That’s trouble in Shanghai.: Things in China have certainly improved in the last few years, but as we’ve said before – don’t be taken in by the shiny new skyscrapers and the modern offices. Beneath the surface lurk the same corruption, xenophobia, and dishonesty that have poisoned the business environment here for centuries. While it will never go away completely, you can take actions to safeguard your interests. Start off by finding partners your can rely on. If you are told that something is illegal but that there is a way around it, be very wary. And never forget that it is not how much you earn that counts – but how much you keep. One of the first conversations you should have with your team of consultants and advisors is about exit strategy.

--

That's China: After seven years building up a magazine empire in China, I (Mark Kitto) had it stolen by the state. I lived in the grey zone that is China's media business and, despite my commitment to the country, paid a high price. ...[A big US publisher commissioned a book by Mark Kitto. After the manuscript had been edited, the publisher dropped it for fear of harming its Chinese interests. Those interests fall under the authority of the State Information Council]

--

China Business Definitions (April 1 edition) - SCM: Special Chinese Method. What all young, male mainland Chinese seem to believe exists to solve any conceivable business challenge. Note: Unless you are cooking, writing, or bribing local officials, THERE IS NO SPECIAL CHINESE METHOD!! Or rather there is, but it will not result in an outcome that you consider to be successful or effective. If there really were SCMs that worked, you wouldn’t be here, now would you? SCMs are invariably simple, require little pre-planning but much post-disaster management, and usually involve handing over money or valuable equipment to an employee’s classmate’s friend’s neighbor’s colleague’s son. Would you really be surprised to hear that it never, ever works?

--

鄭義:曹長青《和劉賓雁分道揚鑣》斷章取義--曹文歪曲電視採訪《走出千年泥濘》: 大多數作家並不擅長於邏輯嚴密的政治哲學式表達。劉賓雁亦然。他的浪漫氣質和理想主義，的確也使他的許多政治表述有欠明朗清晰。這是不應苛求的。

--

Look to the future of China — not just its past.: Too much ink has been devoted to comparisons of “traditional Chinese methods” vs. “Western methods” of doing business. The airport newsstand best-sellers and glossy news weeklies are packed with admonishments to “preserve face” and “build relationships” as though all Western business travelers were Ming-dynasty emissaries waiting for a high-ranking eunuch to take our message to the Inner Court. Local Chinese writers have jumped on the bandwagon, poking fun at the clueless westerners blundering towards failure in China because they don’t understand the local culture.
Reality check 1: Western MNCs are doing well here, because this is what they do. They are multinational. They adjust to new cultures and new environments. Their brand power in China has been growing fast and deep. They hire the best local talent, pay the highest salaries, and invest the most. They have no culture, no beliefs, and no predispositions. They are machines. Biff- Machines... If only people could try to be more like machines. They'd be all that more intelligent.

--

Is China Going Green, Part VIII? -- Well The Wall Street Journal Says It Is So You'd Better Believe It: Moves by Plantronics to go beyond basic environmental requirements helped ensure that local authorities became very enthusiastic for this project, said Terry Walters, the company's senior vice president of operations. "They were in our corner the whole time, fighting for us to get through the approval process, and fast."
We have found the same thing in our China work for foreign companies, particularly in the last few months. Registering a company to do business in China is often easier if the company you are seeking to register does not pollute or goes to great lengths to minimize pollutants.

--

China is Expensive -- NOT. Go Second Tier and Life Will Be Good: These "China is getting expensive stories" make the mistake of equating Shanghai and Beijing with all of China, effectively ignoring more than a billion people, whose wages are lower than those in China's ex-pat centers. The story I would be writing is how western companies are coming to realize there is more to China than just Shanghai and Beijing, and how they are beginning to consider a greater number of factors in deciding where to locate within China.
I am seeing more western companies interested in starting their China operations in cities outside the typical favorites like Shanghai, Gaungzho, Beijing, and Shenzhen. I also am hearing more talk from companies already in those cities about expanding elsewhere, with reasons as varied as the companies themselves. Some are interested in regional or city tax incentives. Some are thinking about logistics. Some want greater exposure to China's internal market. Some just want to be somewhere quieter and/or less polluted. And yes, some want to be where wages are lower or where the workforce they need is more accessible.

--

Sujiatun: Why I still believe - Over the last week, the Communists rolled out the big gun in their propaganda campaign against the charges of organ harvesting in Sujiatun: the U.S. State Department. To be accurate, the Department rolled itself out, and to be fair, it merely stated it had not found evidence of Falun Gong organ-harvesting. Still, it was enough to sow some doubt in the Sujiatun accounts throughout the blogosphere.