Beijing warns Turkey after Xinjiang criticism

Dear Access member,

Some things to read:

“The Chinese scientist and the foreign tongue” is the title of the latest essay by particle physicist Yangyang Chen, our science columnist.

“In 2009, when I returned to my room while reporting out of the western region of Xinjiang, I found a police officer reclining on the bed, smoking a cigarette and casually swiping through the photos on my digital camera.” That’s one of the entertaining nuggets in this article in the New York Times (porous paywall): “Limiting your digital footprints in a surveillance state” by China tech reporter Paul Mozur.

Our Access members Q&A with Christian Shepherd is now archived on the members Slack channel.

Have a great weekend!

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief

Deng Li, the Chinese ambassador to Turkey, in an interview with Reuters.

1. Beijing warns Turkey after Xinjiang criticism

On February 9, the government of Turkey issued a strongly worded statement that condemned China for its treatment of Uyghurs as a “great shame to humanity.” This pushback — from the country that considers the Uyghurs kin — marks a new phase in the international response to the atrocities taking place in Xinjiang.

• When China tried to discredit a part of Turkey’s critique, involving the alleged death of folk poet Abdurehim Heyit, by publishing a video of him in forced-confessional-reality-TV style, Uyghurs around the world also demanded evidence that their missing relatives in Xinjiang are alive. The #MeTooUyghur social movement was born.

• Beijing then tried backdoor diplomacy to tamp down criticism from Ankara directly. Reuters reported on February 22, “China is lobbying hard to thwart scrutiny of its mass detention camps for Muslim Uighurs in the Xinjiang region at the U.N. Human Rights Council’s main annual session opening on Monday, diplomats and activists said.”

• But it didn’t work. On February 25, Turkey continued its high-profile criticism at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made no mention of the mass internment camps (which were mentioned in the previous government statement), but urged China to make a distinction between “terrorists and innocent people.” Cavusoglu added:

We encourage Chinese authorities and expect that universal human rights, including freedom of religion, are respected and full protection of the cultural identities of the Uighurs and other Muslims is ensured.

• Beijing called these “irresponsible and bad remarks” in a foreign ministry press conference on February 27, and added that “certain people in Turkey have ignored basic facts, kept smearing China’s efforts to combat terrorism and eradicate extremists, vilify the government of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region for the measures it has taken, which is clearly ill-intended.”

With backdoor diplomacy apparently not working, Beijing seems to be moving on to harsher measures to shut down criticism from Turkey.

• The Chinese ambassador to Turkey, Dèng Lì 邓励, told Reuters in an interview, “There may be disagreements or misunderstandings between friends but we should solve them through dialogue. Criticizing your friend publicly everywhere is not a constructive approach.”

• He added a threat about economic ties: “If you choose a non-constructive path, it will negatively affect mutual trust and understanding and will be reflected in commercial and economic relations.”

• “Deng said that many Chinese companies were looking for investment opportunities in Turkey including the third nuclear power plant Ankara wants to build.” He then, apparently, listed off a number of bilateral investment prospects that could be affected:

Several Chinese firms, including tech giant Alibaba, are actively looking at opportunities in Turkey after the lira’s sell-off has made local assets cheaper.

In addition to Alibaba, which last year purchased Turkish online retailer Trendyol, other companies holding talks included China Life Insurance and conglomerate China Merchants Group, Deng said.

• The Chinese Embassy in Ankara also announced that it would “temporarily close” the consulate in Izmir, the South China Morning Post reports:

“China has decided to temporarily close the consulate in Izmir from February 28, 2019. All diplomatic and consular services of the Izmir consulate will be handled by the Chinese embassy [in Ankara],” according to a notice on the embassy’s WeChat social media account.

The notice went on to say that the decision related solely to internal working arrangements and work efficiency had been one of the factors taken into account.

The shutdown of the Izmir consulate comes days after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a United Nations rights forum in Geneva that reports of human rights violations in Xinjiang were a serious cause for concern.

—Lucas Niewenhuis

2. Huawei PR fail

“Chinese telecom giant Huawei has issued an unusual invitation to foreign media outlets to visit its facilities and meet staff as the company pushes back against global pressure arising from US accusations that it spies for Beijing,” reports Agence France-Presse.

