Some cautious business enterprises avoid areas of high political risks like the plague. Often, even savvy international business people complain that the Chinese authorities' policies are like the moon - they look different on the first and the 15th day of the month. Because the US is so dependent on Chinese products as consumer items and there is no government-sponsored propaganda to promote a chauvinistic style of nationalism, the likelihood of Chinese products being boycotted in the US is not that substantial. What becomes worrisome is that governmental relationships are beyond the power of business people to control and are hard to predict. But such complications would deter less resourceful American corporations from doing business with China.
Many lawyers practising in the international arena are dedicated craftsmen.
But they often overlook the fact that behind the drafting of a complicated legal document there are deep-rooted political considerations. For better or worse, the present stand-off between China and the US throws a critical light on such inadvertent neglect, even among the best of our legal practitioners. Frankie Leung is adjunct professor of Chinese Law at the Law School of the University of Southern California. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.