A dealmaking slowdown is making it harder for international firms to justify their presence in a once vital market.
Police officers patrol past visitors seeking information at a special exhibition of legal services during the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, September 1, 2022. Credit: Andy Wong via AP Photos
For foreign law firms in China, 2023 was supposed to be a comeback year, with the post-Covid reopening generating a rebound in deal making — and a resurgence in fee income.
Things could hardly have turned out more differently. Lawyers say that China’s economic slowdown and chilly political winds have helped make the Chinese market a performance laggard for international law firms’ capital markets practices this year.
Even if China’s economy rebounds soon, some practitioners b
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Agriculture has traditionally been a fruitful area for China-U.S. cooperation, dating back to the two countries’ resumption of diplomatic relations in the 1970s. Now it is just another area marked by Sino-American distrust, as Washington hunts Chinese agriscience “spies” and Beijing races to reduce reliance on U.S. farm exports.
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