Camerons' bull about China chop

Doing business in China can be daunting, but fortunately the CMS network is here to help. The alliance has published a little red book of its own, offering a guide to China's unique brand of capitalism.

ABChina explains, for example, that Hukou is a system for registering residents at the People's Bank of China.

And did you know that guanxi is Chinese for relationships and refers to "the importance of connections in order to secure privileges or advantages in China"?CMS Cameron McKenna certainly could have used some guanxi in 2003 when it dramatically abandoned its Beijing office and made 40 lawyers in Hong Kong redundant.

At the time Camerons said it did not plan to have a full-service capacity in the country again. Alliance firm CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, whose Shanghai branch was responsible for ABChina, clearly has other ideas.