The invitation immediately backfired. Here are two responses from respected American journalists on Twitter:

Josh Rogin: “INBOX: Huawei is inviting me on an all-expenses-paid junket to China? That’s gonna be a hard pass. Any American journalist who takes Huawei money should be ashamed and shamed.”

Ana Swanson: “Huawei sent out a letter to US journalists inviting us to visit their campuses. The invitation was sent to my colleagues and I…via the Chinese embassy.”

Other Huawei news today:

• China says Canada has questions to answer on judicial independence / Reuters
  “China’s Foreign Ministry grabbed a chance to question the state of judicial independence in Canada on Friday (March 1), as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government faced accusations at home that it had tried to intervene to stop a corruption trial.”

• World must have ‘eyes wide open’ to dangers posed by Huawei, says Pompeo / Straits Times
  “U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday (March 1) that it was risky for nations to build their next-generation wireless communications networks with equipment and software supplied by Chinese tech giant Huawei.”

• Canada seen approving extradition hearing against Huawei executive / Reuters
  “Canada is likely to announce on Friday that an extradition hearing against a Huawei Technologies Co Ltd executive can proceed.”

• Berlin: We’ve had no recent talks with Beijing on cybersecurity / Reuters
  “The German government has not held talks with Beijing about cybersecurity issues in recent weeks, a spokesman said when asked about a report that Chancellor Angela Merkel was seeking a no-spying deal with China over the Huawei issue.”

—Jeremy Goldkorn

3. Reports of domestic violence drop in Hangzhou

Today marks the third anniversary of China’s implementation of its landmark Anti-Domestic Violence Law. Earlier this week, Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, released a three-year monitoring report (in Chinese) on its handling of family violence cases since 2016, which offers a glimpse of the law’s effectiveness on a national level and what specific trends need closer attention.

Click through to The China Project for more details.

—Jiayun Feng

—–

Our whole team really appreciates your support as Access members. Please chat with us on our Slack channel or contact me anytime at jeremy@thechinaproject.com.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief

Here are the stories that caught our eye this week:

• China watched uneasily as Pakistan and India came closer to the brink of war than in many years, after the latest developments following a terrorist attack in India-controlled Kashmir by a group China refuses to call “terrorist.”

• Chinese state media highlighted some “opinions on strengthening the Party’s political construction,” rather than the India-Pakistan spat and Washington, D.C. turmoil that consumed media airspace practically everywhere else globally. The report contained an interesting exhortation to “resolutely prevent unbelief in Marxism-Leninism and belief in ghosts and spirits.”

• There’s something very fishy going on at the Supreme People’s Court of China, after former judge and whistleblower Wáng Línqīng 王林清 appeared in a televised “confession” and is now under investigation for “leaking state secrets.”

• Trump delayed tariff increases on China, and Chinese state media happily repeated the optimism on trade talks. But we really don’t know any more than a week ago about where negotiations might go. China has reportedly accepted Trump’s offer of a Mar-a-Lago summit in late March, but details are not set yet. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testified to Congress that “much still needs to be done” to seal a deal with China.

• Even as China’s stock markets surged, factory output continued to shrink in February.

• In the newest flashpoint of China’s dog ownership debate, a real estate developer in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, has implemented a strict no-dog policy in some of its buildings, which ignited online conversations about how to balance the interests of dog owners and haters in China.

• A reproductive health clinic in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, is experiencing some online backlash regarding its recent advertisement that features a female victim of domestic violence.

• Yesterday, on a rare slow news day, we highlighted some opinions on the U.S.-China trade war and other issues, including this one from Edward Luce in the Financial Times: “Donald Trump is itching to surrender to China on trade.”

