Secure the right visa in advance

Obtaining a visa for China requires careful preparation, as the process varies depending on the purpose of travel. Business visitors typically need an M visa, which requires an invitation letter from a Chinese company or partner, along with standard documents such as a valid passport, a completed application form, and a recent photo.

Applications must be submitted through the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre (CVASC), which has locations in London, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. Fees vary based on visa type, nationality, and processing speed. Travellers should apply well in advance and double-check requirements, as policies can change. For frequent business travelers, multi-entry visas with longer validity may be an option, simplifying future trips. Ensuring all documents are accurate and complete is essential to avoid delays in the approval process.

Stay connected: SIM cards and VPNs

China’s internet restrictions mean many Western platforms – Google, WhatsApp, Facebook, and even some email services – are blocked. Here’s how to stay connected:

If you want to keep using them, then you’ll need a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs are a bit of a legal grey area in China, but the major illegality tends to relate to selling VPN access rather than using one. Just be sure to get everything installed and ready to go before you get to China. In our experience, the most reliable VPN for use in China is Astrill, although NordVPN and ExpressVPN are also popular.

If you have a good international roaming package, you should also be able to access Google and others on mobile data. If you’d prefer to get a local Chinese phone number for the duration of your trip, China’s three mobile providers – China Unicom, China Mobile, and China Telecom – offer SIM-only plans that you can buy by going into one of their stores. Again, you will need to register with your passport.

Must-Have Apps for Business Travel

China’s digital ecosystem is dominated by local apps. Download these before you go:

Communication and networking

• WeChat (微信) – The all-in-one app for messaging, payments, and business networking.
• DingTalk (钉钉) – Popular for corporate communication.

Payments and transport

• Alipay (支付宝) / WeChat Pay – Cashless payments are king; set these up with a foreign card.
• Didi (滴滴) – China’s Uber alternative (link to Alipay/WeChat Pay).

Translation and navigation

• Pleco (offline Chinese-English dictionary).
• Baidu Maps (Google Maps doesn’t work well in China).

Pro Tip: Test your apps before departure – some require a Chinese phone number for registration.

Managing money and payments

Over the past few years, China has fully embraced mobile payments, becoming an almost cashless society. While this makes life very convenient for people living in China, it can create problems for people who are just visiting.

Thankfully, China has introduced several measures to make payments easier for international visitors. Foreign tourists can now connect their overseas bank cards (including Visa, Mastercard and Diners Club) to popular Chinese payment platforms such as Alipay and WeChat Pay without needing a local bank account.

Following the release of the latest guidelines, the transaction limits for foreign nationals using mobile payment services have also been increased from US$1,000 (approx. RMB 7,233 or £790) to US$5,000 (approx. RMB 36,166 or £3,945) for single transactions, with the annual transaction limit increasing from $10,000 to $50,000.

Foreign users can complete the initial activation of WeChat Pay without a Chinese SIM card and make payments up to a cumulative limit of RMB 15,000 for a certain amount of time without verification.

Read our guide on the set-up process for WeChat here.

Major banks like Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have also improved access, allowing foreign cards to be used at more ATMs nationwide. Some hotels, shops and tourist attractions, especially in bigger cities, do accept international credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard.

Navigating transport

Booking internal flights and train journeys should be one of the easier aspects of your travel to China. You can search and book both through travel giant Trip.com’s app or website, which have English interfaces and accept international payment methods.

You will need to enter your passport details when booking either trains or flights (which may come as a surprise for those used to flying domestic in the UK/US), and in the case of the train, your passport is actually your ticket – either scan it when passing through the security gates (in newer stations like Beijing South) or present it at the staffed security gate when boarding the train.

Regarding trains, it is worth familiarising yourself with the codes used for the different types of trains in China so you can find the best routes; G are the quickest and newest, for example. China Highlights has a detailed guide.

