Note 20 - Employee Defined Contribution Plan

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

20. Employee defined contribution plan

Full time employees of the Company in the PRC participate in a government mandated defined contribution plan, pursuant to which certain pension benefits, medical care, employee housing fund and other welfare benefits are provided to employees. Chinese labor regulations require that the PRC subsidiaries of the Company make contributions to the government for these benefits based on certain percentages of the employees’ salaries. The employee benefits were expensed as incurred. The Company has

no

legal obligation for the benefits beyond the contributions made. The total amounts for such employee benefits were approximately

US$318,000

and

US$456,000

for the

nine

months ended

September 30, 2017

and

2016,

respectively. The total amounts for such employee benefits were approximately

US$92,000

and

US$158,000

for the

three

months ended

September 30, 2017

and

2016,

respectively.