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• U.S.-China tensions and trade
  China trade war cost tops $40 billion in U.S. exports / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “Chinese retaliation against President Donald Trump’s tariffs is hitting U.S. exporters harder than their Chinese counterparts and costing the U.S. the equivalent of about $40 billion a year in lost exports, according to a new study that highlights the mounting costs to the U.S. economy of the trade war against China.”
  China says ‘regrets’ WTO ruling in favor of US on subsidies / AFP
  “China yesterday said that it ‘regrets’ a WTO ruling in Washington’s favor over a dispute on Chinese subsidies to wheat and rice producers… The US in 2016 alleged that China doled out US$100 billion in ‘market price support’ for wheat and rice.”
  China to import first U.S. oil cargo in 3 months: sources, Refinitiv / Reuters

• Regulating Tencent
  Tencent tightens game curbs for China minors / AFP via Channel NewsAsia
  “Chinese gaming giant Tencent on Friday (Mar 1) announced new curbs on underage video-game playing as part of a government crackdown on youth gaming addiction that has cast a cloud over the company’s biggest revenue source.”
  Tencent tests parental game control tool requiring photos, ID / TechNode

• Chinese stocks
  China cheers MSCI weight gain, yen takes the strain / Reuters
  “Chinese A-shares got a lift after MSCI late Thursday quadrupled their weight in its global stock benchmarks, a move it said might draw more than $80 billion of fresh foreign inflows to the world’s second-biggest economy.”
  On The China Project from last year: Money to follow MSCI into Chinese stock markets.
  China’s Stock Market Isn’t Quite The Bargain It Seems / WSJ (paywall)
  “Many investors say Chinese stocks are inexpensive, despite this year’s surge. That is true on a marketwide basis. But the stocks many active fund managers prefer — those linked to the Chinese consumer or the technology sector — aren’t quite so appealing.”
  Credit Suisse on stocks: ‘We love China at the moment’ / CNBC
  “Acknowledging that Friday’s release of a private survey indicated China’s manufacturing sector contracted, the Credit Suisse strategist said domestic demand appeared ‘very strong.’”
  Economic wake-up looms for China’s premature bull stampede / FT (paywall)
  “Investors party in relative data blackout but weaker growth may temper their optimism.”

• Luckin coffee bleeds money as it grows like a tech company
  China’s Starbucks rival Luckin piles up losses before IPO / The Information (paywall)
  “Luckin Coffee, China’s fast-growing Starbucks rival, has one thing in common with consumer tech companies going public in the U.S.: It has racked up hefty losses ahead of its planned public listing. The coffee delivery startup estimates that it lost some $232 million in 2018, its first year of operation, on revenue of $117 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.”

• The end of the P2P boom
  Employees accuse P2P lender Dianrong of unpaid wages, severance pay amid layoffs / TechNode
  See also on The China Project: The P2P boom is truly over.

• Wind energy
  First solar, now wind: China’s renewable dominance / OilPrice
  Growth of the global wind energy market has grown “relatively steadily since 2014, with over 50 gigawatts of new wind energy capacity installed every year… This global growth was largely fueled by just one country — China.”

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Worldwide poll prefers Chinese to American leadership
  U.S. leadership falls further behind China in global regard, Gallup poll finds / NPR
  “Worldwide approval of U.S. leadership remains low but relatively stable after a dramatic drop during President Trump’s first year in office, while China’s rating ticked up to its highest in almost a decade, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.”
  According to the poll of adults in 133 countries, China’s leadership gets a 34 percent approval rating, and the leadership of the Trump administration gets only a 31 percent approval rating.

• Pakistan, India, and China
  China says it never recognized India, Pakistan as nuclear states / Hindustan Times
  “China Friday said it has never recognised India and Pakistan as nuclear powers and ruled out extending such a status to North Korea following the unsuccessful second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam.”
  Will China declare Kashmir attack group leader a terrorist? Everyone else has / SCMP
  “China is becoming increasingly isolated in its refusal to list as a terrorist the founder of the Pakistan-based organisation responsible for the suicide bombing in Kashmir on February 14.”
  Did Pakistan use its Chinese JF-17 jets to shoot down Indian planes? / SCMP
  “Beijing has refused to confirm a former Pakistani air force officer’s claim that China-made JF-17 fighters were used by the Pakistan Air Force to shoot down Indian military aircraft. Less than two hours after the claim was made on Wednesday morning, the share price of the state-owned plane maker’s sister company rose in trading in Shenzhen.”