Taxis in China are abundant, especially in major cities. Most people use a ride-hailing app like Didi, which can be used to book everything from taxis to luxury limos. Unfortunately, the Didi app is not currently available to download from UK app stores, but it can be used as a mini-program on WeChat and Alipay if you have either of these set up.

Most major cities in China – including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Nanjing – have subway lines linking key business districts and tourist attractions. All the subway networks are easy to navigate thanks to signage and announcements in English.

The post Business travel to China: Five essential considerations appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

Ralph Jennings lived for seven years in Beijing and more than that in Taipei. He’s worked as a news editor with the state-owned China Daily, an advice columnist for the 21st Century weekly in Beijing and as a reporter for numerous international media outlets, including Reuters. He also taught writing courses in Beijing at the Communication University of China for several years. These jobs exposed Jennings to thousands of news interviewees, media colleagues, students and their friends. Then came the random people who shared seats on overnight train rides in China, approached the author in Beijing’s sprawling parks and, in one case, threw a glass bottle at him. They ranged from teenagers to retirees. All that is condensed into his helpful new book, 50 Useful Tips on China (Earnshaw Books). Jennings now covers the Chinese economy for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.

Why don’t hands get raised at meetings?

The person to whom the hand belongs might get shot down. Leaders of meetings tend to rank high. A question might offend those leaders by implying that the meeting didn’t cover all points in adequate detail. We’re talking about company staff meetings and professional conferences where senior people go on stage. Leaders prefer to lead without any hint of a challenge, part of an old social order that many Chinese people intuitively understand. And what if the point of someone’s question was covered at the meeting? Asking would admit to not absorbing details of the event, effectively reflecting badly on the person’s brain capacity rather than marking the person as a careful double-checker of information. To avoid offending a leader or embarrassing oneself, those with questions may just ask one another. Shortly after many an event, chatter levels rise quickly in the audiences as trusted colleagues or cohorts ask one another what the speakers meant. Common questions include: What do we do next? Do our jobs change? What’s the background of this new person joining our team?

Why are co-worker relations so tricky in China?

Employers too often give vague job descriptions. Everyone in an office might have the title “associate”, for example. Without clearer ideas about who exactly does what, co-workers invest a lot of time psyching out the bosses for clues – and for dibs on the easiest (off by 5.30 pm) and most rewarding (work travel) duties. Company heads prefer vague job descriptions to keep a high level of authority. More defined roles, especially if backed up by employee handbooks that are full of detailed rules, limit leaders’ flexibility in business. Clearer definitions offer employees clarity on their exact rights and obligations, which is good for them but possibly inconvenient for senior leaders who are rule-bound to respect those boundaries. As a result, co-workers vie for the best roles by getting onto the good sides of supervisors. That process can take many forms, including favours unrelated to work, but it usually means grasping quickly what bosses really want day to day and giving them exactly that, especially in a crisis situation.

Why do employees work overtime even when the work is done?

This practice reflects a psychology of accumulation: more is better. The same psychology explains the crush to study 10-plus hours a day and find ways to make money even when super-rich already. Not too many decades ago, China was unstable across multiple metrics, and people weren’t sure how long they could keep resources or find more. An employee who stays at work for two extra hours, even if just to fiddle around on their PC, has the look/feel of giving the company two more hours of time that should theoretically translate to positive income. Office heads who believe in accumulation psychology feel comforted by the extra hours and remember who’s working longest, often without measuring tangible outcomes of the time spent. Friendlier bosses buy dinners for their long-hour employees. With this kind of oversight, plus the free meals, it’s hard to walk off at 5.30 pm after an eight-hour shift even if work is done (and done well) and the labour laws say it’s OK to leave. To leave on time would offend the boss and cast the departed employee as one who doesn’t care about the company.

Why is it acceptable to copy without permission?

