Business

Citibank Permitted to Issue Credit Cards in China

Greater market access to China’s banking industry on the road ahead?

Feb. 8 – U.S.-based financial services corporation Citigroup announced on Monday that it has obtained government approval to issue its own credit cards in China. It is hoped that Beijing’s recent decision indicates that the country will be more willing to open up its banking industry to foreign financial institutions in the near future.

Citigroup – operating 13 corporate bank branches and 46 consumer outlets in the world’s most populous nation – is the first Western bank authorized to issue credit cards in Mainland China. Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, the only other non-mainland credit card issuer in the country, was allowed to tap into the China market back in 2008. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Finance, Tax and Accounting | Tagged China Banking, China e-Payment Market, Citibank China Credit Cards, Citigroup | Leave a comment

Liquidating a China Business

Tax, financial and regulatory compliance considerations when closing a foreign-owned business in China

Feb. 8 – Many foreign businesses in China do very well and are profitable. However, there will always be some that do not succeed commercially, or that may have to close because of external circumstances affecting their parent company overseas.

There are of course regulations under Chinese law for how these liquidation processes should properly be carried out to ensure that the company’s final bills are settled, tax is paid, and all the company’s remaining liabilities and statutory responsibilities are correctly discharged. In this article, we explain the procedures you would need to go through to close a foreign invested enterprise in China, and highlight the many related issues that you will need to address. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Featured, Finance, Tax and Accounting, Legal and Regulatory | Tagged China Company Law, China Legal, China Liquidation, China Relocation, Closing in China | Leave a comment

Foreign Law Firms in China – 2012 Listings

Feb. 7 – Foreign law firms practicing China law, and advising clients on the same, must be registered and licensed by China’s Ministry of Justice, which also acts as the regulatory body. As of December 31, 2011, there were 208 licensed foreign law offices in China – please find the complete list below. A detailed list (in Chinese) is also provided by the Ministry of Justice on their official web site, you can view the list by clicking here.

Contents include the name of the firm, its country of origin, the date the China license was issued, and the firm’s web site (when applicable). We recommend for legal indemnity, legal insurance, and regulatory issues that foreign companies in China only use the services of China-registered practices. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Legal and Regulatory | Tagged China Law, China Legal, Foreign Law Firms | 1 Comment

China Grants Tax Incentives to Logistics Industry

Feb. 6 – In a move to further boost its logistics industry, China is now allowing logistics enterprises to pay less urban land use tax (ULUT) on lands occupied by their commodity warehouses.

According to the “Circular on the ULUT Policy Concerning the Lands Occupied by Logistics Enterprises’ Commodity Warehousing Facilities (caishui [2012] No. 13)” co-issued by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation, between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014, land occupied by a logistics enterprise’s self-owned commodity warehousing facilities (for both self-use and renting out) are subject to 50 percent of the ULUT those enterprises were originally supposed to pay based on related regulations. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Finance, Tax and Accounting, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update, Shipping & Logistics | Tagged China Logistics, China Logistics Industry, China Shipping, China Urban Land Use Tax, China Warehousing Facilities | Leave a comment

Top 50 Chinese Cities by Investment Potential

By Julia Gu

Feb. 3 – At the eighth annual World Famous Brands Assembly (WFBA) recently held in Jakarta, Indonesia, the U.S.-China Economic Trade and Investment General Chamber of Commerce, the Europe-America-Asia Cooperation Union for Investment in Industry and Commerce, and the World Cities and World Business Research Association jointly released a list of the “2011 Top 50 Chinese Cities with Strongest Investment Potential.” Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade | Tagged Beijing, China Cities, China FDI, China GDP, China Trade, Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Zhengzhou | Leave a comment

Twitter – When Freedom of Speech Collides with Business Interests

By Vivian Ni

Feb. 3 – Twitter, the U.S.-based micro-blogging service provider, has recently found itself at the receiving end of criticism due to its new policy that will allow content censorship on a country-by-country basis. The policy adjustment may have revealed Twitter’s interest in returning to the cash-flowing Chinese market, where the government implements strict internet censorship regulations and blocks an array of Western social media web sites.

In a blog post last Thursday, Twitter said that it had refined its technology and gained “the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country – while keeping it available in the rest of the world.” Previously, when the company took down a post at the request of a country’s government, the “tweet” invariably disappeared across the worldwide web. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Technology | Tagged China Freedom of Speech, China Internet Censorship, China Online Information Filtering, China Social Media, Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Censorship Policy, Weibo | Leave a comment

Relax. South China Exports and Manufacturers are Doing Just Fine

Op/Ed Commentary: Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Feb. 1 – With some media spotlighting potential problems in South China – and one blog even going so far as to suggest smart Chinese businessmen are queuing up to attract orders, only to deliberately declare bankruptcy – it’s time to look again at the realities of the situation. The actual business environment in South China is something we are qualified to discuss with some knowledge – our firm, Dezan Shira & Associates, has four regional offices there (Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhongshan) and has conducted business in the region for 20 years, while our Regional Partner Alberto Vettoretti is an adviser to the Shenzhen Government. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Manufacturing, South China | Tagged China Exports, China Manufacturing, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Dezan Shira & Associates, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, South China, Zhongshan | 9 Comments

China 1992, India 2012

Above: Shanghai c. 1990, Below: Mumbai c. 2008

The development similarities are striking, says Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Op/Ed Commentary: Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Jan. 31 – A little over 20 years ago, I was sitting in the offices of Asia Law & Practice in Hong Kong, with their managing director at the time who said, “Don’t go to China, Chris. It’s dirty, communist, nothing works and they’ll rip you off.”

Perhaps foolishly, I didn’t listen to that advice, resigning my position (I’d been working on a book called “The Life and Death of a Joint Venture in Shanghai”) and decamping to Shenzhen to start what was then a very embryonic Dezan Shira & Associates. The MD’s words of advice have stayed with me ever since, not because they were wrong – in fact he was fairly accurate – but because they totally discounted the point that China wouldn’t remain in that anti-commercial state of existence for very long. Continue reading →