Just recently a poor guy from Europe called me for advice and help regarding his being stopped from leaving China. The client is a director of a European company that is engaged in trading business with sellers in Shanghai. He came to Shanghai as a representative of its company in dealing with their business. The plaintiff is a Shanghai local company that purchases goods as per orders issued by this client [ Read More ]
Child custody is a very often the most focal point in the divorce proceeding where the breaking couple both want to take custody of their children. For foreigner women married to Chinese men in China, divorcing itself is unendurable pain given that they are in a foreign country where they don’t have much family bond or friendship around them except the person they are leaving; if they further lose the [ Read More ]
One of my corporate clients for whom I have been providing outside legal counsel service in regard to labor laws or employment laws recently put forward another interesting problem before me. It is always a pleasure to research on a new legal topic and find a solution for it. Here is the situation: this foreign invested company is headquartered in Shanghai but it has a branch (not a subsidiary) in [ Read More ]
I am referring to foreign exchange accounts not RMB account (foreigners are allowed to open RMB accounts in China just as Chinese citizens). Currently, there are two options for foreign entities or legal persons (body corporates) when they wish to open a foreign exchange account in China. 1. Offshore Account Back in 1998, China has started its offshore banking business with some designated banks in China by allowing these banks [ Read More ]
By the title, I am referring to the procedures for foreign investors (companies) launching manufacturing projects in China, either by sino-foreign joint ventures or WFOEs (wholly foreign owned enterprise). I talk about greenfield investment projects in which land shall have to be purchased and developed according to the specific needs of such projects. 1. Choosing the land/premises/site for your project Land shall be decided in the first place for industrial [ Read More ]
Foreign investors that wish to shift their manufacturing base to China will be very keen to know how the industrial land can be obtained in China. A side product of buying instead of leasing industrial land is that over time the land will for sure appreciate in value. In our law firm, lawyers representing different clients often post information regarding purchasing industrial land in Shanghai. Shanghai has already seen a [ Read More ]
[NOTE, this is an old article written by Jason Tian back in 2009 based on his experience in helping foreigners in Shanghai purchase their homes here. Unfortunately, this article has been plagiarized by some other Chinese lawyers in Shanghai.Here this article is updated pursuant to new development after 2009. Please also take note that I am not encouraging purchase of Chinese properties at this time as I personally think Chinese [ Read More ]
I just happened to read another article posted at China Briefing website (click here for details of the post) regarding pre-nuptial agreements and inheritance issues in China. There is nothing wrong about the contents of the article as it was written in accordance with rules and laws effective and applicable then. However, when we examine the article based on the latest laws related to the subject matter there, we will find [ Read More ]
Just ran across an interesting article posted on Economist website (click here for the whole article), depicting the pains and complexity surrounding cross-border inheritance. It is true indeed, in particular if China is involved in the case of inheritance of estates in China by foreigners. Jurisdictions Dealing with the belongings of the dead is a grim job, but trickiest when they cross borders. Two or more jurisdictions may claim the [ Read More ]
I was approached for advice by a foreigner in regard of his contemplated divorce in China with his wife who is also a foreigner. The facts of the case are: the couple, the husband from USA and the wife from East Asia, got married outside of China; the husband has been working in a Chinese city for more than 3 years, establishing his domicile in China under the Chinese civil procedures [ Read More ]
Enactment of the Labor Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter “Labor Contract Law”) has very much changed the landscape of employer and employee relationships in Chinese workplaces. One of the most strongly felt pains is the inability for employers to dismiss unwanted employees as the Labor Contract Law has substantially restricted the circumstances in which an employer can legally fire their employees. The only leeway for employers [ Read More ]
China has never been integrated with the world so extensively and so deeply as it is today. For the last three decades, China has been welcoming and hosting foreign investors and business people at home, and now more and more Chinese investors and business people are making their roads into foreign countries over the globe. Either way, there is an important legal cause in their deal contracts to be negotiated [ Read More ]
With the view to standing in line with central government with respect to stabilizing property market, Shanghai government unveiled its rules in implementing the order issued by China cabinet on Feb 26 this year. The main points of the Shanghai Rules are as follows: (1) Shanghai focuses much on the banking credit policies. It asks its subordinate departments and district governments to strengthen the examination and approval for credit extended [ Read More ]
Chinese official statistics on foreign investment in China have indicated that Hong Kong has been the biggest source of inbound foreign investment in the mainland China. But why is it Hong Kong? In addition to the common advantages of having an offshore structure (an SPV or a pass-through entity), namely, easier transfer of equity interests in the Chinese entity, better financing access and higher appraisal of Chinese assets, the decisive [ Read More ]
Apparently China central government is seeing a clear uprise of property prices throughout the country. Just today, China state council issued a new notice ordering its subordinate governments to implement seriously the existing policies that are aimed to rein in the property market, and meanwhile, stepping up a new measure of cooling policy, namely, enforcing the individual income tax rate of 20% on the difference of the purchase and sale [ Read More ]
I have written a quite comprehensive post explaining the concept of legal representative of a Chinese company (click here for details). Just recently, a new instance of foreigners being banned from leaving China prompted me to remind expat employees in China of the risk of loss of freedom for serving as legal representative of a company in China. It is a simple case where an expat from Mexico was ordered [ Read More ]
From early nineteen nineties, China has kept the favourable tax treatment for foreign individual investors pursuant to which dividends received by such individual foreign investors is exempted from paying China’s individual income tax, a strong incentive to encourage foreigner to invest in China. On February 3, China cabinet announced its plan for reforming China’s income distribution in the society in a bid to redress the imbalance of allocation of social [ Read More ]
China has actually enacted its regulation on foreign invested partnership enterprises back in 2009, effective as from March 1st, 2010. Foreign invested partnership enterprises are regarded as a new instrument for small foreign investors esp foreign individuals to benefit from Chinese booming economy. Back then, I wrote an article introducing the new regulation and investment vehicle (click Newsletter-Foreign Investment-FIPE_Issue 1_100227 for more). Ever since then many foreign investors flooded to [ Read More ]
A client came to me with a question regarding the use of a rural land in the suburbs of Shanghai. The client has set up a wholly foreign-owned company in the outskirts of Shanghai back in 2001, engaged in industrial manufacturing activities. Instead of obtaining the state-owned land use right, the WFOE ventured to take up a site with existing building and facilities. After heavy investment on the premises, the [ Read More ]
For any foreign investors initially making foreign direct investment in China, it must be a real adventure and challenge as China is a country with unique history, culture that are alien to any newcomers from outside of China. As always till now, we as legal advisors for foreign clients, esp, those relatively big companies with serious commitment to Chinese market, advise our clients to abide by Chinese laws and regulations [ Read More ]
