By Meng 
As we all know, when having a trade dispute with Chinese suppliers or factories, filing a lawsuit in court is not a first choice. Lawsuits will always cost a lot and take a lot of time. I kept thinking about how to solve disputes effectively and creatively from the practice when helping overseas client outside China deal with their disputes with China factories.
In the last article, I mentioned the demand letter is one of the important ways to solve problems. However, I have to say, that the demand letter is not a threat but a serious negotiation. I will discuss how to write a demand letter in another legal article. However, besides the demand letter, I think we can also adopt a new approach to tackle disputes based on my real legal experiences.
I take an example to explain this. This year I took over a case in which a China supplier did not deliver the products to my client after receiving a payment. Obviously, in this case, sending a demand letter is a useful try. However, I also reported this case to a local governmental authority where the defaulting factory resides at the same time. As for the form of the report, a written report is strongly suggested. Of course, you can also make a direct call to the governmental authority.
After two days, I got a call from the governmental authority, and he asked for some details about this case. Then he told me that they would step in this case and help mediate between parties with their best. In China, the governmental authority has a high authority, thus, in some cases, we can also ask them for help. Finally, the dispute has been settled successfully.
What I want to say is reporting to a governmental authority can become an approach to help solve trade disputes and we can not ignore it. Besides, sending a demand letter and reporting it to the governmental authority can be conducted at the same time.
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Contact us:
Jack Meng, is a Chinese lawyer practicing in a Shanghai law firm.
finlandlove@outlook.com