BCR_NO_CITY_REPLACE<\/p>\n
Chapter 1: Why I Started Writing Before Anyone Knew My Name<\/em><\/p>\n Published as part of the Trust Across Borders series.<\/em><\/p>\n The first English legal article I published attracted almost no attention.<\/p>\n It appeared on my website, xuzhousoft.com<\/strong>, a domain I had originally registered years earlier when I co-founded a software company with several partners before practicing law.<\/p>\n By the time I published that article, I had already become a practicing lawyer and had recently started my independent practice.<\/p>\n I was not well known.<\/p>\n I had no international reputation.<\/p>\n Most importantly, I had no idea whether anyone outside China would ever read what I wrote.<\/p>\n Still, I published the article.<\/p>\n Then I wrote another.<\/p>\n And another.<\/p>\n People sometimes ask why I chose to write in English instead of writing only for Chinese readers.<\/p>\n The answer was simple.<\/p>\n I believed foreign businesses needed practical guidance even more than Chinese businesses did.<\/p>\n Chinese companies already had access to Chinese lawyers.<\/p>\n They understood the language.<\/p>\n They were familiar with the legal system.<\/p>\n They knew where to find professional help.<\/p>\n Foreign businesses faced a completely different situation.<\/p>\n They had to overcome language barriers.<\/p>\n Different legal systems.<\/p>\n Different business cultures.<\/p>\n Different expectations.<\/p>\n And perhaps the greatest challenge of all:<\/p>\n Finding someone in China they could trust.<\/p>\n When I first started writing, I read many English articles about Chinese law.<\/p>\n Most were written by professors, researchers, or large international law firms.<\/p>\n I respected academic research very much.<\/p>\n But foreign businesses rarely asked academic questions.<\/p>\n They asked practical questions.<\/p>\n What happens if my Chinese supplier refuses to deliver?<\/p>\n Can I recover my money?<\/p>\n Should I sue in China or somewhere else?<\/p>\n What evidence should I preserve?<\/p>\n How do Chinese courts actually work?<\/p>\n These were not questions that could be answered simply by quoting legislation.<\/p>\n They required practical experience.<\/p>\n That was the perspective I hoped to share.<\/p>\n At the beginning, I wasn’t trying to attract clients.<\/p>\n I wasn’t trying to build a personal brand.<\/p>\n I simply wanted to help foreign businesses better understand China’s legal and commercial environment.<\/p>\n I believed that if even one article could help one company avoid one serious mistake, then writing it was worthwhile.<\/p>\n I had no idea whether anyone would ever read those articles.<\/p>\n But I believed that someone, somewhere, would eventually need them.<\/p>\n So I kept writing.<\/p>\n One day, I received my first inquiry from a foreign business.<\/p>\n My first reaction was not excitement.<\/p>\n It was doubt.<\/p>\n I wondered whether the inquiry was genuine.<\/p>\n Receiving an international legal inquiry seemed almost unbelievable at that time.<\/p>\n After several exchanges, however, I realized the company was real.<\/p>\n Its dispute was real.<\/p>\n And somehow, something I had written had reached someone on the other side of the world.<\/p>\n That moment changed everything.<\/p>\n For the first time, I realized that words written by an ordinary lawyer in China could genuinely help someone thousands of kilometers away.<\/p>\n Originally, I simply wanted to explain Chinese law.<\/p>\n Over time, however, I realized something much more important.<\/p>\n Foreign businesses were not simply looking for legal information.<\/p>\n They were looking for someone who could help them understand China.<\/p>\n Someone who could explain not only the law, but also the business environment, the legal culture, and the practical realities behind commercial disputes.<\/p>\n At that moment, writing stopped being a hobby.<\/p>\n It became part of my professional responsibility.<\/p>\n I could not help every company.<\/p>\n But I could write something that might help the next one.<\/p>\n Even today, I still believe that helping one business make one better decision is worthwhile.<\/p>\n Many people believe trust begins when a lawyer and a client first meet.<\/p>\n My experience has been different.<\/p>\n Trust often begins much earlier.<\/p>\n It begins when someone searches for an answer.<\/p>\n Reads an article.<\/p>\n Learns something useful.<\/p>\n And realizes that another person has taken the time to share knowledge without expecting anything in return.<\/p>\n Many of my international clients first came to know me through articles I had written years earlier.<\/p>\n Long before they sent an email.<\/p>\n Long before they made a phone call.<\/p>\n Long before they became clients.<\/p>\n Looking back, I now understand something I did not realize when I wrote that first article.<\/p>\n I was not simply writing about Chinese law.<\/p>\n I was quietly building trust across borders.<\/p>\n \u2190 Introduction: Why I Wrote This Book<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2192 Chapter 2: The Values That Changed My Career<\/strong><\/p>\n To read the complete Trust Across Borders<\/em> series, search:<\/p>\n Trust Across Borders<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BCR_NO_CITY_REPLACE Trust Across Borders Chapter 1: Why I Started Writing Before Anyone Knew My Name Published as part of the Trust Across Borders series. A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[9,10,11,12,14,16,17,18],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trust-across-borders","tag-china-commercial-dispute","tag-china-debt-recovery","tag-china-lawyer","tag-china-supplier-dispute","tag-trust-across-borders","tag-chinese-law","tag-cross-border-business","tag-doing-business-with-prc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xuzhousoft.com\/beijing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA Website That Nobody Knew<\/h2>\n
\nWhy Write in English?<\/h2>\n
\nAcademic Research and Practical Questions<\/h2>\n
\nHelping Before Being Hired<\/h2>\n
\nThe First Foreign Inquiry<\/h2>\n
\nWhen Writing Became a Mission<\/h2>\n
\nTrust Begins Before the First Conversation<\/h2>\n
\nContinue Reading<\/h2>\n