How long is your Chinese New Year Holiday and other unresolved China Questions.
This post is a collection of client questions from emails, Skype conversations and other online postings. I've left peoples names off and updated the hyperlinks and correct some spelling to make it more readable. I get these questions, in some form or another, about every week. So I hope that these are helpful general answers.First Question: When does Chinese New Year start and how long does it last?Typically CNY lasts about a week. Some factories only give their employees the mandatory 3 official days. Others give them a week. Some will give even more. In the past workers will just leave when they want or come back when they want knowing that there will be jobs waiting.Recently there have been millions of people not returning at all to jobs in the costal cities. They’re going home for the holiday and staying to find similar jobs where it costs less to live and they are closer to family (and certainly where the salaries are lower too).This year is different. Factories are telling us that workers are leaving earlier than usual and they don’t expect them to come back at all. The difference this year is that many factories don’t have work for them to come back to anyway. CNY for some factories may be indefinite. For others it will be 2-3 weeks as business is either very slow or getting enough people to come back and get running full-steam again will take time.If you’re hoping against hope to get your goods out before CNY, you’d better hope that you’ll have your containers loaded by the 15th of January, at the latest. CNY for many factories will last through the end of January.Second Question: What does this email mean?!These are two actual emails from a factory to a client. We were asked to step in and translate the Chinglish into Englese.First email:
1.The product size we may adjust are 12.5*7cm, this question please have not felt relieved;2. Whether needs again to pull for you confirmed, only confirmed to David?3.Please consider the box ordinary white box printing + color to paste, color box printing, please provide a more detailed material, thanks
Second email (response to the first):
A few problems I ask you:Extremely happy you to the sample approval, the diameter I confirmed again according to the request express sample to David that, ask this time for David express sample, whether needs to pack the color box;Moreover in yours reply said SCH-RW2 & SCH-RW5 needs to pull, but you said to make the samples for SCH-RW2 & SCH-RW5 using the same finish texture as SCH800.ask is according to the SCH800 manual trace procedure,？or uses the laser to carve the even trace? You also knew the laser and the manual price difference is very far, but also please confirm, thanksIs three section color product color box printing picture all must be consistent according to the product concrete color, also is printing must make three colors the editions?
Just because someone is the “foreign sales manager” doesn’t mean that he can speak a foreign language. There is certainly as many levels of English competence as there are factories, so I can’t generalize that “all factories have communications issues.” But I will say this. If you’re not communicating in Chinese, face to face, over a shared sample, there are things that are NOT being communicated properly that you don’t know you don’t know.Third Question: How do we get someone in China to stop selling our designs under their name?This is a Skype conversation that I had with a Englishman about design protection in China.
C: Hi David, read your blog with interest and am looking for some help with a copyright infringement. Is that something you can help us with?D: Well, I may be able to send you in the right direction, but I'm not a lawyer. What's your question?C: We're a musical instrument company that purchases from factories in Huizhou and Guangzhou. I was at the Shanghai show in October and found another company selling a guitar with one of our designs (prints) on it. They're claiming we need to provide a registration certificate in China in order for our claim to be valid. I don't see that we should need a certificate since we can prove it's our design.D: China is a first to file country. That means that unless you've filed for the copyright, you have nothing by just "showing" first to market or original designs.C: Really! That's incredible. OK, I guess we better get on and register it then and put this one down to experience.D: Yes, you need to get registered FIRST. Even if you are the originator of the design but someone else in China files first they get the legal protection, not you. Sony, for a big example, didn't register the Chinese translation of their name here and so they now have issues with a legal competitor with the same name. I've heard that Germany is the same type of system as China, but I don't know personally. I suggest you look up the guys at China Law Blog.C: OK, you've been a great help, I really appreciate it. Out of interest do you have staff skills within your organization to QC musical instruments?D: We've never done musical instruments, no. I played the piano for about 15 years and went to college on a drum scholarship, if I can be of any help.C: Compared to the Chinese we’ve been working with, you're an expert already!D: I'd be glad to contract for some QC work for you if you need it. Just let me know.C: OK, thanks, I'll be in touch.
Fourth Question: What are the Second Tier Chinese Cities?
