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China advice, from the inside
(News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 18--When it comes to doing business in China, it seems like everyone has an opinion.
That includes Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson, Seattle attorneys who recently launched their own blog about business law in China.
But the two attorneys say a few things set their blog apart, including an aversion to simply complaining about China -- and their "on-the-ground" observations gleaned from living and working in the country.
"Most people who blog about China aren't in China doing anything about China," said Dickinson, who calls the city of Qingdao home for three-quarters of the year. "And the people who are in China mostly blog to complain.
"We only write about getting things done and solving things. We're on the road (in China) dealing with real people and real situations and fixing them."
In light of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle today, The News Tribune checked with the www.chinalawblog.com writers for an insiders' view of what business is really like in China. Dickinson and Harris, who works in Seattle and travels to China every two months, expound on trademark cases, piracy and rising wages.
They offer business advice. They counter prevailing opinions on topics. And they kindly wrap up lengthy posts with a pithy "Bottom Line."
In a post earlier this month, Dickinson wrote about a court case involving the use of the Starbucks trademark in China. He visited a local coffee shop that Chinese courts ruled had violated Starbucks' trademark to provide a first-hand account of the shop, including the whited-out references to Frappuccino and Yukon Blend on the menus. To hear more from these attorneys-turned-bloggers, read on.
On the significance of President Hu's visit:
Dickinson: "Every time we have a big state visit from the president of a country that we have problematic relationships with, it's billed as being good for trade. For a company that is involved in a political area of business in China, these visits can be very important and break up a log jam that's in the way.
"For most of the (small- to medium-sized) businesses we deal with, it's not relevant."
On government connections:
Harris: "Don't overrate the role of government, because government changes."
Dickinson: "Chinese government officials are no better at doing business than American government officials. One of the things that's a misconception (about doing successful business in China) is that a connection with a government official is the key to getting things done. For small- to medium-sized businesses, that's completely untrue. You can get off on the wrong track when you start looking around for which government official to get cozy with."
Business beyond Shanghai:
Dickinson: "There are two ways people go into China: They think everything is going to be cheap and that they are going to get great people for nothing or they go to Shanghai, pay really high prices and complain about it.
"But in Qingdao, there is so much foreign business going on there and it's not American companies. It's got a good work force, and the wages there are less there than in other places, like Shanghai. Americans need to start breaking out of the mold."
On the need for planning:
Dickinson: "Half of the people that call us say they want to go into China and form a joint venture. When we ask why, they say because so-and-so did it.
"But that was five years ago. Since then everything has changed and what they really need to be looking at is going in as a wholly formed entity.
"(Also) people are often worried about the wrong things. They are worried about somebody stealing their design, when they need to be worried about properly filing their trademark.
"And they really need to be worried about how they are going to do business in country (5,500) miles away."
ON THE NET: www.chinalawblog.com
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