• Academic fraud among government officials
  Top Chinese officials plagiarized doctoral dissertations / FT (paywall)
  “Several senior Chinese officials have apparently copied portions of their university thesis from other authors without citation, an FT analysis has found, highlighting how an ‘academic arms race’ among the political elite may be fueling plagiarism.”
  “The doctoral dissertation by Chen Quanguo, a politburo member and head of the Communist party in the northwestern Xinjiang region, features dozens of paragraphs identical to earlier works that are not cited.”
  Minxin Pei, a Chinese politics expert at Claremont McKenna College, told the FT: “A government official’s work is really demanding, so how do they have time to write a PhD thesis? It’s a running joke in China.”

• Military relations and parades
  The future of China-U.S. military relations / ChinaFile
  A (still growing) conversation on the topic with contributions by various experts.
  Chinese navy’s 70th birthday parade set to showcase country’s rising sea power / SCMP
  “China will hold a naval parade next month to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army Navy and will invite more than a dozen foreign navies to participate. The parade will take place on April 23 in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Qingdao in Shandong Province.”

• One country, one system
  Hong Kong Polytechnic University expels student for protest over campus ‘free speech’ wall / Hong Kong Free Press
  Beijing blasts ‘distortion and defamation’ after US Consul Kurt Tong questions Hong Kong’s autonomy / SCMP

• U.S. in the South China Sea
  US vows Philippines aid against ‘armed attack’ in China-claimed sea / AFP via Channel NewsAsia
  “U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday (Mar 1) vowed to defend the Philippines against ‘armed attack’ in the disputed South China Sea in Washington’s starkest warning yet against Chinese claims to most of the strategic waterway.”
  Pompeo promises intervention if Philippines is attacked in South China Sea amid rising Chinese militarization / Washington Post

• Leaving China
  Golden hits: Wealthy Chinese rush to apply for threatened UK visa / SCMP
  “The number of wealthy Chinese granted ‘golden visas’ to live in the UK jumped in the last quarter of 2018, as investors tried to get residency before changes to British immigration policy that could see the scheme scrapped.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Chinese students in America
  A Maryland Professor Saw A Culture Of Cheating. His Chinese Students Say They Were Targeted. / WAMU
  Eric Fish on Twitter: “Chinese student at U. of Maryland who was investigated for cheating on an exam and later cleared has filed a complaint with four other Chinese students. Claims the professor making the accusation singled them out for their nationality.”

• Crime and punishment
  Chinese court orders family of Didi driver who raped and killed passenger to pay US$92,700 in compensation / SCMP
  “The parents of a Didi driver who raped and murdered a female passenger have been ordered to pay compensation of 620,000 yuan (US$92,700) to the family of the victim. Liu Zhenhua, 27, was found dead in a river and is believed to have taken his own life after killing Li Mingzhu, a 21-year-old flight attendant, in Henan Province in May last year.”

• Chinese-made food show now on Netflix
  Prepare to Drool: Chinese Food Documentary “Flavorful Origins” Hits Netflix / Radii China
  “The 20-episode culinary documentary series highlights the regional cuisine of Chaoshan in southeastern Guangdong, China. First released on Tencent Video on February 5, to coincide with Chinese New Year, it was syndicated and released on February 12 on Netflix — making this the first-ever documentary series produced by a foreign video platform to do so.”

• China’s middle class in the mass media
  Why On-Screen Portrayals of China’s Middle Class Fall Flat / Sixth Tone
  “For all the attention domestic media gives the middle class, they are neither a deeply rooted nor firmly entrenched part of Chinese society. Unlike the West, the middle class remains a distinct numerical minority in China.”

• Porn on Baidu
  Baidu Audits Online Encyclopedia After Illegal Porn Links Found / Sixth Tone
  “Baidu said that ‘broken links were taken advantage of by lawbreakers,’ referencing now-deleted links on its digital encyclopedia that had redirected to a website for pornography — which is illegal in China — instead of a website about schools in the southern city of Guangzhou.”

• Chinese-American beauty pageants
  Becoming Miss Chinatown / Goldthread

VIDEO ON SUPCHINA

Meet the master of coin sculptures!

A guy with the alias “Coin Master” recently had some of his videos go viral on Kuaishou, a Chinese short-video platform. He uses coins like Legos to build all kinds of sculptures, such as the front of Tiananmen Square as well as extremely detailed towers. This can’t be done without some serious architectural skills. Take a peek!

