Defined contribution plan

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

23. 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 (“the Benefits”) are provided to employees. Chinese labor regulations require that the PRC operating subsidiaries of the Company make contributions to the government for these benefits based on certain percentages of the employees’ salaries. Except for contributions made related to the Benefits, the Company has no legal obligation.

The total contributions made, which were expensed as incurred, were $3,097,926 and $2,752,901 for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively.