Business Confidence Survey 25/11/08

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

As chairman of one of the working groups in the European Chamber (EUCCC) I assisted at the Press Conference in the Kerry Center Hotel on 25 November.
The Survey was carried out in partnership with the consultant company Roland Berger.


The Survey was presented by Mr. Wu Qi (Roland Berger) and Joerg Wuttke, President of the EUCCC. As the Conference and Survey received quite a lot of coverage I only report here some of the findings about European companies in China that I found interesting.
– most prefer WOFE and stick to tie 1 and 2 cities
– smaller companies overall seem to do better, maybe because they operate in niche markets
– SME tend to be run more by expats
– most newcomers are SME
– issues of concern are protectionism and economic  nationalism; environmental laws tougher for foreign firms
– many doing development (and less research) to adapt products to the local market
– little enthusiasm for M&A
– the outlook for the first half of 2009: difficult; second half “hopefully better”; lack of “predictability” on how the stimulus plan will work out
– real estate sector a concern as it affects many other sectors including white goods
– the previous concerns for the pressure of increasing costs for shipping, transport, etc. now less important.

Tom Van de Weghe: beaten, robbed, assaulted in Henan

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Today I wrote a comment (don’t expect to see it there anyway!) on China Daily’s website, regarding all the hoopla around AIDS Day. Yeah, yeah, this country is still ruled in many places by corrupt local officials (and police too), thugs, criminals and the like. It is a major threat to the social stability of this country, plus a damage to its international image. Those people just don’t give a damn about their own (central) government nor their country. They just care about making money at any cost. Despicable. On the other hand, staff from UNICEF, and other UN agencies are happy with some local cooperation.
“Journalist Tom Van de Weghe, officially accredited as correspondent for the VRT (Flemish Public Broadcaster), together with his cameraman and his assistant, has been attacked, beaten and robbed by the local officials in the Chinese province of Henan.
The crew was on its way to the district of Shangqiu for a report on AIDS, in connection with World Aids Day on 1 December. Some one million patients in the region contracted HIV infection by selling their own blood.
So, what is all this talk about being open for AIDS, China opening up for foreign journalists? Local thugs and criminals remain unpunished. Shame on the Henan authorities!”
The full sad story of Tom is on Facebook.
Overall, something is moving in China. See here recent article from China Daily:
“27 November 2008 – Ferret out the wirepuller (China Daily)
It’s urgent to find out who really received the 20 million yuan in bribes given by Chen Xuming to help him obtain the leading post in the police station, says an article on the website www.china.com.cn. The following is an excerpt:
Chen, a local police officer, was exposed during investigations into a fatal fire that broke out in September and claimed 44 innocent lives.
The State Council’s investigation team into the calamitous fire in Shenzhen’s Dance King Club recently found more than 10 million yuan in cash and some 200 million yuan worth of stocks and real estate properties at the home of Chen Xuming, the deputy head of a local police station. He was the protective umbrella of the club and received huge amounts of bribes from the club owners.
More shockingly, Chen also confessed that it cost him 20 million yuan to buy his leading post in the police station.
The investigators should follow the clues in Chen’s confession to find out who received the 20 million yuan in bribery. Only by doing this can we punish the backstage manipulators and uphold justice for those victims of the calamity.
It makes us deeply worried that a leading post in the police station can be so easily obtained through bribes.
Chen’s case shows how public power is used by individuals for personal interests and the selection procedures of officials have been rendered meaningless.”

Wrong choice of pictures?

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Sometimes choosing a mascot or cover of an album seems to be harder than it looks. Or people just do things without thinking.
See here two that generate quite some comments.


The mascot (“Haibiao”?) for the 2010 Shanghai International Exhibition is called by some “The Blue Condom”. Leave up to you to judge. Maybe it has something to do with the as usual frankness of China Daily and other newspapers here who claim that half of the 90,000 Beijing prostitutes still don’t insist on using a condom. So, does that mean we have prostitutes in Beijing? Really? And who did count them? I guess must be the whatever police, reason why we never see them helping traffic improve. Probably in Shanghai: case1: there are no prostitutes there, case 2: the Blue Condom promotion has been efficient.
As for that Band, well, some Chinese seem to be pretty upset about it, I mean the title, because nobody explains why there is something wrong with the content. Now, suddenly, the band’s type of music anyway is not “liked” by Chinese people. Seems who wrote that never went to a disco here.

Cartoon of Chappatte: Beijing dogs for dinner?

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Normally I am a big fan of Chappatte and his cartoons in the IHT. But I doubt he “saw” a dog being butchered on a Beijing street corner, ready for the kitchen. Being here since 1980 I have never seen anything like that in the city. One more typical example of media bias? Or should I buy a new pair of glasses? What I usually see is Chinese people walking and pampering their dogs on the streets. If he has a picture and details we could file a police complaint or pass it to the local media.

here the cartoon in the 28 October edition with the “dog ready for a dish”…
My letter “to the Editor” was not published, either not important or… because it was in the middle of the U.S. elections…

Seminar 21/11/08- Copenhagen Business School

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

On 21 November, one more of my frequent seminars/lectures.
This time a large MBA group from Denmark and the seminar was organized in the modern setting of the famous Tsinghua University. As usual the group was very alert with frequent sharp questions.


part of the group

The focus was first on Chinese attitudes and behavior in life & business and then about “how to do successful lobbying in China”. Most speakers shun such a subject but I don’t. I took two real cases: how we managed to convince the Beijing authorities to allow the donation of the “Athletes Alley” (from Olivier Strebelle) and how I restarted metro projects in China through the contract of Shanghai metro Line 3. All this without (the usually expected) “greasing the wheels”.
Foremost needed is tons of patience and understanding how the Chinese bureaucracy works (and doesn’t at times).