Copying is traditionally seen as an expression of respect for someone’s work. That means students can block copy passages from other scholars without attributing every one of them. It means going ahead and playing a famous song at a public event without seeking permission from the song’s creator. Over roughly the past 25 years, China has faced pressure from copyright-conscious foreign governments to adopt a Western-style system of intellectual property rights protections. Along came a suite of laws and courts. But copying persists. Commercial copying, say of a book or software package, saves a pile of resources compared to creating one’s own work – an obvious advantage in China’s cutthroat competition among businesses. A national spirit of beating other countries, especially in technology, can also drive copying without permission.

In a country where trains nearly always run on time, why is “chabuduo” (almost) so often considered good enough?

A lack of specificity anchors dealmaking, public relations and workplace relations, among other relationship chains, so the parties involved can keep a valuable degree of flexibility. Flexibility later protects the human relationships involved. If something goes wrong, both parties can say no details were final, then walk back and redo things without getting into a dispute over specifics. Deals may start with commitments to action rather than lists of actual actions to be taken. Government offices tell the mass media that projects cost “about 100 billion yuan” instead of disclosing an exact figure. Bosses give approximate orders to workplace subordinates. Humans, in all cases, hope to hold onto the margin between approximate and exact so they can keep harmony while making changes, such as raising a project cost to 150 billion yuan. Deals cover specifics after two parties build trust. A reporter with good government relations can get the exact project figure on request. A supervisor will give a detailed work request once sure there’s no need to change it or worry that employees will use it irresponsibly, such as by telling competitors.

Why is the customer not always so right in China?

Customers are small individuals, and sellers are usually companies with considerable resources. That difference creates a power divide between the two sides, and Chinese society, from the way in the past, assigns status based on accumulation. Lots of proprietors do try to help distressed customers, on principle as well as to keep people coming back. But during larger disputes, a store, restaurant or utility provider won’t hesitate to say no. They can bring out legal-looking paperwork that a customer might not have. They can ignore online complaints. And they can blame a distraught customer for product defects. The status-conscious society at large assumes that the larger company will win based on its inherent clout, even if a customer actually has a case. It’s debatable how effective government-run customer complaint hotlines and websites are in resolving disputes. That uncertainty reduces any fear of reprisal on the company’s side if it goes against a customer’s wishes. Best practice for customers: ask friends to recommend sellers before doing business.

The post 50 Useful Tips on Chinese Work Culture appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

For decades, it’s been an easy and throw-away shorthand to talk of either socialism or capitalism with “Chinese characteristics”, but Dr Keyu Jin, associate professor of Economics at the London School of Economics (originally from Beijing and also an adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission on fintech), sees the current Chinese system as neither capitalism nor socialism but rather a wholly Chinese system filled with paradoxes and conundrums.

London-based Keyu’s new book, The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism (Viking Press), argues that what may appear to be contradictions to the Western eye can, if understood better, be opportunities.

If this is the ‘new’ China playbook, what was the ‘old’ China playbook, and are many of us still stuck in an old way of thinking about China?

The popular perception in the West that China still relies on technology transfers, industrial subsidies and unfair trade competition as a means to its economic success is outdated and exaggerated. The idea that China’s domineering state is driving out private businesses and will prevent China from becoming an innovative country is also misplaced. Yes, there are deep flaws in China’s economic system, as my book points out. But it’s not the ones we read in Western media. China’s innovation is a consequence of its ferociously competitive landscape.

At the root of China’s past success as an exporter is its cheap and hard-working labour, paired with efficient infrastructure and logistics and a large market where learning by doing takes place quickly and at scale. But the labour advantage is part of the old playbook. The new playbook shifts from “GDP worshipping” to a softer development metric, from monstrous expansions to a more equitable form of growth, from industrialisation to innovation, and from a risk-averse older generation to a cosmopolitan and consumption-bound new generation. The challenges are also new: how to manage an increasingly complex and demanding society. Innovation is a marathon, not a sprint like industrialisation. Paradoxically, China must now slow down and become more ‘patient’.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, you commented that China’s current economic challenge is to escape the middle-income trap, when wages rise but then stall as a result of higher costs and declining competitiveness. Is this where China is at now? And how can it escape that trap?

