Reflections on lucky 08
January 14, 2009 by Chinatex
Disclaimer: There is no legal information or advice in the following blawg so please don’t expect any free information from Chinatex.
2008 was an interesting year in China. It began with migrant workers and many others stranded at the bus and train stations prior to the New Year holiday. Not merely thousands of people, but millions. Imagine a million people stuck at Chicago O’Hare and the toilets, that’s why I always fly through SFO. China mobilized the police and the army and the railroad tracks and highways were cleared of ice and snow and people got on their way, but it could have been way worse than Katrina. Here is a pic of people waiting to buy tickets in Beijing just to give you an idea of the size of the annual migration.
I was thinking that maybe we should use our army to help our own people in the U.S. during natural disasters. But it’s probably a silly idea. It was really cold here in sub-tropical China, even the palm trees were frozen, in addition to my hands and feet and nose - which has to stick out from under the covers to breathe. You can’t get warm in south China in the winter as we don’t have heat in the houses because of global warming or because they can save some money by not including much needed heat! Concrete and cinder block are excellent insulators – imagine living inside of a refrigerator for a month. It’s been a low of 7 degrees for a few weeks. I still don’t know how cold that is, the whole Celsius thing, but I could hang meat in my apartment.
Anyway, shortly after everyone returned to their jobs from the New Year holiday and began thawing out from the winter, China had an earthquake in Sichuan province. Official estimates place the death toll at more than 200,000 people. I can’t remember how many died on 9-11, maybe 1% of that number? Mother nature, the ultimate terrorist. Once again the army came in and did their best to help everyone, and Premier Wen went to the site and implored those still stuck in the rubble to hold on. This reminded me of when Dick Cheney went down to New Orleans and……. or was that Texas, and shot his friend while hunting.
Then to make things even more difficult for this tiny little up and coming country, people tried to mess with the Olympic torch relay. ”Crazies with nothing else to do”, as my mother would say, tried to put out the torch with a fire extinguisher. Little did they know that the torch is made at the same factory as those trick birthday cake candles that I hated as a kid. Little did they know that their efforts would only galvanize a little up and coming nation of close to 2 billion people. They even borrowed my home’s slogan, “Don’t Mess With China”.
Then, on 8-8-08, an auspiciously lucky day, and after all the bad press and nonsense that China had to endure, the Olympics kicked off with a bang.The acclaimed director Zhang Yimou gave the world the most incredible opening ceremony ever and Steven Spielberg, who quit the team early on was given a schooling on how things are done. Wow!, the opening ceremony was like nothing I had ever seen and made me share a pride for this country that I have felt for mine during similar events. I had the pleasure of going to the Water Cube and the Birds Nest and even watching Phelps break a couple of world records and I even got to watch the closing ceremony at Hooters in Beijing with 20 cute little hooterless girls and a bunch of cool Chinese friends.
Then in late September Old Chinatex had an accident and broke his neck, and a few other bones. While it hurt, I wasn’t stuck under a collapsed school nor did I lose my only child in the earthquake. In fact, I was lucky because during my time lying on the cement, in the hospitals and even after, I had many friends and family look out for me, take care of me and just be good friends. I even had clients come and visit me and not one of them pulled the plug!! That’s a lawyer joke for any of you without lawyers. An accident like I had, puts everything in perspective and gives you a dose of reality that no matter how crazy this world is, and it is indeed, if we have family and friends we have it all – except for heat in sub-tropical China.
Then, while I was recovering from my accident and only two weeks out of the hospital, my friend’s sailboat Authority, won the HKPN class of the second China Cup Regatta. I wasn’t able to crew but I brought KFC and beers everyday after they finished and ours was the funnest boat in the marina. All in all Authority, which was sponsored by the great people at Thinkpad, won all but one race, collected 3 trophies including 1st place overall in it’s class. I was happy to be part of a great crew and make new friends. Here’s a picture of Team Thinkpad accepting the first place trophy. 
So now I sit in my refrigerator during another obvioius example of global warming – “can somebody tell me why we still have winter?” – and freeze my emaciated ass off. I can’t find an outlet for the heater. There is only one in the entire living room, another obvious effort to save 3 Yuan (about 50 cents or .30 euros for those of you in Macedonia). So i stare at the heater and ask it if it is feeling as cold as me, it doesn’t respond. I imagine the Titanic floating across the top of my coffee – “near, far, wherever you are….”
