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The Citizens United Case And Chinese Companies. All In A Day's Work.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Yesterday, Elizabeth Lynch of the China Law & Policy Blog, testified before the United States Congress on "potential foreign government influence in our elections post-Citizens United." Elizabeth writes about her testimony in a post, entitled, "Congressional Testimony of China Law & Policy - With Link to full Webcast." Elizabeth got the call to come testify after having written an article for the Huffington Post, entitled, "Citizens United: U.S. Politics with Chinese Characteristics," in which she talked about how an essentially uncountable number of what constitute US companies are wholly owned by foreigners and how these companies are well positioned to influence U.S. elections. Now for the best part. In her testimony before Congress, Elizabeth mentioned me:

As the world becomes more interconnected and brands in other countries become more global, the number of U.S. subsidiaries with a foreign parent corporation will only increase. Noted international lawyer Dan Harris, of Harris & Moure in Seattle, believes that the current number is substantial. In just looking at China he remarked, ?My small firm represents a number of U.S. companies that are wholly-owned by Chinese companies or by Chinese citizens and that convinces me there must be thousands of such companies in the U.S.

Thank you Elizabeth! In just the last few months, my firm's work on forming US business entities (mostly limited liability companies) for foreigners has shot through the roof. Foreign companies still view the United States as a safe harbor during uncertain times and our incoming U.S. company formation practice has taken off because of this. In particular, we are seeing a massive increase in companies from Venezuela (thank you Hugo Chavez) and from Russia seeking to diversify their risks by having a United States company with which they can conduct their international business. I have no reason to believe any of these entities are coming to the United States with any desire to have a political impact here, but I am fascinated with the idea that they might.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on May 12, 2010 (boomark / email).