At Tuesday’s Senate hearing on Internet censorship, someone in the press asked Google VP and Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong about an action against the Chinese government at the World Trade Organization. Well, the press (again) has taken the bait and is talking about the possibility. The Financial Times kicks their coverage off with this [...]
Yeah, I still have last night’s “Red Scare in Southern California” post in my mind. Crazy bastards. Hint: the following post does not contain a single original thought or concept but is a rant. If you are looking for something meatier and more thought-provoking, try this out instead (it’s about pornography, so you’ll have that [...]
Happy Yuan Xiao Jie to everyone. I’m sitting here eating Yuan Xiao, listening to the last of the fireworks, and of course thinking about China intellectual property law. Doesn’t everyone? Paul Midler has a great post up on a couple possible cases of China trademark infringement. He correctly calls the first as a fairly solid [...]
Right. Well, I was planning on doing this anyway, but since the earthquake and the great efforts made not only by the local blogging community, but also by the Twitterati, I have decided to take the plunge and do a bit of micro-posting on Twitter. Just went live today and already integrated all of this [...]
I’ve been out of commission for a bit (from a blogging standpoint), but first thing’s first. Below is some information I received this morning at work (DLA Piper) regarding a couple of charitable organizations we work with, and the ways we/you can donate to earthquake relief. There are also lots of other groups out there [...]
Almost missed this nugget of info in the news. Shanghai Hongqiao Airport has gained government approval for its 13.93-billion yuan (US$1.99 billion) expansion project. The National Development and Reform Commission approved the addition of a 3,300-meter-long, 60-meter-wide runway and a 364,000-square-meter terminal to boost annual capacity to 40 million passengers. For the record, this airport [...]
A central element of China’s unconventional development strategy has been industrial policies aimed at building domestic capabilities in sophisticated industries, though whether these have succeeded remains controversial. As currency reform and global economic malaise have hit parts of the Chinese manufacturing sector, there has been a great deal of discussion of where things are headed. [...]
Strange days recently. The big news in the last 48 hours or so has been the rumors of expats being attacked by unruly mobs. This is competing, of course, with the other bombshell in the press, the looming potash crisis. The latter is understandably freaking out everyone far and wide. OK – on a serious [...]
Just found this entertaining. Who said that Americans have a lock on frivolous litigation? A group of Chinese lawyers is suing CNN over the remarks made by commentator Jack Cafferty. One of the 14 lawyers of the Beijing-based group told a Hong Kong newspaper that Cafferty’s remarks "seriously violated and abused the reputation and dignity [...]
The president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, Joerg Wuttke, said any large-scale boycott would likely hurt Chinese workers and companies and could be met by similar action against Chinese products in Europe. "This kind of thing is a slippery slope downhill. Once you start talking about boycotts, there will always be [...]
From Variety (yes, I guess I’m reading Variety these days): Yang Tingting, a 21-year-old student from the Beijing U. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has won a short film competition about respecting copyright issues run by the MPA, the organizers of the 15th Beijing Student Film Festival and the China Film Copyright Protection Assn. Entries were [...]
China’s new draft food safety law, which lays out penalties from fines to life in prison for makers of substandard food, was published on the national legislature website on Sunday for public discussion. Members of the public are being invited to make recommendations and submissions on the draft published at the National People’s Congress (NPC) [...]
Great article in Asia Times on energy and changing geopolitics. This is not a news piece, but a nice digestible article summarizing some current energy-related trends and how things will progress in the next few decades. The author, Michael Klare, gives us five "key forces" for the new energy-influenced world order: 1. Intense competition between [...]
Yes, instead of vegetating on the sofa yesterday, I spent my afternoon at the Franchise Expo, which is put on by the China Chainstore and Franchise Association. For those of you who do not get excited by the terms "area development," "royalty structure," and "master franchisor," this may not have been the event for you. [...]
From China Esquire: China has been trying to crack down on intellectual property violations for some time now. (a friend of mine used to do this sort of stuff for a living and he has some exciting stories) That being said, it seems that to the west (and not just America), China can never win. [...]
Here’s something a bit on the practical side. I wrote so much about how the international media and U.S. politicians have been bashing China this week that I thought I should end on some real lawyer-type commentary. That way, I can ensure that my readership plummets precipitously going into the weekend. Anyway, here goes. Been [...]
"You can’t do that for free," he says, referring to healthcare and other programs, "and you can’t take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children and our grandchildren," he says, referring to McCain’s plans. This is Obama speaking (h/t Politico), trying to use China (again) as a [...]
Inflation and economic growth have slowed slightly in China as price controls have limited the cost of many essentials and exports to the United States have weakened, the Chinese government announced Wednesday. But the latest figures, for inflation in March and for economic output in the first quarter, also showed that prices were still rising [...]
A bit of a change of pace for China Briefing, but certainly a welcome one. Gotta love history factoid posts, and after reading this article, I am ready for the cocktail party circuit, where I can wow the crowd with my encyclopedic knowledge of Chinese financial history. Seriously, this is cool shit, complete with pics [...]
Yesterday, I posed the question whether the U.S. FDA had the resources to adequately conduct inspections over here in China. Here is one opinion, and it’s a negative one: The FDA is overburdened and underfunded; it has trouble policing domestic pharmaceutical companies adequately. So how does the government and pharmaceutical companies think they can adequately [...]