It’s a slow time for news in China as everyone prepares for the Lunar New Year holiday and the rest of the world reels from a global economic meltdown. I’ll share developments from the jungle as they arise. For now, I hope everyone has safe and warm travels, can stop to appreciate their family and friends and has as great a 2009 as I had in 2008.
Yeeeha!! Chinatex
The PRD
January 8, 2009 by Chinatex
I was wondering if the phenomenon of speaking about oneself in the first person is limited to U.S. athletes or if it happens in other countries where I can’t understand what they are saying, like the English Premier League. The reason I was thinking this is because Chinatex told y’all (you all) last year that changes were in the future for the Pearl River Delta (PRD). The PRD is basically southern China consisting of Guangdong province, Macau and Hong Kong and has been called the world’s factory. Just drive or take the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and you will know what old Chinatex means. Anyway, Chinatex told you that the new labor laws and changes in foreign investment rules and cross border capital flow were just the foundation for big things in the PRD and that easier and cheaper trade is the goal. Maybe even free trade and elimination of VAT and other duties. Now, Chinatex doesn’t have a direct line to the policy makers, but these articles below will give you an idea of what’s to come. For those of you planning to enter China and those of us already in the PRD, Chinatex can only imagine the possibilities. Yee ha! Chinatex
PRD repositioned as China’s ‘reform test field’
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-08 11:30
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-01/08/content_7379716.htm
Pearl River Delta, the former vanguard of China’s economic reform, will stand to be the new test field for the country to deepen economic reform and open itself wider to the outside world, the country’s top economic planner said Thursday. Under a plan released Thursday by the National Development and Reform Commission, the delta together with Hong Kong and Macao will be forged into “a globally competitive” and “the most vigorous area in the Asia-Pacific region” by 2020.
Beijing reveals blueprint for delta’s economic growth |
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The central government has for the first time outlined a long-term development blueprint for economic co-operation and interaction in the Pearl River Delta region among Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong.Speaking at a media briefing on reform and development of the Pearl River Delta until 2020, Du Ying, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, also revealed that the central government would provide 5 billion yuan (HK$5.68 billion) towards the cost of building a bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai.
Mr Du said the funding was unprecedented and construction would begin this year. Under the plan, the Pearl River Delta would become “globally competitive” and the “most vigorous area in the Asia-Pacific region” by 2020. “We believe that further strengthening of close co-operation among Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong is a prerequisite for overcoming the difficulties of the current economic crisis and realising new development,” Mr Du said. He said the plan was a comprehensive and complete strategy for the enhancement of economic co-operation among the three regions. Under the plan, Guangdong “will pursue convergence with Hong Kong and Macau in terms of urban planing, rail transit networks, information networks, energy base networks and urban water supply”. It also calls for accelerated construction of cross-border transport and infrastructure projects. The development plan aimed to strengthen industrial co-operation and explore co-operation in education, culture, health care and social security. Mr Du said the delta, once in the vanguard of the mainland’s capitalist economic reforms, would continue in its role as a test bed for the country’s deepening reforms and opening to the outside world. Guangdong’s economic output exceeded that of Taiwan in 2007 for the first time, topping 3.06 trillion yuan (US$448 billion), representing one-eighth of the mainland’s total, he said. The province surpassed Singapore and Hong Kong in 1998 and 2003, respectively. However, Huang Longyun, Guangdong’s executive vice-governor, said at the same briefing that provincial economic growth slowed sharply last year as exports plunged amid the global downturn, closing factories and sparking an exodus of migrant workers. Growth in provincial gross domestic product slowed to 10.1 per cent in 2008 from 14.7 per cent a year earlier, while export growth tumbled to 5.6 per cent last year from 22.3 per cent in 2007, he said. “The situation is grim,” Mr Huang said. Mr Huang said 62,400 companies in the province went out of business last year. Most were small firms in the delta in traditional industries. As a result, about 600,000 migrant workers had left the province. |
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Be careful what you eat!!
