Paradise lost: the downside of doing business with China

Times Online ^ | July 16, 2009 | Carl Mortished

[myknowledge]

We need a new primer on how to do business in China. Years ago, on a flight to Shanghai, you could spot an MBA graduate in every seat mouthing polite mantras — how to show “face”, how to behave at a banquet. Long on protocol, the books were short on useful information. What you really need to know is who’s in charge; which Communist Party official pulls the strings; what to do when a bureaucrat solicits a bribe or the IT staff sell secrets to a state competitor.

A manual for today’s China tyro would make grim reading. A former chairman of Sinopec, the country’s biggest oil refiner, was sentenced to death yesterday for taking bribes. And the harsh law of Chinese state capitalism does not just threaten locals: Rio Tinto, the mining giant, is trying to secure the release of four Chinese staff, including Stern Hu, an Australian of Chinese origin who is their chief iron ore negotiator. All are accused of paying bribes for “state secrets”. They were arrested during tense negotiations over iron ore pricing with China’s steel mills.

There has been no formal charge, just official accusations. The latest, in China Daily, an English language paper, accused Rio of bribing executives at all 16 Chinese mills involved in the negotiations to obtain sensitive information.

[myknowledge]

Looks like China is a no-go for foreign investment.

[DB]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2293749/posts

[myknowledge]

Oh, no, TigerLikesRooster beat me to it first.

[DB]

Maybe it will get more attention this time.

[Leisler]

Commies F’k you over. Who would of thunk it?

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Well put.

They do, whether they wear drab khaki outfits are handsome new suits and sit in the Oval office.

[raybbr]

This reminds me of the guy across the street from me. He went to China a couple of years ago to set up a production line of scaffold parts where he would be saving 10 to 15 percent over what it costs to make them here. He had to take cash for bribing local officials. Of course, they provided him with hookers.

Don't know what's happened since. We no longer speak.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

What we can learn from the Chi-Coms..

Headlines?

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