Foreword

Previous editions of Doing Business in China have been well received by the U.S. business community. We have been asked regularly to revise and update it.

Since 1976 rapid changes have affected all aspects of Chinese society, including China's foreign trade policies, practices, and institutions. In particular, China's trade with the United States has changed significantly since the normalization of relations between China and the United States on January 1, 1979.

We wish to emphasize that this period of change is continuing, and that in particular, changes in Chinese organizations and the locus of authority for conducting foreign trade are taking place. These changes will have a substantial impact on the way in which U.S. companies do business with China. For example, China has granted new authority to local levels of government and to central ministries. As of this writing, it is not clear how extensive or pervasive this process of decentralization is or how dynamically these new powers will be exercised. Moreover, the Chinese are in the middle of a complex and time consuming process of formulating laws on a wide range of issues affecting trade, such as patents, taxes, commercial codes, etc.

Nevertheless, we have decided to proceed with this publication because there is great demand for up-to-date information on doing business with China and because the information in the previous report has been substantially overtaken by the events of the past two years.

The information in this report is current as of October 1, 1980. With the caveat to users that this should be considered an interim report on the direction of China's evolving foreign trade policies, practices and institutions, we hope that this report will prove useful.