China still has 600 million people with a monthly income of less than US$300. This group of people need to reach middle income by international standards, and after that, the whole country has to rise from US$10,000 to US$30,000 (£8,000–24,000) income. For that to happen, China needs to liberalise further by opening up the service sector so it can create more jobs, reforming the financial system so that it can be a vibrant marketplace for innovative and small companies, and reducing geographical disparities by allowing more flow of goods and people. The state needs to meddle less with the private sector and instead concentrate efforts on delivering credibility and commitment to a stable macroeconomic environment.

We are seeing a lot of tension right now between China and the US, and perhaps to a lesser degree with the European Union. Where do you see the UK as positioned at the moment regarding China?

The UK has the option to retain some strategic autonomy vis-à-vis the US, and carefully craft a separate relationship with China. At the moment, it is following US policies too closely, and with Brexit and internal economic challenges, I’m not sure it can afford to be non-pragmatic. It’s important to carve out areas that are true national security threats and avoid having these issues corrode other areas of competitive collaborations. China has huge investments in the UK, and I think that what are seemingly intractable issues can be discussed, and tensions can be mitigated. The UK does not see China as a major economic rival like the US does, so there is scope to improve relations and win some economic interests.

And what do you think Beijing’s view of the UK is at the moment?

China’s relationship with the UK has deteriorated in part because of the high-pitched tone of UK officials against China. Still, China’s view of the UK is not all that bad — although perhaps this is worse — because the UK has simply become unimportant from the Chinese perspective. The Chinese see more active engagement from the likes of Germany and France, and the UK risks falling off the map. Whether that is desirable for the UK or not is a question to be deliberated. Still, many wealthy Chinese now prefer to send their children to the UK rather than to the US because of perceived security. But if anti-Asian attitudes rise in the UK, that may change as well.

How fast do you think the Chinese economy is bouncing back following the sudden end of zero Covid?

The economy is recovering, but slower than many had hoped for. The problem is the severe lack of confidence in the economy. This is part of the new playbook – how to sustain confidence and manage expectations in an economy where capital markets are vibrant, the private investors do the heavy lifting when it comes to consuming and investing and where expectations are instantly reflected in capital markets. The lesson here is that confidence is easy to kill but takes time to rebuild.

And finally, I think the aspects of your book that will most intrigue UK business readers is where you talk about creating a system that will support and encourage innovation while enabling solid intellectual-property protection and rule of law. Do you think China’s current administration can finally establish clear and transparent policies?

As to where China is going, going from US$10,000 dollars to US$30,000 annual income will be more difficult than getting to the first US$10,000. The UK has an amazing environment for start-ups and boasts fantastic entrepreneurs. But why does the country not produce as many unicorns as it should? Part of the reason, in my opinion, is that the lack of industrial capacity, infrastructure and innovation ecosystem to grow start-ups to multi-billion companies. China has that but has weaknesses in IP protection. This is improving over time, as IP enforcement has become a top priority for the government. Chinese IP law is now one of the most comprehensive in the world, but it comes down to implementation.

The post Dr Keyu Jin on how to do business in China in 2023 appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

Joan Turley began her career as an academic specialising in modern languages. In The Business of Relationships: Creating Enterprise Success With China (Business Expert Press, 2022) Turley offers clear signposts and insights aimed at helping those working with China better understand the value of relationships in this unique and challenging business culture. Paul French spoke to Turley about the crucial role of relationships in Sino-foreign ventures.

In your introduction, you note that China’s social relationship-centric framework extends into the business world. Can you explain what you mean by a ‘relationship-centric framework’?

