts urge caution

Dan Harris in South China Morning Post

“US financial sanctions are incredibly powerful because the dollar – though weakened – is still very powerful. Companies that operate internationally do not want to be on the wrong side of US financial sanctions. Look what Huawei is accused of having done to try to avoid them,” Harris said.

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Foreign Policy

Dan Harris in Foreign Policy

Corporate debt defaults have jumped this year in China, another sign that companies have been having a financially difficult year. Chinese firms are also increasingly failing to meet deals with foreign companies, as the lawyer Dan Harris points out. Meanwhile, midsize U.S. enterprises have already started to pull away from Chinese supply chains.

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Two Canadians got caught in a spat between the US and China. They’ve been in prison for a year

Dan Harris in CNN

“China’s laws allow them to keep people in detention for a long time,” said Dan Harris, a founder of Harris Sliwoski, an international law firm that specializes in China. “The charges are purposefully vague as a message from China … we can convict them on whatever it makes sense for us to convict them on so as to best influence what happens to Meng Wanzhou and to best send a message to Canada and to the rest of the world that China will act in China’s own interests by crushing you, international law be damned.”

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The China Project logo.

Is Hong Kong in its ‘death throes’?

Dan Harris in The China Project

Two months into the Hong Kong protests this year, the respected lawyer Dan Harris wrote on the China Law Blog, “Not sure why nobody has just come out and said this yet, but Hong Kong as an international business and financial center is no more.” This week, he elaborated in comments to the Guardian: “It’s finished as an international business center because it was based on trust, safety and the rule of law and that’s all gone. Companies are looking to leave. No one is thinking of moving in.”

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The Guardian

Dan Harris in The Guardian

Dan Harris, a lawyer at the Seattle firm of Harris Sliwoski who has done business in the region for decades, says the ongoing protests mean Hong Kong as an international financial centre is “no more”.

“It’s finished as an international business centre because it was based on trust, safety and the rule of law and that’s all gone. Companies are looking to leave. No one is thinking of moving in,” he said.

He also believes there is no appetite in Beijing to save the way Hong Kong is currently established. After all, it only accounts for 3% of the mainland’s economy, compared with 11% at the time of the handover from the British in 1997. Harris thinks forceful intervention by the mainland is inevitable.

“There is no resolution to this. China does not care about Hong Kong. A lot of people in Beijing hate the place and they want to put it in its place. Who’s fighting for Hong Kong? Not many people. China is not backing down because they want to send a message to Xinjiang and Taiwan.”

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Many Chinese Manufacturers are Behaving as Though they have No Future

Dan Harris in BoingBoing

The site’s author, Dan Harris, compares the mood in China today with the situation in Russia in the 1990s, when outside businesses would get repeatedly ripped off by their Russian partners, and would go away mystified that these partners would take the short term payouts of burning a foreign partner, at the expense of the much larger upside they could realize from an ongoing arrangement. For these Russian entrepreneur/bandits, Harris says, “They do not believe they will be able to operate freely five years or even one year from now. So though you see them as having irrationally sacrificed massive long term gains for much smaller short term rewards, they see themselves as having quite rationally grabbed what they could while it was still there.”

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South China Morning Post logo.

Korean or Chinese? Copycat dollar stores face intellectual property crackdown from South Korea

Dan Harris in South China Morning Post

Dan Harris of law firm Harris Sliwoski is an expert on legal issues related to doing business in China. Harris says situations like this happen all the time in the US. “There are a ton of foreign companies here that try to hide that they are foreign and look American, and it’s not a big deal,” Harris said. “It’s like big breweries acting like they make craft beers.”

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China Detains 2 Americans Amid Growing Scrutiny of Foreigners

Dan Harris in The New York Times

“China has become a risky place,” Dan Harris, a lawyer at Harris Sliwoski, a firm that specializes in investment with China, said in an email. “If you are going to do business there you had better know what the laws are and you had better follow them, because China is not going to let anyone slide, especially not an American or a Canadian.”