We also published the following videos this week:

• Adorable British shorthair kitty wears traditional Chinese attire!

• The boy who shoots an arrow with his feet

• The ways that Chinese noodles are made will blow your mind!

FEATURED ON SUPCHINA

The tragic end of Shi Hui, Maoist China’s most promising actor-director

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Shi Hui 石挥 was one of the most popular actors in China. His performances in movies like Miserable at Middle Age 哀乐中年 and This Life of Mine 我这一辈子 were brilliant, and today, both movies still top lists of the most-acclaimed Chinese movies. But he became a target when the Anti-Rightist movement erupted, and was attacked and humiliated at every turn. His suicide at the age of 42 ranks as one of the great tragedies of Chinese cinema.

After yearlong stint in detention camp, Uyghur footballer Erfan Hezim signs with new Chinese club

Last summer, Uyghur player Erfan Hezim (a.k.a. Ye Erfan 叶尔凡) was reportedly placed in a forced detention camp in his native Xinjiang, allegedly for traveling overseas without permission, even though those trips — to Dubai and Spain — were for football training camps. Fortunately, Hezim has now been released after an 11-month spell in confinement, and he’s just signed with League One club Shaanxi Chang’an Athletic. A prodigious talent at youth levels, it will be interesting to see if Hezim’s enforced absence from the sport has affected his career, or if he is able to make his way back up to the Chinese Super League.

The Chinese scientist and the foreign tongue

The word for science in Chinese today, kexue 科学, corresponds with the Japanese word for science, kagaku. The use of this imported term at the start of the 20th century symbolized a profound shift in the Chinese psyche, its genesis and aftermath equally rooted in loss and shame. For generations of Chinese scientists who followed, the cultivating of a foreign tongue was not only a tool to help untangle the mysteries of nature, but also an exercise of individual agency in the shifting tides of state power. Yangyang Cheng explores these ideas in this moving essay that blends her personal experience as a Chinese physicist in the U.S. with the tragic and remarkable history of her predecessors.

A The China Project Quiz to the Nines

2019 is a big year for anniversaries in China. How much do you know about important, momentous events that happened in years ending in “9”? Take this 12-question quiz to find out. Let us know how you do — tweet your score to @supchinanews.

Young Taiwanese are dreaming of careers in China — but unification is still a nightmare

In the years since Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen took power, Xi Jinping has dangled economic carrots with the hope that political consensus will follow, and the Chinese government has offered incentives to Taiwan’s workers to get them to stay. But the majority of Taiwanese citizens, while they may appreciate the job opportunities across the strait, have little interest in abandoning their democracy. Meanwhile, Tsai is seeking measures to combat Taiwan’s “brain drain,” including strengthening relations with South and Southeast Asian countries via the New Southbound Policy.

China Business Corner: Folding-screen phones might be the next big thing

Folding screens on cell phones might seem outrageous, but they could be in everyone’s future. Also in this week’s China Business Corner: Contrasting iQiyi and Netflix, taking a look at why the food delivery business is so attractive to young individuals, and reasons why “knowledge-sharing” apps are popular among rural mothers.

China Fintech Today: The P2P boom is truly over

China Fintech Today is a roundup of news from one of the most innovative sectors of the Chinese economy: financial technology, or fintech. In 2018, the growth of China’s peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector dramatically reversed: 1,407 internet platforms that offered P2P lending services shut down due to increased regulation between July 2017 and June 2018. This year, the government has continued to lead a reorganization of the industry.

Kuora: All the times the Chinese Communist Party nearly died

At several points in its relatively short history, the Chinese Communist Party came close to collapse. First, it barely made it to its seventh birthday, as Chiang Kai-shek launched the “White Terror” that killed many of the young CCP’s leaders. Then there was the Long March, an encirclement campaign in Yan’an, and full-blown civil war itself. The Cultural Revolution and protests at Tiananmen in 1989 also threatened the Party’s existence — and would have changed how modern China looks today.

