TPA

Two More Myths About Business in China

Shaun, I think that your sampling of citizens for your survey is skewed toward the upper class of Chinese society and/or you need to choose better examples for your articles. Most of the skepticism with this articles seem to stem from your conclusions generated by this Anna person.

Next time you're in a taxi, ask the driver how much she's able to save on a monthly basis and whether she spends every dime at Zara and on travel overseas. In fact, you can also ask her whether she's happy with her leadership or whether China's economic growth has helped her and her family or even whether the health care system is as broken as some would suggest. The good common folk at their income bracket probably represent a much, much larger swath of the Chinese population than Anna. Anna's 月光族 generation (or "moonlight tribe" in English) is a growing, but still very small, portion of the society.

But yes... I agree it is a good time for retailers to be entering China if they have not yet.

How Long Will China Put Up with Our Money Printing?

I think that you are reading too much Sun Tzu.

I currently live in China and work as the only English speaker in a local company. From my experience, trust and honesty are the only traits that the Chinese believe in when it comes to business. That is the whole basis of the Eastern guanxi culture where business is done on relationships and connections.

Also understand that this is a BIG nation... perhaps the largest (in terms of resources, population, and potential) that the US has ever competed against. It definitely has its flaws both politically and culturally (I am of American-Chinese, by the way), but It would make sense for both Americans and Chinese to better understand each other's cultures before making remarks about who stands the moral high ground.


On Sep 08 08:17 AM Michael Clark wrote:

> The Chinese are almost always disingenuous. It's that inscrutability
> factor. Honesty is less a value in the East than is getting an advantage
> by misleading a potential or real adversary.
>
> Those who take the Chinese at face-value are not really understanding
> Chinese culture. Face/positive appearance is the positive value.
> Honesty is almost never a consideration.