It is not surprising at all when many foreign investors complained when they do business in China. Many wondered why their years of experience in the business world could not be applied in China immediately. Doing business is about building mutual trust and benefit amidst establishing relationship with people. If you do not understand your counterpart well, it will be quite difficult to establish good cooperation with him/her. An old Chinese saying goes: know yourself and your enemy well and you can fight a hundred battles without any fear of defeat. This greatly emphasized the importance of knowing and understanding your counterpart.
Modern economic model differ greatly from the traditional one, whereby people in the past fight till the last man standing. Today, people seek to achieve a win-win situation, and pursue long-term trade cooperation under a fair and healthy competition environment. Understanding factors such as Chinas history, humanity and culture will be the key to investors success in China. As Western thinking and Chinas traditional values do differ, encountering the culture differences is therefore inevitable, thus a better understanding of the cultural...