China sees the world through the lens of relationships. An individual is defined by his or her part in the collective. Relationships, underpinned by public image and reputation, are pure social capital and as such, they act as the drivers behind all success. All systems of governance, success creation, thought leadership and influencing are created around relationships and effective self/other integration skills are taught from infancy. The unparalleled importance of relationships in the business and professional world in China means that they represent tangible business collateral, one that drives deals forward, powers negotiation and helps to elect the most senior and respected CEOs, leaders, and influencers.

A prominent Chinese CEO is reported as saying that if he wanted to proceed with a deal potentially worth millions of dollars, he would have the agency to do so, but if he wished to fire the humblest caretaker in his organisation, it would require convening the board members (in his case, family members) and gaining permission from stakeholders.

You suggest we need to work harder to harmonise the Chinese and Western approaches to business skills. How do we practically do this to get the balance right? Do we not, perhaps, risk important values and assets if we over-emphasise relationships that then collapse?

We should begin with an attitudinal shift and with some honest self-examination. Do we value relationships as the primary driver and core of our business model and success? If the answer is no, then would we be willing to embrace an attitudinal shift that allows us to place relationships at the very heart of our vision and strategy?

If the answer to both these questions is no, then we may prefer to eschew trade with China in favour of a more process-driven and transactional business model and culture. If, however, you feel drawn to this model, it may help to have a few incentives to encourage you to make the attitudinal shift necessary for success creation with China.

It is us in the West who could become the fortunate beneficiaries of Chinese companies’ ever-growing inventiveness, creativity and expanding knowledge stores

One of the key incentives is the protection that well-made relationships offer, within this business culture, in terms of our cherished intellectual property. In most cases of serious infringement of intellectual property in China, there has been a breakdown of, or under-investment in, the relationship prior to the infringement occurring. In such cases, no true partnerships had been created, and no public record of joint interests was established. Where reputation has been correctly built and relationships robustly and sincerely developed, the Chinese would consider it an act of unenlightened self-harm to engage in IP theft. It would, effectively, be stealing from themselves, whilst harming their most precious business assets: relationship networks (guanxi) and face, or reputational collateral (mianzi).

Moreover, well-made relationships allow the Chinese to be more open within the safety of well-made partnerships, in respect of knowledge share from their end. Given the speed and mushrooming growth in China’s rate of issuing new patents, rather than seeing them as predators to Western intellectual property, we might consider the possibility that it is us in the West who could become the fortunate beneficiaries of Chinese companies’ ever-growing inventiveness, creativity and expanding knowledge stores. Such very real possibilities of exchange and mutual benefit depend, however, upon the ability to build our business and professional relationships with China in a way that engenders real trust and signals levels of commitment on our part, which transcend the shallow and the transactional.

As you note, ‘each significant stage of development, from initial discussion to negotiation and deal-making, through to partnership and project management, must be preceded by an ever-greater investment in the relationships you are building.’ Some might say this is tough given that increasingly businesses are engaging with China remotely. How do we get around this in a time of Zero-Covid and enhanced localisation strategies?

This is a very real concern in the current climate. Firstly, it is crucial to stipulate that China will always prefer face-to-face interaction as it allows the kind of character due diligence and relationship skills audit which the Chinese like to carry out on any serious, potential partners. They also like senior people to visit. Above all, they adore the kind of continuity of contact that allows meaningful relationships to build. They are also, however, pragmatists who will understand the very real obstacles posed to their preferred business model (relationship-centric) by the complexities of post pandemic trade and partnership. So, the key is to contact often to show you value the relationship and make discussions warm, personal, and non-transactional before proceeding to more robust business exchanges.

Do not be afraid to put senior people on Zoom to show commitment, having paid close attention to the respectful matching of status. It is also important to ensure that these senior ambassadors for your company remain warm and deferential since business leaders in China are expected to set the tone and do not descend into the specifics as their Western counterparts often do. Strong leaders in China are primarily expected to steer relationships adroitly, whilst strong leaders in the West are primarily expected to steer tough deals to an advantageous conclusion.