David,I recently stumbled across one of your articles on Smartchinasourcing.com.Are there lists of 2nd and 3rd tier cities in China? I asked several people in China and even they have a hard time naming them with any certainty.If you are using migrant workers (and housing them) does it matter if your factory is located in a first tier city? Would they expect more in wages being in a first tier city? How far up the chain do migrant workers usually make it at a factory? Are they always just general labor or do they advance to quality control or supervisory positions?Thanks,
My response
Good questions. Let me take a stab at a few and push to you a couple of resources for the rest.First, the Chinese govt does indeed publish a list of 1st, 2nd and 3rd tier cities. The govt’s ranking are usually based on either levels of federal investment, levels of development or population or some combination of the three. Typically Beijing and Shanghai and Guangzhou are listed as the 1st tier cities. Everything else you’ve likely ever heard of is 2nd tier—Harbin, Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Nanjing, Wuhan, Hanzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Kunming, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi’an. I’ve seen Shenzhen as 1st tier, Guangzhou as 2nd and Chongqing and Chendu each as third before too. I think the discrepancies have to do with where and when the reports were published. Shenzhen and Guangzhou are certainly first for most lists now. Chongqing and Chendu are definitely 2nd now too.Attached is a PDF with some lists and sources. Another great resource is a site called All Roads Lead to China. He’s got some great work on individual cities—the most detail I’ve seen anywhere.Interestingly, the UN’s Human Development Index came out last month and said that China’s best cities compare to “poorer European cities” and the worst (Guizhou and Tibet) are worse than many places in Africa. Not surprisingly, this report didn’t get much pub in the Chinese press.Second worker’s wages. Absolutely they will expect more in various higher level cities. Different cities, counties and provinces all have different minimum wage laws. Guangdong province has the highest in the country. Shenzhen is the highest in the province. Factories are moving inland because the same labor pool that has fueled growth on the east coast is now staying home since development has moved inland too. Wages are cheaper inland for the same people. Of course costs of living for the workers is cheaper too.Third, vertical opportunity. Guangdong is special, it’s always been the home of manufacturing and trade and so there has always been migrant labor here. Shenzhen is even more special, being a city of 10m that was created out of nothing just 30 years ago. Basically, no one over 25 is actually from Shenzhen. So here, yes, workers can move up to the very top of the hierarchy because everyone is a migrant worker, to some degree.Zhejiang province is much different. It didn’t have HK and Taiwan FDI or Shenzhen in the 80’s and so most of the factories there are either VERY large foreign or JV’s or small local facilities. It is much harder for migrant labor to move up in either of these situations. Finally, the level of education is the most telling factor for vertical movement, rather than where people are from. True migrant labor, and I’ve kind of blurred the lines with the above comments, is manual laborers with little to no education and they have almost no chance of working up into any real power position at all. But people with skills, experience and education are in demand everywhere in China; no matter where they are from.Good luck. Thanks for asking.
Question Five: Is my supplier going to be in business next month and how do I make sure?
Hi David,I have just finished reading your thought provoking article on the global sources website. It has certainly presented me with some other dimensions for my business venture.I am writing not just to thank you for the insight, but given your extensive knowledge and experience, I thought you would be a great person to ask about the current situation with the factories in China.I am very close to placing my first order (a specialty glass product) and am now concerned that the chosen company may join the list of those going bankrupt and that, not only may i lose my money but the product I have finally sourced.I am very interested in your opinion on this matter. Should you believe it safe to proceed i would also greatly appreciate any tips you may have, given its my first order.Lastly, you recommend obtaining a Chinese lawyer for contracts and i am wondering how i would go about finding a reputable one.I eagerly await your reply.
My response
Let me first say to you that I’m impressed with your good intentions and premonitions. The economy is scary now and I would very much encourage you to check out your factory BEFORE you pay any monies to them. You should first use a service to confirm that the factory is in good legal and or economic standing. Two options would be: Glo-Bis or Verify.A factory audit can give you some additional information about what’s happening in the factory right now and confirm that they are really there and really working on orders now. A good way to do that would be to have someone SRI run an audit for you. Larger companies, like Bureau Veritas run a more detailed factory audit for specific industries with engineers, if you need.Here are two law firms that you can talk with. The first is a US firm with an office in Shanghai and the second is a group of western educated Chinese lawyers in Shenzhen. The cheapest is the Chinese guys, but the Shanghai firm is probably some of the best lawyers in China. I’ve used both before.Dan Harris: Dan Harris @ China Law BlogLi Yan: Liyan @ JunzeJun LawIf you have any other questions, let me know.