January 6, 2009 by Chinatex
Following is an article that appeared in the Shenzhen English language newspaper, the Shenzhen Daily. You can find the article at: http://paper.sznews.com/szdaily/20090107/ca2907434.htm
These stories appear frequently in all media outlets here in China, and while it would be reckless to say that this type of behavior is indicative of business in China, I do believe that it is a reflection of the thought process of many business people here. If you think that this is confined between Chinese companies, you would be mistaken. I’ll let you reach your own conclusion concerning this article with only one small comment below. It can be the wild east. Yeeha!! Chinatex
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Four Sentenced for Mass Food Poisoning 2008年01月07日 07:38 Shenzhen Daily |
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FOUR people received sentences Monday ranging from 15 years to the death penalty for deliberately poisoning food at a snack bar, killing two diners and sickening 63 others early last year. The sentenced include a private business owner, a former manager of the Hong Kong-listed BYD Co. and two migrants. This is a company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange! Zhu Yuanlin, a 33-year-old businessman, was convicted of masterminding the poisoning to pressure the local government into demolishing a booming marketplace that had left his own stores in the same neighborhood with few customers. Zhu was sentenced to life imprisonment. The court said Zhu bribed BYDs human resources manager Zhang Zhenhua with 500,000 yuan (US$73,137) to help him get rid of the marketplace. Zhu and Zhang agreed that massive food poisoning at the eateries would force the government to demolish the market. Zhang sent his friend Ke Bizhi, a migrant worker, to buy sodium nitrite, and Wang Yingde, another migrant, sneaked into the snack bar early Feb. 23 to add the chemical to the food. All 65 people who had lunch at the food stall were poisoned. Most of the victims were employees of BYD. A 21-year-old man and a woman of 18 died. Zhang got 15 years, while Wang and Ke received the death penalty. The court said Zhang was given a lenient sentence because he helped police seize Ke. All the convicted except Zhang said they would appeal. (Windy Shao) |
Courts in China
January 5, 2009 by Chinatex
Below is a current article from the China Daily. It is interesting and hopefully can help clarify the differences between western, especially U.S., and the Chinese judiciary. I have bolded the major points and added my comments. Yeeha! Chinatex
Busy year on cards for courts
By Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily) Updated: 2009-01-06 07:38
Courts in Beijing will handle more economic cases this year, as the number of companies affected by the global financial crisis continues to grow, the city’s top judge said yesterday. Speaking at an annual work conference in the capital, Chi Qiang, president of the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court, said: “Cases related to finance, real estate, bankruptcy, company liquidations and foreign-related economic cases will increase significantly this year.
“There will also be a rise in the number of cases involving labor disputes.” Yes there will be as more businesses restructure and more hungry Chinese lawyers pursue litigation against deep pocketed employers on behalf of their clients.
Last year, Beijing courts handled 23,055 cases involving loan contract disputes, up 25 percent on 2007; 13,392 labor disputes, up 75 percent; and 84 bankruptcy cases, up 83 percent. They also ruled on more than 30 cases involving the transfer of financial bonds worth 900 million yuan ($132 million).
“In all future cases, courts must keep in mind the need to prevent the loss of State assets, maintain stability in the financial markets, and protect the legal rights and interests of investors,” Chi said. Note the first goal of the courts who are under strict direction from the government. This is a significant difference in the legal system and if you are even contemplating litigation you should be aware going in that the rules and objectives are different.
With the property market in decline, there will also be an increase in the number of disputes between building contractors and loan providers, he said.
“In dealing with these cases, we must put the protection of workers’ rights and interests foremost, and hand down due punishments to those who offer fake mortgages, prolong the payment of wages, or fail to pay their dues,” he said.
Cases involving disputes over labor contracts should also be handled in a balanced way to protect the interests of both sides, Chi said. Bottom line here is to make sure you have legal and enforceable labor contracts with your employees. This will go a long way in ensuring that there is real balance.
With the number of labor dispute cases expected to rise again this year, a Beijing lawyer has called for all those involved to practice caution and show patience. “Under the law, such firms are obliged to compensate workers, but if they are unable to do so immediately, employees should try to understand the situation and, in some cases, accept delayed payments,” Qiu said.
In summarizing last year’s achievements, Chi said Beijing’s courts had done an excellent job in helping to maintain social order while also promoting scientific developments related to the hosting of the Olympics.
Over the year, courts handled 520 cases involving the construction of Olympic venues, road projects, house relocations and intellectual property right issues linked to such things as the Games’ logos and the Fuwa mascots, he said.
Happy Niu (New) Year
January 4, 2009 by Chinatex
Hello and Happy Niu Year. Niu is the romanized spelling of Cow or Ox and since it is the year of the Ox, it seems appropriate. Having just returned to China from an extended stay in my home state of Texas, we are now all getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year on the 26th of January. It is indeed the year of the Ox and let’s hope that the world will follow with a bullish year.
Please be patient as we make our website more useful and informative. We will be adding blog posts and information as laws and situations change here in China – and it does almost on a daily basis. Good luck with your business in 2009.
As always, yeeha!!! Chinatex