Since business travel will resume, at some point, to pre-pandemic levels, we will need to be willing to play ‘catch up’ on the personal business of building solid relationships to facilitate, carry and protect our success in China.  All Chinese business allies, whether these be investors, manufacturing or supply partners, or retailers, will work effectively for us on the ground if we afford them respect. They need to feel that they are part of a partnership underpinned by mutual investment, rather than a remotely managed business arrangement.

Be flexible, stay committed and contact often, by all the means at your disposal. Make each contact count and, above all, keep it personal, warm and meaningful remembering that business relationships aim, in China, for some of the closeness, dependability and mutual support that underpin the Chinese family model.

In your experience, what is the main reason for collapses in relationships between Western and Chinese business partners?

The main reason is the contrasting degree of importance that China and the West accord to relationships in business. All the businesses which I watched succeed in China had a common denominator: they were all exceptionally people-friendly, people-committed businesses. China embraces this philosophy as a functional norm, as well as a baseline of how its business world operates. Recently, in the West, we have moved increasingly towards the kind of transactional attitude to ‘people’ in business that makes a benevolent attitude to the importance of our people at the core of our success seem like a sentimental anachronism. People in Western business are often commoditised and seen as dispensable. By contrast, the Asian Financial Crisis was weathered with almost no redundancies such was the commitment to workers before profits and markets.

When the Chinese perceive Western businesses that underinvest in people, they assume that sooner or later, the partnership that they are trying to create will be treated in an equally shallow and transactional manner. Once the Chinese hold this perception of a person or company’s attitude to people, they back off. Significantly, they will do so even if it means losing large sums of money in the short term. In a world where people are seen as a most precious resource and constitute visible collateral for a business, attitudes that are neglectful of people will, inevitably, lose the Chinese ‘face’ and to lose ‘face’ in a business culture powered by reputation is, quite simply, to fail.

Finally, why is China seen as so crucial and seemingly unique in terms of relationships – both building them, maintaining them, and needing to prioritise them so much?

It is true that China is seen as different, and somewhat unique, in relationship building. There are several reasons for this. We are culturally closer in terms of the values, norms and processes that underpin our business culture to European or American countries. While there are language barriers in some cases, business cultures in these countries, as in ours, have increasingly moved from a people-centric culture to a process-centric one.

In process-driven cultures, accountability is individual, time is at a premium, profit and return on investment are the key framework builders and drivers of success, and people management is viewed as a ‘soft skill.’ Indeed, in purely process-driven business cultures, people who are not contributing to profit and ROI are largely seen as dispensable.

China, on the other hand, insists on character, trust building and commitment to people as the essential building blocks of any viable or enduring success. These two models, process-centric and relationship-centric, must be mediated, with the intention to build real trust and mutual benefit if partnership or success creation is to occur.

As a closing incentive to such a mediated approach, I offer an observation. Companies that succeeded in China by building on an already people- focussed ethos reported that the people handling skills they honed in China benefitted their workforce, stakeholders and themselves. In some cases, this even extended to an improvement in their brand perception. Moreover, they felt that they operated as more empathetic and inspiring managers precisely because they had learned to place a higher value and premium on the people who powered their success.

This is what the Chinese would define as a ‘winning attitude’ and adopting such a people-centric approach is, undoubtedly, the key differentiator in succeeding within the Chinese business culture.

Get immediate access to the China market with Launchpad, CBBC’s flagship market entry service. Call +44 (0)20 7802 2000 or email enquiries@cbbc.org now to find out more.

The post How to navigate business relationships in China appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

Let’s face it, it’s a tough time to be doing business in China. But Sandrine Zerbib and Aldo Spaanjaars have seen tough times before. The two veterans of China business have now distilled their experiences into a new book that is particularly timely: Dragon Tactics: How Chinese Entrepreneurs Thrive in Uncertainty (BIS Publishers).

