Eight Things To Read: A New Series

We constantly get emails from readers asking what to read on China and all sorts of things related and even barely related to China. We try to tackle these requests with posts like the following:

• What to Read to Stay Up on China (April 3, 2019)
• China Books: The Top Eight (September 21, 2018)
• 3 Books to Read Before Your First China Trip (June 13, 2018)
• Four Best Books on China Business (March 15, 2016)

But as you can see, these sorts of posts are sporadic and focused on books and websites and not on to-the-minute articles.

My law firm is a true believer in Slack and we have channels on there for just about everything, ranging from the big legal matters on which we are working to those intended to cover bigger pictures, such as channels on international trade, international law, Cannabis law, China, Spain, and random. A large part of these is people from my firm posting an article the poster believes others should read. I am hoping this new series will be somewhat like that.

I am going to call itd eight things to read for the following three reasons:

1. Eight is a lucky number in China and much of Asia.
2. Eight has always been my lucky number.
3. My good friend, Abe Sorock, has (had?) a truly excellent newsletter called Atlas China Top 8, where he would list out and email his top eight reads on “China + global technology, business, and innovation trends, 8 items at a time.” This will be a sort of homage to that newsletter.

BUT….

We lawyers are famous for finding loopholes and for knowing how to push against guidelines. If there is one immutable legal rule that transcends nations it is that you should never believe a lawyer who says “I have just one more question.” And if a lawyer who claims to have just one more question asks six more questions, he or she knows how to parry back: I did ask just one more question, it just had with subsets. I mention this because I actually have no idea how many readings I will list each week and I will not know until I complete each week’s post. I do know that the time I have each week to find them and the number of quality articles I find will influence the number.

Our plan is to very briefly explain each article and why I have included it and then to provide its link. That’s it. Well, probably. The articles will likely include many on China and on Asia and a few on international trade, international politics, Spain and Latin America, economics and really just anything else we believe might benefit our readers or even that we just want people to read. We do not plan to choose articles that push our or any other political agenda or any other agenda for that matter, but having said that, we are not objective and our views may creep through. Our goal though is to focus on articles that are important or helpful or — most importantly — that make you think. Our posting of an article will NOT mean we agree with all of it or even any of it. Most of the articles will be from the week preceding the post but we will also sometimes throw in older articles (classics if you will) as well.

By the time of the first post, we will have set up a “special” email address to which readers can send their suggested articles and we will give out that email at the end of each post.

So buckle up and enjoy. Or not.

Oh, and though it should go without saying, but please do not hesitate to comment at the end of this or any other post. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your comments, good, bad and indifferent.

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.