Case Studies

The Situation

A multi-generational Asian family office with holdings spanning North America, Greater China, and Southeast Asia was preparing a major reallocation of liquid capital across U.S. and Asia-Pacific assets. The family had strong internal investment expertise but felt the strategic environment shifting under them — escalating U.S.–China strategic competition, export-control and investment-screening regimes expanding in both directions, and a sanctions and countermeasures landscape that was reshaping the risk profile of cross-border capital in real time. They wanted a senior, politics-neutral framework for thinking about where U.S.–China relations were headed and what that meant for how, where, and how fast they deployed capital.

Scope of Work

Retained geopolitical-risk and capital-strategy engagement. We built a structured scenario framework for the U.S.–China relationship over a three-to-five-year horizon — covering trade and tariff trajectory, technology decoupling and export-control widening, investment screening (CFIUS and its Chinese counterparts), sanctions and countermeasures escalation, and the Taiwan Strait as a tail-risk variable. We mapped the family's existing and prospective holdings against each scenario to identify concentration, jurisdictional, and counterparty exposures that would move differently depending on which path relations took. We delivered a written strategic outlook with risk-ranked findings, decision triggers tied to observable signals, and a phased capital-deployment framework that preserved optionality rather than betting on a single outcome.

Outcome

The family office adopted the scenario framework as the standing lens for its investment committee, restructured two concentrated cross-border positions that sat in the highest-exposure band, and slowed the pace of a planned U.S. technology-sector allocation until the export-control and investment-screening picture clarified. The engagement now runs as a quarterly strategic review, giving the family a disciplined way to re-test their assumptions as the U.S.–China relationship evolves.

The Situation

A China-based industrial exporter derived the majority of its revenue from customers across North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with shipping lanes, banking relationships, and key suppliers all running through the Taiwan Strait and the broader Western Pacific corridor. As cross-strait tension escalated in headlines and in official statements on both sides, the board grew concerned that a sharp deterioration — even short of conflict — could disrupt shipping, trigger sanctions and countermeasures, spook overseas customers, and reshape the company's access to dollar clearing and international banking. Leadership wanted a structured, politics-neutral assessment of what Taiwan Strait scenarios would actually mean for their business, rather than reacting to headlines.

Scope of Work

Taiwan Strait Scenario Briefing engagement. We built a set of cross-strait scenarios across a three-to-five-year horizon — from sustained tension short of crisis, to acute crisis and limited blockade posturing, to a severe disruption scenario — and mapped each against the company's revenue geography, shipping and logistics exposure, dollar-clearing and banking dependencies, supplier footprint, and overseas-customer concentration. We delivered a written scenario framework with exposure mapping, decision triggers tied to observable signals (military posture, official statements, shipping-insurance markets, sanctions designations), and a phased contingency plan covering logistics diversification, currency and banking redundancy, customer-communication strategy, and the operational hedges available at each escalation level.

Outcome

The company began shifting a portion of its dollar-clearing and key-customer logistics to alternative corridors, pre-qualified backup banking relationships outside the most exposed channels, and adopted the scenario framework as a standing board-level review. When cross-strait tension spiked again months later, the board had a pre-agreed set of triggers and responses ready rather than improvising under pressure.

The Situation

A cross-border private equity fund was nearing close on a minority stake in a U.S. technology company with sensitive data and dual-use adjacency, alongside a China-based limited partner. The fund's deal team and counsel were split on whether the transaction triggered CFIUS jurisdiction and whether a voluntary filing was the safer path. They needed a senior, politics-neutral read on national-security risk flags and filing strategy before committing to a path with their CFIUS counsel.

Scope of Work

CFIUS Filing-Strategy Brief delivered in eight business days. We assessed jurisdictional triggers — the sensitive-data and dual-use profile of the target, the China-LP's indirect beneficial-ownership path, and the control-versus-passive structure of the stake — and mapped national-security risk flags against current CFIUS enforcement priorities. We delivered a written brief with a clear file / notify / restructure recommendation, the mitigation options most likely to satisfy national-security concerns, and the political-risk context the deal team should be prepared to address.

Outcome

The fund restructured the China-LP's participation into a passive, information-rights-stripped position before close and filed a short-form joint voluntary notice. CFIUS cleared the transaction without a mitigation agreement. The deal team has since used the risk-flag framework as a standing screen on subsequent cross-border technology investments.