Back in the mid-1990s, Zerbib was President of Adidas Greater China. She later became the CEO of the Chinese consumer brand aggregator Dongxiang, which gave her a perfect observation post to understand Chinese entrepreneurial management. Today she runs her own e-commerce operation, Fulljet.

Spaanjaars is a former CEO of Lacoste Greater China and a co-founder of J. Walter Thompson Beijing (an advertising agency). Most recently, he has started working for Fosun International, one of China’s largest private equity firms.

Paul French chatted with Zerbib and Spaanjaars to try and understand their key “Dragon Tactics” and just how the last couple of years have upended the China business world.

Your book revolves around five Dragon Tactics. The first you discuss is wolf culture, personified, you argue, by Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei. Can you explain this term a little, please?

Wolf Culture is probably best described as a survival culture, shaped by the earliest business leaders in China who, when growing up, personally suffered through decades of hardship in the 70s and 80s. Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei is recognised as the main representative of ‘wolf culture’; at Huawei, the term was written into their company culture and Ren Zhengfei has spoken about it publicly many times. However, many others follow a similar line of thinking and demonstrate similar behaviour.

Wolf culture is driven by a “tomorrow could be our last day” attitude, and survival thinking is at the heart of who they are and how they behave. A wolf has a very keen sense of smell for opportunities, an indomitable, relentless offensive spirit, a real devotion to the collective, and sees absolute loyalty as more important than ability. This wolf behaviour makes companies very different from companies managed in a non-wolf culture environment. This survival mindset has a real impact on how they perceive and deal with risks, encourage opportunistic behaviour, are razor sharply consumer-focused, value opportunities over efficiencies and determine which people they hire and keep.

Your second Dragon Tactic is called ‘adapt to change or die.’ We all think we understand the importance of accepting permanent change, but you seem to suggest that this concept is seen differently in China. Do we, as foreign businesspeople, need to grasp that?

Adapt or die is much more ingrained in Chinese culture and habits than it is in the West. To start with, there is no such notion as transcendent gods, eternal ideas and the essence of things in China’s cultural past. Instead, Chinese culture and its three millennial traditions, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, are all infused with expectations of permanent change.

It is also the result of the very turbulent and hyper-competitive environment in which Chinese entrepreneurs have created and developed their businesses over the past 30 years. This translates into deep differences in management attitudes. For example, while in Western philosophy the important thing is to think well, for the Chinese the important thing is to observe well. Therefore, in Western philosophy, a genius is seen as gifted with exceptional creative thinking, when Chinese wisdom would describe a genius as quite simply the one who is able to seize the opportune moment that escapes any plan conceived in advance.

This means that in the West, strategic planning is seen as critically important, but in China, it is considered difficult to consistently execute a fixed plan. In China, one only needs vision and tactics; while working towards a long-term goal, the short term can be as flexible as the here and now requires. For any Westerner who has worked for a Chinese company, this is often one of the most baffling features of Chinese management.

Your third Dragon Tactic, ‘the emperor decides, but agility rules,’ is perhaps harder for a foreign audience to comprehend, as we tend to think that absolute rulers lack flexibility and that this is a weakness when it comes to moving quickly and decisively. How can we balance top-down organisations with entrepreneurial nimbleness?

As far back as 2852 BC, China has always been ruled by demi-gods: Chinese sovereigns. In Western philosophy, early democratic thinking argued for decision-making based on the majority principle, but Chinese philosophers have mostly adhered to and supported absolute leadership, i.e., the ancient belief that the legitimate ruler was given the Mandate of Heaven.

In essence, submission to authority was only taken within the context of the ethical obligations that a ruler had toward his subjects. In particular, he was required to show compassion and generosity. He could expect loyalty as long as he ensured his underlings would not starve. So it should come as no surprise that such thinking has entered business management and most companies are very top-down and led from the absolute top.

