Just call or email any time if you need further help.

Kristi

kheim@seattletimes.com
464-2718

Thank you for the information on guanxi! I think I will choose this topic for my paper.

Best regards
-Veena

I noticed that Joe Borich is coming to speak to the class, so I bet he can give some more examples.

Veena and Scott and Everyone –

I am posting two good articles on guanxi and Chinese business style on Blackboard – check them out at the top of the readings section. BTW, this might be a great topic for your final paper, if it interests you.

A video of Kristi Heim’s talk has now been posted on Blackboard as well – under the category of Speaker Slides/Info/Videos.

I’d really appreciate some examples from anyone who can help me out here!

Thanks!
Veena

But environmentalists would acknowledge that they have a long way to go. Civil society groups are getting more involved. In one event this summer called the Green Long March, 1,000 students marched across 22 provinces in a youth conservation movement. http://www.futuregenerations.org.cn/en/

One is that the US has mixed results in its WTO case against China: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4986W720081009

The other is that President Bush just signed the PRO-IP Act into law, elevating IP protection to a cabinet level position.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10064527-38.html

I wonder if frustration at the lack of traction in getting IP rights enforced in China contributed to this move. The film and recording industries do not seem to have had much success there, whereas software companies seem to be faring better.
http://www.bsa.org/country/News%20and%20Events/News%20Archives/en/2008/en-09172008-chinamtg.aspx

Masahiro: The nature of China’s political system affects both business and relations with other nations.

Airplane orders in China are approved by the central government as part of long-term planning, so decisions are subject to political factors. For Boeing, those factors include U.S. visa policy, export controls and overall bilateral ties, including policy toward Taiwan. As we see in the Airbus case, another factor may be putting more manufacturing in China. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/aerospace/archives/149910.asp

China typically announces airplane deals during official state visits or high-level government meetings.

Many people I have met in China are not as concerned with ideology as with the effectiveness and accountability of government, including the level of corruption.

(One could argue that if people had a more direct say in government, they would be able to hold officials more accountable. Instead, anger reaches the boiling point and mass protests erupt, especially in the countryside.)

But for the most part, it seems that the majority of people see their opportunities expanding, individual freedoms growing and the standard of living rising. Yue Zhang makes a good point about how ordinary people are connecting as part of the global community.

Rather than political struggles between two parties or among multiple parties, in China the tension is often between the central government and provincial or local governments.
For example, central government policy has strengthened intellectual property rights and environmental protection in recent years, but often these policies are not carried down and enforced at the local level.

I think the best way to persuade any country to improve environmental policy is to show how doing so is in its own best interest. The best evidence for China to reform its environmental policy is the dangerously poor quality of its water, air and soil and the damaged health of its own citizens. The country can’t continue on its path without serious and permanent consequences, which would jeopardize further economic development and require more expensive and painful mitigation later.

Here is a great resource on environmental issues in China:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1421&fuseaction=topics.home

I’m looking for some information to answer the questions on IP compliance. In the meantime, here is a resource on law in China: http://www.chinalawblog.com/

For Scott,

Relationships are important for business in both societies, but I think in China the concept of guanxi means something like “rights and obligations based on mutual trust,” a definition offered by Joe Borich that I thought was really accurate. I see business people in China spending a lot of time (and money) to build relationships (long conversations over the banquet table, years invested to get to know someone), which give them both a right to be helped and an obligation to extend help, as well as a kind of trust that is somehow deeper than a legal contract.

Here in the U.S., relationships like those formed in college or promoted on social networking sites, for example, are useful for making introductions or hearing about jobs, but I see them somehow as more casual and non-binding than the kind of guanxi networks prevalent in China.

Maybe others have thoughts on that…