China – Perspectives

Luo-Ho District Mall in Shenzhen, China

Why not? Thousands of people do. A few years ago when I started looking at China for business opportunities I started to look with my American corporate business trained eyes, after some research I learned that there are many ways in which foreigners can do business in China. I say after a while because getting precise information on rules, laws and regulations can be as difficult as getting directions in Chinese-English on how to get from point “A” to point “B” in downtown Beijing.

China is literally writing commerce law as we speak, many laws are not only not existent yet, but the ones that exists are left to interpretation at local levels and many lawyers are actually ex-army people who are given an honorary degree. Most Chinese citizens simply laugh when you ask about incorporation laws, tax laws, banking rules, etc. Now make no mistake, the central government has it’s ways of making sense of all this chaos. For example banks are required to report an all bank transactions involving foreign entities to the central government, thus making very difficult for foreigners to do anything different than what the current rules will allow with the added complexity of the local interpretation. This later fact can lead to disasters if the central government interpretation differs from the local one. (more…)

From iPods to the latest Nokia phones - Copies.

Before coming to China I had many friends ask me to figure out what products we could sell to the fast growing consumer population in China. Much to my dismay and everyone else’s, my answer as I started to report back was; nothing! absolutely nothing!.. they have everything, every brand , every product, even in the poorest of neighborhoods!

Well, at least a copy of everything!

It is absolutely true that the Chinese government is trying very hard to control and implement systems to monitor the infringement of design and utility patents, copyrights and intellectual property, but it is also true that it is an uphill battle. The “copy” manufacturers  are not selectively focused on American brands, in fact they copy one another all the time. I have looked at many innovative products in China which are not copied from the Japanese or the USA or European manufacturers, but from their own neighbors in Dongguan or Shanghai or a few blocks away. (more…)