Chinese Law Prof Blog

China Law Digest: August issue available

The August 2005 issue of the China Law Digest is now available here.

China's WTO implementation

Several US business organizations have recently released reports on China's WTO compliance and the business environment in China.

• The US-China Business Council has issued a report dated Sept. 14, 2005 entitled "China's WTO Implementation: An Assessment of China's Fourth Year of WTO Membership." The report is available here: PDF format | HTML format. The USCBC also surveys its member companies annually to get a snapshot of the business environment in China. The results of that survey, dated Aug. 30, 2005, are available here.
• The National Association of Manufacturers has a report dated Sept. 6, 2005 entitled "Review of China's Compliance with Its WTO Commitments."
• The American Chamber of Commerce in China and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai released their 2005 White Paper on American Business in China on Sept. 1, 2005. So far only the 2004 White Paper is available on their web site, but the 2005 White Paper should be available soon. Click on "Publications" on AmCham China's home page.
• On Sept. 13, 2005, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its 2005 report on China's WTO implementation. So far only the 2004 report is available on its web site, but presumably the 2005 report will be available soon. A press release summarizing the report's conclusions is available here.

Asia Foundation's Beijing office seeks program officer in law and governance

I have received an announcement from the Asia Foundation stating that the Foundation "is soliciting applications from resident Chinese nationals for the position of Program Officer, Law and Governance, China, based in the Foundation’s Beijing office." The full announcement is attached here: Download asiafoundation.pdf. The application deadline is Sept. 30, 2005.

LexisNexis launches Chinese law database

This is not exactly news, since it was announced last January, but I only recently learned that LexisNexis (hereinafter "Lexis") has launched a Chinese law service called LexisNexis China Online (http://research.lexisnexis.com.cn). According to the press release announcing the launch, much of the content will come from Lexis's acquisition of PRCinvestment.com, a tax and financial information provider, and from licensing agreements with the State Information Center (the party behind the chinalaw.net website) and Beijing University's chinalawinfo.com (for its English-language content on lawinfochina.com).

Although the "launch" was announced last January, that does not seem to mean the service was actually available; a further press release in July announced that the service had just been "unveiled".

If anyone has actually used this service, please let us know what you think. This post is open for comments.

Web references:

• Financial Times story on LexisNexis's ambitions in China