China’s top 5 business law trends of 2010

Dan Harris is an international lawyer based in the United States. Here is what he thought China's top 5 business law trends of 2010 will be (Click here for the full article):

1. China will step up even further its crackdown on foreigners in China violating its visa/immigration laws. If you lack an employee visa, you may be at risk.

2. China will increase its efforts to root out and shut down illegal and unregistered foreign businesses. I have seen ample evidence of this already happening in the last 3-6 months and I have no doubt this will continue. Providing jobs to Chinese citizens does not let you off the hook.

3. China will increase its tax collection efforts. This has been going on at a rapidly accelerating pace over the last six months or so. If your China operations are not making a healthy profit, do not be surprised if the government imputes healthy profits to it. In particular, the government will look very closely at your transfer pricing and in many cases it will not like what it sees.

4. China now sees itself as a full-fledged economic power and with that perception we can expect it will be stepping up its anti-monopoly monitoring of mergers and acquisitions. I predict China will seek to impose at least some conditions on all mergers and acquisitions that touch on China, if only just to show that it can.

5. The number of cases brought by employees and resolved in their favor will continue rapidly increasing. This will be particularly true with respect to foreign companies as this will be a great way for the government to show its willingness to protect its own.