China Business & Law Posts

Mar242012

Posted By
Shlomo

5 (+1) major Job trends in China that should alert you

The latest Gallup survey says that Americans are more pessimistic about their job market while Chinese are more optimistic about theirs. Therefore, it’s a good time to understand the latest job trends in the Chinese job market and see if there is real reason for these results.

Trend #1 – Naked Quitting

As many as 30-40% of Chinese young people are actually leaving their jobs without finding a new position first. This is interesting because the job market in China is very competitive, and thus it wouldn’t seem like the wisest choice. Young Chinese do it anyway!

In such a competitive market one would expect people to hold their jobs, but a growing number of young Chinese choose differently. They are not willing to compromise for a low paying job or one they don’t like.

Dec262011

15Comments

Posted By
Ryan

From Foreign Friends to Foreign Felons – new law wants your foreign fingerprints

Because living in China didn’t feel uneasy enough, a new draft law currently under review will require any foreigners staying longer than 6 months in China to have their fingerprints taken by the Entry & Exit Bureau and kept on file.

China Daily: Foreigners who stay in China for more than six months will be required to give their fingerprints to local police when applying for residence certificates, according to a draft law submitted to the top legislature on Monday.

The draft law on the management of the exit and entry of personnel also empowers the ministries of public security and foreign affairs to decide if a foreigner should leave their fingerprints or other human biological characteristics when they enter China.

Dec042011

57Comments

Posted By
Ryan

One Child Policy — the great pro-life/pro-choice unifier?

A recent submission over at the Hao Hao Report has stirred up a bit of conversation about China’s One-Child Policy (OCP) and specifically an American organization that strongly opposes it.

For most of my life the OCP debate was completely absent in my daily dialog. I don’t know that I ever gave it a moment’s thought before coming to China. Living here though, and watching as China-centric headlines increasingly fill Western news cycles, it’s a topic that repeatedly finds its way into my thoughts — particularly now that I’ve filled my quota.

In the reverse, prior to leaving North American soil, the great Pro-Choice/Pro-Life battle regularly found its way into my readings, discussions and thoughts. Since coming to China, not so much.

The Pro-Life/Pro-Choice discourse, in my admittedly limited understanding, primarily boils down to a Religion vs. Liberty debate. The religious feel that it is murder to have an abortion, and the libertarians believe women should have the decision to do what they wish to their body. What I find interesting is that the All Girls Allowed organization mentioned above, and others like it, while being aligned with the ‘pro-life’ camp, are primarily forwarding an argument of liberty: The OCP is immoral because it forces women to murder their unborn babies. It removes choice, and not for a fetus (as I’m sure someone is just itching to poke a hole in my description with), but specifically for the women involved. They are pro-choice.

Nov162011

12Comments

Posted By
Ryan

Doin’ time: how to end up in a Chinese jail

iLook China recently ran a guest post by Lionel Carver (no idea if that’s a pseudonym or not), which details the writer’s experience being a guest of the government in a Chinese jail.

Subtitled with “A Cautionary Tale for Expats in China“, I was curious to read both what Carver endured and, perhaps most voyeuristically, what he did to get there.

His description of the long boring days (all eight of them), spartan comforts, and brief brush with man-on-man-on-man action were not without their charms. However, throughout the telling, I was finding it hard not to feel like Lionel got exactly what he asked for.

Nov092011

9Comments

Posted By
Marian

Paying Taxes

I’m trying to be a good citizen or resident or businesswoman or whatever you want to call me.

I figure I use the things that tax money buys. I use the roads and the street lights at night. I use the parks and the heavily subsidized public transportation.

So I figure it’s only right that I ought to pay taxes.

My tax rate really isn’t all that high.

In fact, my accountant’s monthly fee to file my taxes is more than my taxes are most months. And that’s before the accountant plays around with numbers on forms so that I can be billed less.

Point of fact, however, avoiding paying my taxes is significantly easier than paying my taxes.

Sep202011

3Comments

Posted By
Michael

Gift Recycling: China’s Not-So-Underground Economy

As China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival this past week, countless gifts were exchanged by friends, families, and co-workers in homes and offices all across the country. In the days following the festival, many gifts changed hands once again, this time behind store counters and in narrow back alleys. These second exchanges were part of a [...]

Feb092011

6Comments

Posted By
Ryan

Nearly half of luxury handbag market from purse-carrying Chinese men

I was the first of my friends to jump on the man-bag fashion-wagon. Despite the constant “murse-wearing” ribbing I took, and the defensive protests that it’s not a “European carryall“; there’s no denying the practicality of not having to load all your modern man-gear into your pockets.

That is to say, I’m quite open to the concept of a man with a purse-like device. Being “practical” is manly, even in heels and a dress. But upon moving to China, I noticed that the men of the Middle Kingdom take things to a whole new level. There were some ground-rules to murse-wearing in the West: it shouldn’t be fancy; if it wasn’t on your back, most of it should rest below your hips; think more Indy than Cindy; and the width of its strap was inversely proportional to its level of femininity.

Chinese men seemed, by comparison, to have quite literally “clutched” on to metrosexualism in a more drastic way. Seeing men walking around with designer purses that looked perfectly suited to carry a tampon and a compact just seemed bizarre.

Dec302010

24Comments

Posted By
Ryan

Using Skype in China becoming illegal

Usually I love living in China, thirstily drinking the kool-aid that this place is changing for the better, improving a little bit every day. Sure it has its warts, but compared to 5 years ago, 15 years ago, 35 years ago… it’s definitely improving — right?

Then Youtube gets blocked, Facebook and Twitter follow, as do pretty much all major UGC/SMS sites. Ok, ok, it’s a complete pain in the ass, seems totally backwards and is making the country look more like its paranoid DPRK neighbours than a major player on the world stage. But maybe things were getting a little too out of hand with free speach 2.0, and the whole system needed to be throttled a bit to keep Zhongnanhai comfortable with modernization.

But this is just getting ridiculous:

Shanghai Daily: The Chinese regulator has declared Internet phone services other than those provided by China Telecom and China Unicom as illegal, which is expected to make services like Skype unavailable in the country.

Oct162009

5Comments

Posted By
Rick

On Trusted Laowai Voices

While taking a break from my usual browsing of lolcats and youtube videos, I stumbled across this post by Shaun Rein entitled How to Deal with Piracy in China. I’m not especially familiar with Rein*, but once I ascertained that he was a businessman in China for the long haul, I felt that I could pretty accurately predict where his article was going.

This notion of predictability got me to thinking about something I had read from Paul Denlinger a few days back:

Feb082009

NoComments

Posted By
Ryan

Would the real Chris Devonshire-Ellis please stand up

NOTICE: Unfortunately, due to threats of legal action by Chris Devonshire-Ellis, this post and its comments have been taken down. Though I am confident that the contents of the article are not in any way libelous, as Ellis claims, his threats did not limit themselves to seeking a court decision on whether or not they [...]