CHINA ESQUIRE

I just wanted to write a quick post as I’ve been traveling. We were in Beijing last week, and met with the blogger behind A Modern Lei Feng and Stan Abrams of China Hearsay. I also had the chance to have lunch with a pair of Chinese lawyers from King & Wood, which is so large in Beijing that it needs floors in two office buildings here. I attach a photo of myself and Zhang Yongliang, corporate partner at King & Wood.

Nearly everyone concurred that the legal market in China has slowed to some degree–but for those dealing with foreign clients, their work has slowed considerably. Those dealing with Chinese clients, while slower, still are keeping themselves busy enough. Of course, it’s hard to say whether my sampling is fair considering that I talked with only a few people. Still, it’s something to keep in mind–especially with Kinney Recruiting and Above the Law saying that things are “booming” here in China. Many here on the ground say its not as booming as you would suspect.

One thing I note is the amount of nationalism I’ve seen here so far. None of it is blatantly anti-western. In fact, much of the nationalism is based around the Olympics. I’ve received a fair number of Olympics related souvenirs this past year while in America… and coming to China, I’ve only received more. I now have a 1 and a half feet tall stuffed Jingjing doll (which is cute, I must admit) among other new Olympics related souvenirs. Sometimes I wonder if the Chinese ever buy Olympics gear for themselves.

Another time, I observed nationalism in a dinner with some relatives. We were talking about the Olympics, and many of them noted that there weren’t many foreigners around in town. (Stan Abrams told us the hotel industry is taking a beating right now) And I thought to myself “visas”. What was their reasoning? They were “informed” that many Americans and westerners were boycotting the Olympics over the whole T***t issue. To which I thought, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” Sounds like no one here on the ground even knows that the government has tightened down the visa situation so much that much of summer tourism is griding to a slow halt. If I had a nickel for everytime I read or heard that someone couldn’t get themselves a visa in China, I wouldn’t need to be blogging right now. But that being said, no one here knows. And I think the default Chinese viewpoint is to take a nationalist approach: it must be some boycott or anti-western sentiment against China.

While the necessity of a siege mentality for Chinese is debatable, I see more and more of it happening… and even when the Olympics goes away, I still see the nationalist siege mentality staying a little longer. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t stay too long or things could get ugly.

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