Yet, Chinese companies are extremely agile. Instead of building a huge hierarchical organisation with layers and layers of professional managers, they keep structures flat and flexible, with as many direct reports as needed, and that, within agreed parameters, allows for a fair degree of decentralisation.

Lacking traditional departmental hierarchy, Chinese companies are able to act on a project basis rather than a departmental basis, assembling and disbanding project teams as required. They have also become masters of eco-system building, giving them valuable resources that can be used upon need, without the cost and inflexibility of in-house resources.

Last but not least, fierce internal competition is encouraged to keep everyone on their toes.

Fourthly, you say ‘people come and go. Those who fit stay longer.’ How can we view successful businesses as happy families in China?

Note that we are not saying that Chinese companies are all about love and benevolence. Quite the reverse: they are quite tough. Just as a patriarchal family can be.

It remains true that a good Chinese leader would share their vision in a compelling way. This creates a true emotional bond with the team and can mobilise the troops much better than a “mission and vision” often can. And although a leader may be tough at times, they also know how to care about their people.

In founder-driven companies, loyalty and a cultural fit are often the most important requirements for success and career advancement. They are also, beyond financial incentives, key reasons for employees to stay.

This is actually something we experienced personally when working at Adidas, where we – Zerbib and Spaanjaars – were President and COO, respectively. One of the key success factors was the emotional bond there was in the team, at every level of the company. This was the basis for true employee engagement. As a result, whenever we were invited to employees’ wedding parties, we would see just at least as many colleagues as family members of the bride and groom.

Your fifth Dragon Tactic is that ‘it all starts with data.’ Traditionally, reliable data has been problematic in the PRC, but technology has moved on radically. Do you think this has made understanding the consumer easier, or more complex and nuanced?

For most of the book, we looked to the past to explain what has made Chinese entrepreneurs successful, and we described methodologies that are rooted in Chinese history and culture.

Where data is concerned, it is important to understand where the future is headed based on what is happening today. China is leading a digital revolution that is changing the way business is done and go-to-market strategies are implemented.

How entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world adapt to this digital disruption will be a decisive factor in the success or failure of many enterprises. Driven by a Chinese government that has been instrumental in ensuring the right environment for large investments in a wide variety of technologies, China is becoming a leader in various sectors, most notably AI. In fact, China has gone from a fringe player to a global leader in fundamental research in less than two decades and thanks to a more relaxed approach to data management, is increasingly able to build superior data-based solutions.

Chinese entrepreneurs have always had a razor-sharp focus on consumers and their needs, and rich data sets enable an even deeper ultra-consumer focused understanding. The more data, the better the models, the better the data, the higher the loyalty. Data is the new gold and Chinese entrepreneurs have the edge.

Finally, as much of the world reopens to a ‘new normal,’ China is still grappling with Zero Covid. Eventually, China will emerge from the pandemic on its own terms, but do you think your Dragon Tactics will still apply when the economy emerges again?

If anything, they will apply more than ever. China has indeed entered a very uncertain period and Chinese entrepreneurs will have to adapt to this new environment with lots of tenacity and flair, innovative business models and new people management approaches, as well as intense use of data.

But Dragon Tactics is actually not a book about China, and even less so about the Chinese government. Ultimately, the book describes the Dragon Tactics mentality in entrepreneurial China, and in those who embody it, to explain how and why Chinese businesses thrive in chaos. We have all entered an increasingly uncertain and volatile world far beyond China’s borders. Even before the war in Ukraine, business uncertainties have been on the rise globally, driven by climate change, the increasing calls for firms to become more socially responsible and involved, the role of China on the world stage growing and changing, rapid digitisation, and the massive moment of uncertainty that the Covid-19 pandemic has forced on all of us.

In fact, the world may only now start to experience what successful Chinese entrepreneurs have known since the very beginning. In this fast-developing new reality, we believe that the lessons in this book are of vital importance to entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world.

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