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As Trade War Deepens a State Owned Insurer in China Helps Soften the Blow

Dan Harris in Reuters

Dan Harris, a lawyer who represents U.S. importers, said he has received increasing requests for help dealing with Sinosure demands for payment on behalf of Chinese exporters.

“Before the trade war, I might go … four, five months without getting a Sinosure email, now I’m getting four or five a week,” said Harris, managing partner at international law firm Harris Sliwoski.

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The Specter of Global Disintegration

Dan Harris in Axios

Even if Hong Kong’s demonstrators have all 5 of their demands met (right now it’s 1 down, 4 to go), China has made it abundantly clear that it has no respect for the “one country, two systems” framework, which in any case is scheduled to end in 2047. Hong Kong is arguably the most internationally integrated city in the world, which means the only direction from here is backwards. As Dan Harris put it 3 weeks ago in China Law Blog, “Hong Kong as an international business and financial center is no more.”

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‘It’s Life or Death:’ Hong Kong Protests Risk Its Special Trade Relationship With the U.S.

Dan Harris in Fortune

“If China is viewed as having ‘taken over’ Hong Kong it will become difficult for any politician to argue for keeping [Hong Kong’s] special status because it will be hard to argue that its system is all that different from the [People’s Republic of China’s],” says Dan Harris, the founder of Harris Sliwoski, a law firm that specializes in investing in China.

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Hong Kong protests: 'We don't want to leave but may have no choice'

Dan Harris in BBC News

Dan Harris, managing partner of law firm Harris Bracken, said that over the past three months businesses have been asking: “Is Hong Kong safe? Should I send our people there?”

He is based in the US and advises clients on their strategy in China and Hong Kong.

“What we are mostly getting is clients saying they will not be setting up in Hong Kong, or just asking our opinion on what they should do to lower their footprint in Hong Kong.”

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How China's crime crackdown has spooked expats used to wilder living

Dan Harris in The Telegraph

“The ability and desire to catch foreign companies and foreigners operating illegally in China is higher now than it has ever been,” said Dan Harris, founder of Harris Sliwoski, a US-based law firm that specialises in China.

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Chinese cinema eclipses US box office as Hollywood films suffer during trade war

Dan Harris in The Telegraph

“It’s Hollywood, it’s a strong industry for America and it’s symbolic” Dan Harris an international lawyer advising clients doing business in China, told The Telegraph.

“With the film industry there are levers China can pull and push as much as they want. That’s what we’re hearing they’re now doing. It’s a matter of degree, but it’s being ramped up and and it will continue to escalate. All of a sudden you realise there are no Western movies.”

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Some companies find their brand names already claimed in China

Dan Harris in MarketPlace

Even if an American brand does not plan to sell in China, the firm should still guard its trademark.

“We were contacted by four European companies that controlled, maybe, around 80 percent of a particular product market,” said lawyer Dan Harris, who advises companies that do business in China. The firms all produced in China but didn’t file for Chinese trademarks. One of their Chinese manufacturers went out and registered all four European brands.

“Once [the Chinese manufacturer] got their China trademark, they told these four companies: you cannot ship product from China anymore. It was a disaster for these four companies,” Harris said.

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Trade Deal Won’t Fix U.S.-China Business Relations

Dan Harris in The Wall Street Journal

The accord now being drawn up to resolve the trade fight between the world’s two largest economies promises better treatment of U.S. companies in China and more Chinese orders for U.S. crops and other products. But rattled businesses on both sides of the Pacific are skittish about rushing back in to revive the once-booming investment activity between the two countries. “There is no way any deal between China and the U.S. will cause everyone on both sides to say, ‘We were just kidding,’” said Dan Harris, managing partner at Harris Sliwoski, a law firm that specializes in investment with China. “The tariffs and the arrests and the threats and the heightened risk have impacted companies and that will not go away.”

