Cross-border discovery, and collection in foreign jurisdictions is rarely easy. Those who think it is difficult to collect data in the EU, where privacy restraints conflict with US discovery requirements, may care to think how much harder it is to achieve the same objectives in China.
The difficulties range from state restraints (a “state secret” is widely defined or, rather, it is often not defined at all until you stumble over it) and there are technical difficulties of language to deal with as well. Locally-created email systems and chat networks similarly create problems, both of corporate control and to do with the technical methods of collection.
Consilio gave a webinar in March called Investigation and litigation in China – eDiscovery challenges. It is available for download here.
As well as describing some the difficulties, the webinar makes positive suggestions for dealing with the problems raised by eDiscovery in China.
eDisclosure Information Project 