The Situation

A U.S. industrial distributor of dual-use components had built a profitable China business over years, shipping a mix of clearly commercial parts and items that sat closer to the controlled line. A new round of Bureau of Industry and Security export-control rules, combined with expanded OFAC sanctions designations, left the company's compliance team uncertain about which product lines now required licenses, whether any longstanding customers had become restricted parties, and whether the company's re-export and end-use assumptions still held. Leadership needed a fast, senior read on where the real exposure sat before committing to a full compliance-program rebuild.

Scope of Work

Export Controls & Sanctions Exposure Brief delivered in nine business days. We reviewed the product catalog against the EAR Commerce Control List and ITAR thresholds, flagging the items most likely to require export licenses or fall under end-use and end-user controls; screened the top China customers and end-users against the Entity List, Denied Persons List, Unverified List, and OFAC SDN and Consolidated Sanctions Lists; and assessed end-use and re-export risk across the distributor's most exposed product lines. We delivered a written exposure snapshot with risk-ranked findings, a license-likelihood read on the flagged items, and a recommended next-step roadmap for the company's counsel and compliance team.

Outcome

The distributor paused shipments on two product lines pending license determinations, exited one customer relationship that screening placed inside the sanctions perimeter, and adopted the exposure snapshot as the basis for a prioritized compliance-program rebuild with its counsel. The roadmap now governs its quarterly product-and-customer review as export-control rules continue to move.

The Situation

A mid-sized U.S. consumer products brand with a loyal retail footprint sourced roughly seventy percent of its private-label goods from mainland China, with several supplier tiers running through the Xinjiang region. A major retail customer had begun demanding forced-labor compliance documentation under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and the brand's own counsel flagged a likely CBP detention risk on a core product line. Leadership knew it needed to move but had no framework for sequencing the move, choosing alternative countries, or building the compliance documentation its customers would accept.

Scope of Work

Twelve-week Supply-Chain Realignment & UFLPA Compliance engagement. We mapped the brand's supplier tiers for Xinjiang nexus, Entity List and sanctioned-party connections, and CBP detention likelihood, then built a country-by-country comparison across Vietnam, Thailand, and northern Mexico covering cost, capacity, regulatory stability, and labor-environment credibility with U.S. buyers. We delivered a phased realignment roadmap moving the highest-exposure product lines first, a supplier-vetting and documentation protocol designed to satisfy UFLPA compliance requests, and a transition sequence that protected the brand's in-season retail commitments.

Outcome

The brand relocated its two highest-exposure product lines out of mainland China within fourteen months, passed its largest customer's forced-labor compliance audit, and avoided a CBP detention that had been flagged on a core SKU. The realignment roadmap now governs its annual sourcing review.

The Situation

A mid-sized Asian industrial manufacturer was under pressure from two directions: tariffs eroding export margins, and a key U.S. customer requesting onshore production capacity. The board had shortlisted two state-level economic development zones but lacked a framework for comparing them on political exposure, foreign-direct-investment review risk, environmental compliance, labor environment, or community reception of foreign-owned industrial operations.

Scope of Work

Eight-week project engagement covering site comparison, comprehensive risk and regulatory analysis, and a sequenced entry plan. We expanded the candidate list to three locations and mapped each against five risk categories: foreign-direct-investment review and state-level scrutiny specific to the client's sector; EPA and state environmental permitting exposure given the client's manufacturing profile; the local labor and union environment at each site; community sentiment toward foreign-owned industrial development and the historical posture of local officials; and entitlement and permitting timelines that would shape the construction critical path. We delivered a U.S. subsidiary structure recommendation with key milestone gates.

Outcome

The client selected the third location — the one we surfaced — and avoided two latent exposures at their original preferred site (an environmental compliance issue and a less favorable labor environment). Plant construction is underway, the subsidiary is operating, and the original customer commitment has been honored on schedule.

The Situation

A U.S. technology company with a China-based engineering team, mainland data infrastructure, and a network of local partners watched Beijing layer new outbound rules in quick succession — export controls on critical minerals and dual-use technology, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, the Unreliable Entity List, and tightening data-export and anti-espionage rules. Leadership could recite the U.S. side of the ledger but had no structured read of China's own rulebook, and no map of where their people, data, and counterparties sat inside it. The board wanted a clear-eyed assessment before approving the next round of China investment.

