China Law Blog on Social Media

But the coronavirus will eventually dissipate and that will create new opportunities for companies looking to do business in China or grow their business in China. And on that, we remain optimistic. Once the world truly gets past the coronavirus — and that day will someday arrive, the CCP will very likely make efforts to tamp down on racism, just as it did so successfully earlier in this decade with respect to the Japanese, French, Norwegians, and South Koreans.

In an effort to remain visible to our many readers in China, we are careful about what we write here on the blog. There are words we avoid using and topics we avoid discussing on this blog because we want our reach to include China and if China does not like something, its government has this “magical” ability to make it go away. And there is a lot China does not like these days. Facebook and Linkedin and Twitter give us a much greater ability to speak freely. The below is a quick update and listing of what we are doing these days outside this blog.

Linkedin. We have a thriving China Law Blog Group on Linkedin that serves as spam-free forum for China information, networking, and discussion. This group is always growing and now totals nearly 13,000 members.

The members of our Linkedin group are fairly evenly split between those who live and work and do business in China and those who do business with China from the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and other countries in Asia. Some are international lawyers and some are China lawyers, but most are businesspeople and some are academics (students or professors). We have senior level personnel (attorneys and executives) from large, medium, and small companies and tons of mid-level and junior personnel as well.

What truly separates us from most (all?) of the other Linkedin China groups is that we remove anything that smacks of spam or is not relevant for those doing business with or in China. Our hewing to such a tight line on what we permit means we do not get a large volume of postings, but this also means we do not waste people’s time on drivel or business pitches. If you want to learn more about doing business in China or with China, if you want to discuss China law or business, or if you want to network with others doing China law or business, I urge you to and join our China Law Blog Group on Linkedin. Please do join us there.

Individually, many of us post often on Linkedin about China matters and we are also always accessible there. You can find our China lawyers and China trade specialists on Linkedin as follows, some of whom post there more than others:

My personal Linkedin page has just a shade under 10,000 followers and that has led me to post more often there on all things China. I welcome new followers and new connections, though I warn you that I tend to be slow in responding to connection requests. I promise not to overwhelm you with posts: I post roughly 3-5 times a week.

Facebook. Our China Law Blog Facebook page, is thriving as well with just under 25,000 followers (this is its number of “likes”). We use Facebook to post interesting, important and entertaining articles about China. Posts there get a lot of comments and discussion, often heated. We tend to be very open and opinionated and free-wheeling there. With so much going on with China and Hong Kong these days, our Facebook page has become a key source. I urge you to go there and “like” us so you can benefit from what we are doing there.

I am also now posting a fair amount on Twitter at @danharris. I left Twitter for many years but I am now happy to be back as I enjoy the sheer immediacy of it. I most definitely do not hold back there but I also post on non-China things from time to time. I also urge you to check out and follow Fred Rocafort from my firm as well, (@RocafortFred). Until recently, Fred was living in Hong Kong/the PRC and his tweets (oftentimes in both English and Spanish) do a great job of bridging the various gaps between HK, the PRC and the West. In addition to posting on China and Hong Kong, Fred also often posts about Latin America. Jonathan Bench (@jonathan_bench), who spent around five years living in China and now splits his time between Seattle and Salt Lake City, is also a frequent poster on Twitter about all things China and all things international business and I urge you to follow him too. We also have a China Law Blog feed, @chinalawblog and it would be great if you were to follow that too.

We also JUST YESTERDAY started a new Twitter account in Spanish (@HarrisBrickenES, a/k/a Harris Bricken en Español). That account will be mostly run by Fred Rocafort and Adrián Cisneros Aguilar and Arlo Kipfer.  Fred is based in the United States, Adrián is based in Mexico, and Arlo is based in Colombia and all three of them are fluent in Chinese, Spanish, and English and all three work with our clients moving production or investment from China to Latin America or to Spain, both for Chinese and for American/European/Asian companies.

Fred, along with Jonathan Bench also just wrapped up Episode 24 of their weekly Global Law and Business Podcast focused on doing business all around the world and the laws that impact that. They’ve already had guests from India, Mexico, Israel, Nigeria, China, Australia, Chile, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Uruguay, Belgium, Malaysia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico discussing their homelands and worldwide experts discussing Cyberwarfare, Global HR, Cannabis in Asia, Infrastructure Finance, International School Law, Iran, Public-Private Partnerships, Artificial Intelligence, and East Africa. I urge you to check out some or all of these podcasts and be sure to stay tuned to future podcasts as well.