Doing Business in China: Myths and Truths

Many people have got the following facts wrong about doing business in China:

1. Doing Business in China is NOT about Doing Business with the Chinese Only
This is because there are many non-China Chinese and many non-Chinese especially in major cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

2. Doing Business in China is NOT about Doing Business with the China Government or Communists
This is because there are many private sector businesses in China that one can do business with. Also, although the Communist Party of China governs China, there is very little communist-type of governance in business as the whole economy has been run like capitalist system since 1979

3. It is hard to take out money made from doing business in China. There is no restriction on the amount of money that foreigners can take out from China, except of the limit of 20,000 RMB cash at the airports. Almost every bank in the world has branches in China, so you can freely transfer money in and out of China as long as you have a business.

4. One needs to bribe people to get things done in China
This is definitely not the case, as many things are done with proper governance system and rules. In fact giving bribes is a crime for everyone in China

5. Doing business in China is about doing business in major cities only
Actually there are more than 600 cities and several hundreds of counties in China. One can do business with many cities that even the local Chinese have not heard of. With the Belt Road Initiative (or One Belt One Road initiative), one can simply do business in China by not travelling to China at all, but to the many countries that are linked in the Belt Road Initiative. A good example is Pakistan. There are more Chinese contractors in Pakistan and one can easily sell to these Pakistanis without doing business with any Chinese cities! (For simple explanation on what is One Belt One Road, read here)

6. Tipping is Not allowed. There is no habit of tipping but tipping is not illegal in China

7. You cannot drink except certain hours. Actually there is no legal drinking age in China. Also, many places have no limit on drinking hours!

By Andy Ng, Chief Trainer Coach at Asia Trainers at www.asiatrainers.com. Read article on One Belt, One Road at here

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