Scope of Work

China Regulatory & Countermeasures Preparedness engagement. We mapped the company's exposure across each pillar of China's outbound regulatory stack: where their hardware inputs and licensed technology touched controlled dual-use items; whether any local partner, customer, or cloud provider appeared on or near the Unreliable Entity List or countermeasures listings; how the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law and blocking rules could constrain their ability to comply with U.S. sanctions or export-control requests; and where China's data-export, data-security, and anti-espionage rules reached into their mainland engineering team, employee devices, source code, and cross-border data flows. We delivered a written exposure map with risk-ranked findings and a countermeasures readiness plan — data-localization and cross-border data-flow options, partner-vetting triggers, technology-handling protocols, and a staged contingency for drawing down exposure if rules tightened further.

Outcome

The board paused a planned expansion of the mainland engineering team and redirected that hiring into a Singapore hub, after the engagement surfaced two exposures the team had underestimated — a cross-border data flow that would have tripped China's data-export rules under the new regime, and a local-cloud dependency sitting inside the countermeasures perimeter. The company adopted the readiness plan as a standing operating framework, with quarterly reviews as Beijing's outbound rules continue to move.

The Situation

A U.S. real estate development project qualified for EB-5 capital came to us early in its overseas marketing planning. The developer had a well-structured project, strong U.S. credentials, and qualified securities counsel — but had never marketed an EB-5 project in Asia. They had no relationships with licensed migration agents in any of the source markets that mattered, no bilingual marketing infrastructure suited to an Asian agent audience, and no clear sense of what those agents would need from the developer in order to do their work.

Scope of Work

Multi-year retained advisory engagement under our EB-5 Developer Market Intelligence service line, centered on developing the project's overseas marketing infrastructure and licensed migration agent network. We developed the project's bilingual marketing materials for use by the developer and the licensed migration agents in source markets — Chinese and English FAQ documents, a bilingual project landing page and supporting microsite, agent training collateral, and source-country compliance-aware content. We built a structured map of the questions licensed migration agents most commonly need answered on projects of this profile in order to brief their own clients — covering project structure, capital partners, timeline and milestones, projected exit pathway, sponsor track record, and immigration-related questions — and translated each into clear, source-language-appropriate content. We led identification and direct relationship-building with licensed migration agents across multiple Asian source markets, and delivered quarterly intelligence updates on wealth migration trends, source-country regulatory shifts, and the competitive landscape.

Outcome

The developer reached its capital raise target within the projected timeline. The project moved into construction on schedule. The bilingual marketing infrastructure and migration agent network continued to support the developer on subsequent phases and has become a durable distribution channel for follow-on offerings.

The Situation

A logistics industry trade association in California wanted a substantive member presentation on four converging issues — AI's role in cross-border logistics, the evolving U.S. tariff environment, new U.S. Customs enforcement measures on imports from China, and broader trade tensions with China. Members — freight forwarders, customs brokers, importers, and logistics providers — had read the same headlines as everyone else and wanted something more useful.

Scope of Work

Brian B. Su delivered the presentation to association members across four connected segments. AI: how the technology is reshaping logistics operations — documentation, customs classification, forecasting, route optimization — and the realistic adoption timeline versus the hype. Tariffs: which categories had actually moved, which were posturing, and how operators should structure their workflows for ongoing volatility. U.S. Customs enforcement on China imports: the practical implications of newer enforcement measures — expanded UFLPA scrutiny, withhold release orders, antidumping and countervailing duty enforcement, and tightened country-of-origin verification — and how freight forwarders, customs brokers, and importers should be adjusting their documentation, supplier due diligence, and risk posture. China trade: connecting the geopolitical context — decoupling pressures, supply chain realignment, source-country shifts — to the day-to-day decisions members were facing. The format included extended Q&A and follow-on materials.

Outcome

The presentation generated substantial member engagement and follow-on inquiries to the association. Several attendees reached out for individual advisory conversations on specific cross-border situations they were navigating, and the format has since been requested by other industry associations.