The Rise of the Dragon

I was wandering around one of my favorite blogs Silk Road International about a week ago and came across a good post, NO, a great post.  To someone who knows little about business in China this post may come across as brutish, disdainful or even condescending, but it really isn’t.  The posts author even takes special care within the body to defend himself, and diffuse any notion of racism.

The post is long but VERY worth the time necessary to read.  The premise of the post is simple, “don’t lie to foreigners. Even if the news is bad, don’t lie or cover it up. That just causes more problems.”

My main take-away, which I personally see as the root cause for most China/US problems is culture difference.  Things are very different in China than in the US and ignoring that fact is not only stupid but also a futile business practice.

The author really hit the nail on the head, at least to me, with the following comments:

“It seems to me that many foreigners are willing to “acclimate” themselves to the less than stringent legal environment in China way too quickly. There is no justification for cheating people just because its being done by others.”

“Don’t use the lower standards to justify questionable practices on your end. My friend Mike said it best: Many foreigners come here with the idea that China is risky and so they abandon all standards and safeguards and jump into bad deals and dangerous situations just because “hey, it’s risky” here. The opposite should be true-if there is really more risk here, the there should be more DD, more QC, more factory visits, not less.”

Source: Ancient Chinese Secret: Don’t Lie (to foreigners), it’s just not worth it.