On Friday 9 January I addressed once again an EMBA delegation from the Copenhagen Business School. The topic of my seminar – not the first one of that type – was about the Chinese business environment and “lobbying” in China.
One of my friends tried to convince me that “lobbying is illegal in China”. We can say that our consulting firm is very much focused on what I call “strategic consulting and lobbying”. Obviously most people stay away from that topic and certainly that sticker – as in many countries it has gained a bad reputation and is being seen as unfair and a cover of corruption. I stick to that word being already known to “provoke” a little.

The seminar tries exactly to address this misunderstanding, of course noting that the definition like on Wikipedia (excellent material there!) does not literally apply to what we do – though one could argue that when e.g. the European Chamber approaches the Chinese government to change or influence laws and regulations it is exactly that. Some extracts from Wikipedia:
Lobbying is the practice of influencing decisions made by government. It includes all attempts to influence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents or organized groups. A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a member of a lobby. Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying.
I explain what we understand with “lobbying” through two projects I completed successfully:
– The Athletes Alley by Olivier Strebelle (Belgium) in Beijing
– Restarting metro projects in China: obtaining the contract for Shanghai Metro Line 3 (when I was heading the Shanghai Alstom office).
In short, “lobbying” is the art of dealing with the complex Chinese bureaucracy and getting your message across. Most of the time it also means the foreign side needs to understand Chinese concerns and take them into consideration.
And it does not imply giving out envelopes with cash or something. That does not last long anyway.
Wikipedia also notes: “There are currently around 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels (consultants, lawyers, associations, corporations, NGOs etc.) seeking to influence the EU’s legislative process. Some 2,600 special interest groups have a permanent office in Brussels.”
Interesting…