| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Happy Thanksgiving To You Our Wonderful Readers
On this Thanksgiving Day, we want to take a bit of a time out to express those things related to China for which we are thankful. Just to be clear, we are focusing on China, not because we think China takes priority over everything else (because it does not), but merely because this is a China blog. So with that caveat, here goes:
1. We are thankful for our readers, here and on our Linkedin and Facebook pages. We are thankful for your loyalty and we are especially thankful for our being able to interact with you. We are thankful for your comments, from which we learn all sorts of new things and from which we are challenged. But most of all, we are thankful and we are honored that you trust us for your information. Before we even started this blog, way back in January, 2006, we wrote the following Mission Statement for it:
We want to start a conversation with, for and about the person who wants practical information on starting and growing a business in or involved with China.
We will be challenging various misconceptions the West has about law in China, including that the law in China does not really matter or that guanxi can supplant it. We will help you figure out how you can use the law as both a shield and a sword. We will give insights to achieve practical solutions, while doing our best to entertain. We know lawyers are not popular, and though we are ourselves really quite likable, we recognize the need to avoid those things that incite lawyer hatred. We will strive to avoid legal jargon and namby-pamby language that attempts to camouflage our views or to avoid controversy.
We want our blog to be a place for both conversation and controversy. We expect many of you will disagree with us much of the time and we are fine with that. We will always strive to avoid boring you or being unwilling to take a stand. We are not going to be afraid of being wrong—in fact, we want you to tell us when and how we are wrong. If you want “legalese” or long strings of caveats, you are going to have to pay exorbitant legal fees to get that elsewhere.
We will tell you more than just that the law is this and this is what needs to be done to comply. We will discuss how the laws as written may say one thing, but our experience dictates something else. We will tell you when you need to do more than just follow the law to succeed, and we will set out exactly what that something else is. We will regale you with stories about the Chinese lawyers with whom we work, the foreign and Chinese businesspeople with whom we deal, and even the places we go. There will be times where our lawyer ethical rules will make us unable to name names, but we will always work to tell the full story.
It has become a blog cliché to implore readers for their input, but it is so important we must join the crowd on this. We do not purport to know everything about Chinese law. That is impossible. Our strengths are forming companies in China, drafting international contracts with Chinese companies (in English and in Chinese), intellectual property protection and international litigation and arbitration. We welcome your comments, suggestions and ideas on any area of law relating to conducting business in China. China is anything but monolithic and we will be relying in large part on you, our readers, to round out this site with your own stories.
In plain language, we ask that you write us early and often. We will review your comments before we post them, but that does NOT mean you should not criticize us or disagree with us. Our review will be to filter out comments that are without substance and/or personally abusive. We want to encourage a high level of discussion, but we will not ban or delete your comments just because you come after us.
You, our readers, have exceeded our wildest dreams by not only commenting often, but commenting with intelligence.
2. We are thankful that whenever relations between the United States seem to be on the brink, both countries seem to re-realize the importance of the other and pull back, even if just a little.
3. We are thankful for each and every award we have received, both as China bloggers and as China lawyers because we know none of those would have been possible without you.
4. We are thankful for our (relatively) new firm webpage. We thank the wonderful, talented and diligent folks over at Conflare for this. Hardly a week goes by without our getting a compliment on that. Our webpage better enables us to convey who we are to the world.
5. Most of all though, we are thankful for all the great friends we have made through this blog and through our work, who are far far far too numerous to mention. You are our everything.
Again, thank you from all of us (both in the U.S. and in China) to all of you!
May each and every one of you have a Happy Thanksgiving.
From the Harris Moure China team:
Mathew Alderson
Greg Buhyoff
Steve Dickinson
Ben Dietz
Matthew Dresden
Dan Harris
Arlo Kipfer
Chris Priddy
Li Xuihua
We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.
Source: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2014/11/happy-thanksgiving-to-you-our-wonderful-readers.html
