Skip to main content

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
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What an Executive Coach and Business Coach Does

Post a Comment
Read more

The Secret Under the Mattress: Why would a 79-year Man Bet So Big on 4D?

It was 2007 when we discovered his secret. While moving my father’s mattress, we found them: heaps and heaps of Singapore Pools 4D tickets. They were stacked in layers, a paper trail of lost hopes. What shocked us most wasn’t just the volume, but the stakes. He wasn’t betting a few dollars for fun. He was punting hundreds of dollars per draw—nearly ten times a month. At the time, my siblings and I were furious. Our father was a 79-year-old retiree. We wondered, with a mix of anger and confusion, why a man at his stage of life would need to win such "big money." What was he going to do with the money? We saw it as a reckless habit, a sign of poor judgment in his final years.  Some of us would say, "If I were to give him money to buy 4D, why don't I use the money and buy 4D myself?  At least I have better discipline".  It has taken me two decades, and the experience of raising my own three grown-up children, to finally see the truth that was hidden under that matt...
Post a Comment
Read more

Head Bleeding when the Chair Falls

The Weight of Silence: What Were We Really Arguing About? My earliest memories are punctuated by the sound of shouting. In 1970, when I was barely 6 years old, I stood as a small witness to the fierce quarrels between my father and my late eldest brother Kah Yang (he passed away in 1971 at the age of 17). As I grew up, these contradictions became the soundtrack of our lives, usually centered around our family's shoe shop and clothing stalls in Chinatown. In the court of family opinion, the verdict was almost always the same: my father was "wrong." He was judged as a man who didn't fulfill his role, who wasn't "burdening" enough for the family’s success. But as I look back from the vantage point of 2026, I have to ask: Was that actually true? Let me finally put to rest what my father did right: the truths that were buried under decades of criticism: Unseen Labor: He worked grueling, long hours. I remember him hauling boxes of goods and equipment to set u...
Post a Comment
Read more