China Hearsay
China law, business and economics commentary



Smells a Lot Like Import Substitution (Mar 11)
Import substitution industrialization (also called ISI) is a trade and economic policy based on the premise that a country should attempt to reduce its foreign dependency through the local production of industrialized products. (Wiki) During the past six months or so, one of the big themes in foreign investment circles has been the extent to which [...]


China Bank Exec Pay Limits – Some Details Emerge (Mar 11)
I wrote about this topic a while back on china/divide, explaining that although China was seriously looking into compensation limits for bank executives, there were serious problem in moving ahead with comprehensive rules: [B]anks are not independent institutions in China and, at least in the past, were specifically referred to as “policy banks,” since they were [...]


Is HP the New Toyota? (Mar 10)
Potentially some tough times ahead for HP in China, at least in the short term. The problem: bad Nvidia graphics cards in some laptops. Sorry, gamers. I assume that HP has a good relationship with a PR firm used to handling crisis management in China. The photo is from a 2009 Greenpeace protest against HP last [...]


Restructuring of China’s Book Publishing Industry: No News Here for Foreign Investors (Mar 9)
Perhaps a poor choice of headlines from the Financial Times on this book publishing story. “China to Loosen Control of Book Publishing,” at least to me, suggests that the State might start allowing in foreign investors. Bad assumption on my part. Looks like a restructuring for business reasons, the usual pattern whereby a domestic monolith is [...]


Lubman on China Judicial Reform and the Problem of Public Pressure (Mar 9)
Stanley Lubman’s latest China law article on judicial reform is as usual a must-read for the China law set, not to mention business types who need to be aware of legal trends here. The article covers not only specific influences on judicial activity (e.g. when a Party official influences a particular case because of politics [...]


China’s Recent Graduate Unemployment Problem (Mar 8)
How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm once they seen Karl Hungus. –The Dude, The Big Lebowski The New York Times just published a discussion on unemployment among recent college grads, asking a variety of experts what their take on the subject was and what some of the causes might be. The basic supply-and-demand problem: In 1999, [...]


Avatar Copyright Dispute Fun and Games (Mar 7)
Pandoran Concerned About Protection of Indigenous Innovation First off, this lawsuit threat is kind of a joke, so if you’re looking for a substantive post on China IPR issues, best to go elsewhere (just for today – please come back another time). OK, now that all those serious-minded folk are gone, we can have some fun. [...]


Anti-Monopoly Law: New Guidance for China’s State Sector (Mar 7)
One of the big questions hanging out there since the adoption of the Anti-monopoly Law (AML) a couple years ago has been the treatment of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the regulation of the State sector. One of the pillars of competition law is to promote fair competition, and monopolies and monopolistic conduct often runs counter [...]


Bullet to the Back of the Head Out, Community Corrections In (Mar 6)
This year . . . a total of 180,000 convicts spent Lantern Festival, which fell last Sunday, at home rather than in jail, thanks to the community correction program. China started to trial run the program in 2003 in Beijing and Shanghai, then extended it to 27 provinces. Having fulfilled their compulsory education and services, offenders on [...]


Asian Foreign Relations Model? I Don’t Think So (Mar 5)
I find this article mildly annoying: Is there an “Asian way” to resolving global challenges? The conventional answer is no. But elements of an Asian way are gradually emerging. Given Asia’s growing influence, the world should pay attention – and may have much to gain. The key to understanding Asian approaches is their pragmatism. Asians constantly adapt [...]