However, that’s not life for SMEs where a contract may appear not to be worth the paper it’s written on. This is where it’s both true and false.
Chinese contracts — I’ve signed a few. Not with Western firms in China, either. “Not worth the paper they’re written on,” some readers will say. They’re right. And completely wrong.
Many large Chinese companies and state-owned enterprises with international operations increasingly treat Western contracts in the same way as their Western counterparts. The younger generation of business leaders is also inclined to do the same, particularly if they are operating out of Shanghai.