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China's draft foreign investment law bans forced tech transfer, emphasizes reciprocity

Dan Harris in Reuters

“Laws in China on something like forced technology are paper; the reality may or may not match that paper,” said Dan Harris, Seattle-based managing partner of law firm Harris Sliwoski, which helps firms navigate legal issues overseas including in China.

“I generally think that on something like this, past history is the best predictor of future performance, and few dispute that China has for the last 10 years been saying it would open up and it all but stopped about five years ago.”

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China's Courts are Getting Better

Dan Harris in The Economist

There have also been notable improvements in the arena of commercial law. Last year Chinese courts began hearings in 152,000 intellectual-property disputes, up nearly tenfold over the past decade. The explosive growth in IP cases has been fuelled by the growing litigiousness of domestic companies, which have more to protect as they become more innovative. But foreign companies are also benefiting. In August a court ordered three Chinese firms to pay 10m yuan ($1.5m) in damages to New Balance, an American footwear company. It was one of the largest trademark-related awards ever made by a Chinese court.

Luke Minford, chief executive of Rouse, a consultancy, has calculated that foreign companies win 74% of their IP cases against Chinese firms, well above the 55% success rate for plaintiffs in cases that only involve Chinese entities. There are, to be sure, still unwritten limits. Dan Harris of Harris Sliwoski, a law firm, says it is a “very different calculation” if the company being sued is a big state-owned enterprise.

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How China Squeezes Tech Secrets from Companies

Dan Harris in CNN

Some experts say that handing over technology has effectively become a cost of doing business in China — a market too big for most companies to ignore.

“Many Chinese companies go after technology hard and the tactics they use show up again and again, leading us to believe there is some force (the government?) teaching them how to do these things,” said Dan Harris, a Seattle-based attorney who advises international companies on doing business in China.

“The thing is that the foreign companies that give up their technology usually do so at least somewhat of their own volition,” he told CNNMoney. “Yes, maybe they need to do so to get into China, but they also have the choice not to go into China, right?”

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How New Balance Ran Into a Wall in China

Dan Harris in Forbes

New Balance disagreed with the ruling for a host of reasons, one of which was that the company barely used the Xin Bai Lun name except on some advertisements and websites, never on shoes. It said the name hardly constituted a trademark. The company has hired a new counsel and appealed the decision. But so far New Balance has lost the fight it picked—and as it waits for a higher court’s ruling, it’s worth asking whether it’s time for them to bow out.

China’s trademark laws, though relatively advanced, break with Western ones in several key ways. The most important one: China is a first-to-file country. “This means that whomever files a trademark first gets it,” says Dan Harris, a partner at Harris Sliwoski in Seattle focusing on China, regardless of whether another company is already making a product with the same name in, say, America.

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Even on US turf, culture clashes make China firms tough foes

Dan Harris in The Seattle Times

And as they increasingly expand internationally, they will need to manage their reputation and won’t want to be known for eluding courts and skipping out on legal bills, says Dan Harris with the law firm Harris Moure in Seattle.

But for now at least, Harris says the Chinese can’t always fathom how U.S. courts operate, aren’t used to judges who are mostly immune to bribes and don’t understand the consequences of defying court orders.

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China Court Ruling Could Threaten Foreign Investments in Country

Dan Harris in The New York Times

“This group of people will distinguish the recent Supreme People’s Court ruling because it was an earlier set of documents, not entirely the same as the V.I.E. structure,” Mr. Dickinson predicted. “But what the court said is that any contract that is designed to avoid the clear requirements of Chinese law is void from the very first step. That is what the V.I.E. is.”

Considering the possible wide-reaching implications of this recent ruling, is it being underplayed?

“Accountants, lawyers and stock brokers make a ton of money off I.P.O.’s so they have no incentive to slow them down,” said Dan Harris, a China lawyer with Harris Sliwoski and a co-author of the China Law Blog. “They have every incentive to keep the V.I.E. structure going.”

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