Investment Law in China In 2016, China’s government passed a new foreign investment law (the Foreign Invested Enterprises Law) designed to make the PRC a more attractive environment for foreign investors.  In connection with this new law, the Chinese government, through the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), also issued new regulations regarding the formation and registration […]

China Employment Law and Employee Handbooks In many Western countries, written employee handbooks have been standard practice for most employers for decades. These handbooks provide a uniform set of guidelines that the employer follows in terms of employee dress codes, vacation policies, procedures and grounds regarding discipline and termination of employees, and a whole host […]

Do you need help withdrawing your business from China? Although it may seem sheer lunacy to some due to the rapid growth of the Chinese economy in recent decades, particularly with its status as the world’s second largest economy, some iconic Western brands have found themselves unable to achieve any success in the Chinese market. This […]

China Independent Contractor Lawyers As its economy has evolved China’s labor laws have also evolved.  While independent contractors, an increasingly common trend in the United States and Japan, the world’s first and third largest economies, respectively, continue to embrace this model with increasing enthusiasm, this labor model has not taken off in the same way […]

Franchising American restaurants in China was recently in the news amid reports that fast food giant McDonald’s has sold its mainland China and Hong Kong businesses to a consortium between the state-owned Chinese conglomerate Citic and the American private equity giant Carlyle Group for $2.03 billion. Among the key points of the deal was that […]

Under Chinese law, every company must have a legal representative when starting a company or opening a new business in the PRC.  A company’s legal representative is the individual who serves as the legal embodiment of the company’s interests for purposes of the Chinese government.  His or her name appears on the company’s business license […]

Many foreign businesses are reluctant to register their brand name into Chinese, assuming that the brand will be recognizable, distinctive, and protected by one trademark filing. In reality, it is critical to ensure that the trademark name is also registered in Chinese. To begin with, it is important to understand that if the trademark is […]

Much of the world, China included, is in shock over the recent election of billionaire property developer and TV reality shows mogul Donald J. Trump in the United States.  All of the pre-election polls, and even many of the leaders of Mr. Trump’s own Republican Party themselves, had written him off going into this past […]

The Companies Law of the People’s Republic of China requires that all foreign-owned corporate entities have a registered physical address in China.  However, many foreign investors have gambled (and lost) that Chinese authorities will not catch on if they simply use an inappropriate address (whether it be a virtual office or an address that has […]