The rise of Chinese student power casts further uncertainty over Canada-China ties

Canadians’ opinion of China, on a downward trajectory over the last few years, may have hit a new low in the wake of the angry displays of Chinese student power at two university events in the province of Ontario early in February. First, a group of Chinese students campaigned aggressively to oust Chemi Lhamo, a Tibetan Canadian, shortly after she was elected student president of the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. Days later, another group tried to intimidate Uyghur activist Rukiye Turdush as she was giving a talk at McMaster University on human rights abuses inflicted on her people in China’s Xinjiang region.

Manchester City makes official foray into Chinese football

In a move that’s been in the works for several years, the Manchester City football club — or, more precisely, its parent company, City Football Group (CFG) — now has an official foothold in China, as it is part of a deal to purchase third-tier Chinese club Sichuan Jiuniu 四川九牛 FC alongside the club’s two other partners in this joint venture, humanoid robot firm UBTECH and sports investment fund China Sports Capital. Sources say the vast majority of the money has been put up by UBTECH, which takes a controlling 51 percent stake in the club, while CFG receives as much as 40 percent for precisely zero money.

SINICA PODCAST NETWORK

Sinica Podcast: Everything you ever wanted to know about Taiwan but were afraid to ask, Part 1

This week, we feature the first half of an extensive interview with Shelley Rigger, a political scientist at Davidson College and the leading U.S. expert on the politics of Taiwan. This first half of the interview, which covers the history of Taiwan through 1996, was conducted by Neysun Mahboubi of the UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China Podcast (one of our favorite China podcasts), and is republished here with the Center’s permission.

• Subscribe to the Sinica Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Stitcher, or plug the RSS feed into your favorite podcast app.

TechBuzz China: Podcasting in China — the Myth and the Reality

Episode 39 of TechBuzz China is on a topic of special interest to our co-hosts, Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma: podcasting in China! It was sparked by two recent pieces of news within the podcasting industry. The first was the acquisition of Gimlet Media, a podcasting network, by the newly IPOed music-streaming service Spotify for $200 million; the second was the $100 million raised by the podcasting platform Himalaya. In fact, Himalaya’s main investor, China’s Ximalaya FM, boasts 23 million daily active users and is rumored to be going for an IPO soon.

• Subscribe to TechBuzz China on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Stitcher, or plug the RSS feed into your favorite podcast app.

Middle Earth: How does China’s advertisement market work?

This episode is the second part of a two-part series about how the internet changed the way to consume and create content. Last time, the panel comprised people who earn a living by creating only on the Chinese internet, but today we meet the other side of the fence, the more “capitalistic” one: those who make, sell, or deal with advertisements.

• Subscribe to the Sinica Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Stitcher, or plug the RSS feed into your favorite podcast app.

The Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, episode 77

This week on the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief: the closure of 28 Confucius Institute programs by Canada’s province of New Brunswick, China’s first court devoted to financial cases, new studies of Chinese mental health, and more.

• Subscribe to the Business Brief on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Stitcher.

NüVoices Podcast: Queer culture, perception, and representation within China

On the first episode of the second season of the NüVoices Podcast, Alice Xin Liu and Sophie Lu are joined by Alex Li, senior editor at Vice China. Alex has a Ph.D. in gender and sexuality studies and a master’s degree in psychology. She is also the host of the gender and sexuality channel Biede Girls for Vice China. Alice was previously a guest on her podcast, Biede Girls Podcast, to talk about her bicultural background.

• Subscribe to the NüVoices Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Stitcher, or plug the RSS feed into your favorite podcast app.

ChinaEconTalk: Rubber ducks and semiconductors — navigating China’s legal system

“The champagne days are over,” writes Dan Harris, reflecting on how the tone of his China Law Blog has evolved since its creation in 2006. As the founder of Harris Bricken, an international law firm with a major China presence, Dan has a unique window into how macro changes in China’s economy and trade relations play out within a law firm. In this conversation, Jordan and Dan discuss common misconceptions about the law in China; memorable Chinese legal scams; joint ventures in China; day-to-day operations of an international law firm in the country; and intellectual property cases and enforcement within the Chinese legal system on the mainland.

• Subscribe to ChinaEconTalk on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Stitcher, or plug the RSS feed straight into your favorite podcast app.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Happier times in Kashgar

A man smiles in a teahouse, or chaikhana, in the old city of Kashgar in 1997. Photo by Jeremy Goldkorn.