March 13 cut-off date for new tax law - official

Legislator Cai Qiaoping slashed hope today that the new tax law, ending preferential treatment for foreign companies, would only start at the end of the year. The cut-off date is 13 March, she confirmed, and foreign companies registered in China after that date would no longer be eligible for the preferential treatment. For older companies there is a grandfathering clause.
Cai spoke at the Asia CFO World, organized by Pearson in Shanghai. She is the director of the legislative department of the Budget Affair Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Cai is probably also one of the main authors of the law.
It was good to see she was explaining the law and answering questions of an audience, greatly adding to the process of transparency.

A court fights for its independence

the Chongqing nailhouse

ESWN translates a great feature story in the Southern weekend that uses interviews with the main parties involved in this the cause of the Chongqing nail house, including Mrs Wu Ping. It is a great case study on change in China, but I want to stress one interesting element: the Jiulongpo district court director Zhang Li, is one of the main players in this drama.

He said that the pressure of the "nail house affair" was something "he had never encountered in forty years of living and may be a once-in-a-life-time thing."

Zhang Li had just started his job in this district on March 17 and got a crash course in media relations and discovered the power of the internet:

"At the time, I felt that it was a troublesome thing to deal with the media. I was afraid that I might say something wrong. I turned down media interviews. In retrospect, I can frankly say that I regret that." Almost a month later, he reflected to the reporter.

Zhang Li effectively refuses to join press conferences with the local government. He insists that his court should remain independent and throws himself into some arguments. He gets support:

As district party secretary, Zheng Hong recognized this. "In other countries, government officials and judges will not sit down together. But foreign reporters do not understand party leadership in China." In the end, the court held its own press conferences. Similarly, when the government held its own press conferences, the court did not participate.

Hectic scenes display at the government offices and many officials, including Zhang Li have sleepless nights. He has to oversee the negotiations, since his relative independence as a newcomer in the district. Chongqing was able to avoid a worst-case scenario.
Really worth to read the whole article.

Mrs Wuping

Chongqing's incredible house gets a face

You might remember the pictures I published earlier (as this many others) on the incredible house in Chongqing and the many stories that were emerging on the internet.
While the local media could not publish about the most famous house in Chongqing, the stories kept on spreading on the internet, often hardly based on any facts. But that forced national media like CCTV to bring the story and Venture160 did a great job in translating the interview. It is a very nice combination of story-lines and illustrates how courts, property developers, local government and the media interact, with the internet as a major destructive force (from almost every perspective.)

Mark Schaub

"Headquarters should be more involved in their China-operation"

Lawyer and author Mark Schaub spoke this evening in Shanghai at the Garden Bookstore at Changle Lu during the presentation of his recently published book, China - the Art of law. His message of this evening: headquarters should not abandon their China operation after they signed a contract.
Schaub: "Ninety percent of the effort and financial resources is spend to set up the operation. They hire PWC, McKinsey and a law firm to help them to make things right. Then they hire a general manager, often a new kid at the block, and everybody goes home. That is not right. The headquarters back home should be involved in their China operation."
Mark Schaub is one of the prominent speakers we engaged for our upcoming China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in Mark Schaub as a speaker, please get in touch.