China Hearsay
China law, business and economics commentary



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 [...]


China Rule of Law: the Latest From Jerome Cohen (Mar 4)
China law guru extraordinaire Jerome Cohen’s latest on China and the Rule of Law is a slight departure from the usual. He goes off on a rather unexpected tangent to discuss the latest scandal with the Governor of New York (Paterson, not Spitzer). Cohen uses the Paterson scandal to show that even someone as powerful as [...]


Toyota Losing the China Messaging War on Recalls (Mar 4)
It was bad enough when Akio Toyoda, in response to a question about differing quality standards on cars sold in China as opposed to those sold in the U.S. or Japan, used a bizarre and inappropriate analogy to a popular tofu dish. The question really should have been addressed head on, since it seems that [...]


Google, China & the WTO: Financial Times Brings the Stupid (Mar 4)
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 tagline: If [...]