A long long time ago, my law firm was pretty much known as West Coast law firm for the Russian Far East. We ate, drank and slept Russia and Russian law. If there was a mining deal, an oil and gas deal, a timber deal or a fishing deal between an American company and a Russian company in the Russian Far East, there was a good chance our law firm was a part of it.…

Before I explain what to do if arrested in China, I should set out the following “whys” behind this post: Foreigners get arrested overseas all the time. Not just in China. Foreigners get arrested all the time in China, for all sorts of things, including for things that would be crimes in countries like Canada and Denmark. Foreigners get arrested all the time in China, for all sorts of things, including for things that would…

International distribution contracts are the new black and this is a good thing. I estimate that the international lawyers at our firm will have done about double the number of international distribution contracts in 2018 than in 2017. I see this increase due in large part to companies better realizing that doing business in a foreign country by setting up a company in that country (be it a wholly owned subsidiary or a joint…

https://youtu.be/LlyOom0bwwY Yesterday, in Would the Last Foreign Company in China Please Turn Off the Lights: A Sort of Part 2, I wrote about a Wall Street Journal article on foreigners are leaving China. In that post, I discussed the recent arrest of Meng Wanzhou and Chinese government threats by the Chinese government against the United States and Canada for that arrest. A lot has been written about how China may retaliate against US and…

Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap We gotta get out while we’re young Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run     From Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen About a month ago, I wrote what I will now call Part 1 of this series: Would the Last Company Manufacturing in China Please Turn Off the Lights. After…

It is fairly easy for China-based employees to leave their employment. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding an employee’s departure/termination, China employers must issue a proof of termination of employment relationship document to the departing employee. It is generally not possible for a China employer to hold the employee to specific performance by making the employee come back work or continue working. Sometimes it is possible for the employer to pursue the departing employee for contract…

Our China lawyers are often asked about the steps it takes to form a China WFOE. So often, in fact, that we long along drafted a stock response to that question. Figuring this response would be helpful to you-all, our faithful readers, I am running it below. Please note that the below is a generic roadmap for WFOE formation and the exact details for forming a WFOE in China will depend on, among other things,…