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China Law for Business

I was interviewed a couple weeks ago by a reporter who wanted to know what impact the declining economy in China was having on my law firm's clients. I told her none. I said that so far, anyway, not a single client had even mentioned China's declining economy as a factor in its decision-making.
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Recieved an email from Toronto-based international lawyer, Paul Jones, on China's just amended patent laws. I liked it so much, I secured Paul's permission to run it here:
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When I was in high school, I went to a bakery in Budapest, Hungary, during the Communist era. The bakery was tiny, the kind that in the United States would have at most two people working there. I was the only customer. I ordered from one woman, was instructed to go to the cash register by another woman, had my pastry wrapped by another woman, handed to me by a fourth woman, and paid a fifth woman. Now that's what I call full employment.
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One of the great things about being a lawyer is that you get to work with and observe a diversity of businesses. My firm has helped all kinds of businesses get into China and do deals with Chinese companies and if I had to single out one industry that has the highest percentage of failures, I would pick those that are environmentally related. Years ago, I was totally gung-ho on these industries, figuring China obviously needs environmental assistance and Beijing knows it.

Not so fast.
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"I won't pay. I know too much about extortion."
Tony Soprano, Season 3, Episode 7, "Second Opinion"

One of the "interesting" things about representing companies in emerging markets is the huge variance organized crime can play. The Associated Press, in a story entitled, "China readies for crackdown on organized crime," recently wrote on how the Chinese government is cracking down on organized crime
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Most of you probably already know more about melamine than they ever expected. Melamine refers to both a chemical and to a resin produced from it. Human ingestion of melamine "may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer." Unfortunately, its high nitrogen content allows it to mimic protein and that characteristic has led to Chinese companies putting it into feedstock as an extremely cheap way of falsely boosting its protein content readings.
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Went to a party last night where a large group of us discussed the following scams:
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The weakened economy has served to highlight the renewed need to engage in best practices when securing product from China and Ashton Udall over at the Global Sourcing Blog has a nice post out on what companies need to be doing on this front in these tough times.
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Not exactly sexy, but absolutely crucial for anyone sourcing product from China are the nuts and bolts of how to do so. I have been around long enough to see the countless mistakes sourcing neophytes can make when buying product overseas, including the following:

1. Not realizing that the payment was for product at the factory, and did not include any transportation costs.

2. Not realizing that the Christmas product ordered in August would not arrive until the following year.
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Jack Perkowski, who knows as much about China business as anyone, recently wrote a piece for the Far Eastern Economic Review, entitled, "The Return of China Heavy." By China Heavy, Perkowski is referring to what some call the "real China," the China beyond the Westernized portions of places like Shanghai and Beijing. The economic downturn is hastening this return:
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