Tuesday Topics – Chinese & Western Partnerships

Summary Article from several Live Dialogues on Dan2: November 2017
During our Tuesday Topics online dialogues, a small group of westerners had several live sessions using GoTo Meetings to discuss and share our ideas on creating successful partnerships in China. As one of the members was seeking Chinese partners and start a new company the question arose; How best to ensure a successful partnership in China?

To put our discussion in context we had several meetings about our collective experience living, working, doing business in China. When considering partnerships, we first defined partnership in relation to Western/Chinese then tried to identify the differences between east and west culture and people’s characteristics. We identified some of the reasons why they are still considered a developing nation, explored some of the reasons why the manufacturing hub of the world consistently produces low quality products and have no international brands? We discussed our experience with their learning habits and education system to explain some of our observations like the Chinglish signs and literature everywhere. We expanded our context and watched a variety of videos about China from recent political discussions and debates to historical documentaries creating a bigger picture of who they are and where they come from.

We that live in China probably have friends that own bars or restaurants in China’s foreign districts but that is something different, they are not partnerships as such. They are a simple and small foreign owned and operated businesses similar to my small trading company that I have operated for more than a decade. Then there are the foreign multi-nationals who have built factories here which is also something quite different as that is a large investment fully supported by the government who gains from that investment so not the kind of partnerships we are discussing.

In meeting #004 we defined “partnerships” using the Wikipedia definition: “A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest based organizations, schools, governments or combinations.”

Actually, in 15 years I only know of 1 foreigner who has partnered with the Chinese and don’t really know how good it is except they are still together and have invested in a few SME’s here in Huangdao. That is Stein & James who started as a supplier/buyer relationship then they continued to partner in various businesses, still together and continuing to invest in their partnership. I know of several partnerships that have failed, ended up in court or the foreigner just walked, or ran away as fast and far as he could.

Why are there so few successes? Martin Jacques in the video [Martin Jacques-When China Rules the World] says China is 90% Han and that they, quote; “the Han have a very weak concept of cultural differences, that they believe in their own superiority and disrespectful of those that are not Han, hence the example of their attitude toward the Uyghur and Tibetans”

• – Do the Chinese have similar attitudes toward westerns?
• – What is the likelihood of succeeding in a Chinese / Western partnership?
• – Why are there so few models out there?
• – Is racism an issue?
• – Are foreign expectations too high, too different?
• – Is either party intolerant?

Well ask these and many more questions and identified many points of cultural difference for potential reasons for difficulty in partnerships but now moved from a list of characteristics, attitudes, biases and prejudices to a mini history lesson to further raise our awareness and understanding. In this process we identified one video and a certain response to be key to successful partnerships and insight into China. The video title is [Kevin Rudd Imagining China in 2023 – China’s Domestic and Foreign Posture under Xi Jinping ] where Kishore Mahbubani (Dean and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy) hosts a talk with the former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.

We found this video relevant because of one question and the response that mentioned “respect”. At the 1:01:22 min mark the host Mahbubani asks Rudd a question from an audience participant; “Is there anything the rest of the world can “give” to China to make its rise more peaceful.” An excellent question as I don’t hear people asking what we can do for China or how we can contribute, and “contribution” is one of the applications I suggest in our forum dialogue.

Rudd’s answer is very clear but my current question and challenge. Rudd responds by saying “Can I put that in a more philosophical context, what the rest of the world can give to China is something much more elemental, I think what the rest of the world can give to China is respect”. Nice answer but he offered no applications so we took up the challenge starting with a definition of respect and then discuss the question and Rudd’s response seeking for applications.

 

Defining Respect for China:
[ en.wiktionary.org ]
1. An attitude of consideration or high regard “He is an intellectual giant, and I have great respect for him.” We do respect people for their dignity and worth.

[ www.webster-dictionary.org ]
1. To take notice of; to regard with special attention; to regard as worthy of special consideration; hence, to care for; to heed.
2. To consider worthy of esteem; to regard with honor.

[ en.oxforddictionaries.com ]
1. A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

We created a definition by combining a few parts from Webster’s and Oxfords Dictionaries for the context of partnerships in China and came up with; “An attitude of consideration; to regard with special attention; to regard as worthy of special consideration; elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.” With a satisfactory definition we further refresh our memory and picked the top 3 videos from a search on YouTube to review and discuss, below are points I recorded from the videos.

[6 Ways Leaders Gain Respect in the Workplace – YouTube Video]
Betsy Allen-Manning: Leadership speaker, author and communicator gives us 6 ways leaders gain respect in the work place:

1.Build confidence in your ability to lead:
– People skills
– Communication skills
– Coaching skills
2.Never demand respect, earn it:
– Show respect to get respect
3.Listen to other’s ideas:
– Ask for solutions and creative ways to reach goals
4.Leaders remain humble:
– Place your team’s success above your own
5.Lead by example:
– What you say is not as important as what you do
6.Communicate appreciation often:
– Communicate ideas, expectations, improvements, and appreciation

[Earn Respect As A Leader Using These 8 Guidelines – YouTube Video]
1.Be an example to your team
2.Take time to listen to your team
3.Be dependable
4.Be a vulnerable leader
5.Take time to get to know your team
6.Support and encourage growth
7.Be the leader that embraces and drives change
8.Get out of the way and think big

[RESPECT! Seven Steps To Earn Respect – YouTube Video]
Aaron Marino of AlphaM says respect is not automatic and not guaranteed, you have to earn it:
1.Take pride in your appearance
2.Stand up for your beliefs
3.Speak respectfully
4.Think before you react
5.Respect others
6.Be a man of your word
7.Try your best at everything

I agree with Rudd that respect is critical to healthy relationships and can also be difficult when working in developing nations with very different ideas and ways of doing things. We concluded with several steps and actions one can take in ensuring successful and or healthy partnerships in China.

Applications for China Partnerships:
– Understand we cannot use western ways of thinking to know and understand this culture. We need to be open and ready to change our attitudes and grow our understanding being highly aware of our western biases.
– Understand its really only about a couple generations since they pulled out of severe poverty, and many western concepts are not only new but viewed with skepticism. Like in any country you will find many people not Ivy-league educated or sophisticated, somewhat disorganized and hard to deal with. The same is true for this country it just seems like that is the norm so we will need more patience and understanding.
– An excellent attitude for being more understanding comes from Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Success; “Seek first to understand before being understood.” Really strive to understand them before introducing western concepts and adjust them according to their context not ours so be a good listener and ask questions.
– Turn expectations into appreciations: Make a list of things that you appreciate. When you find yourself “expecting” make a mental shift and think about your list of appreciations and see if you can add one more to the list. (Keep building your list of appreciations as this should be a dynamic list as specific to who your partnering with.)
– Understand their will be times you will need to compromise so don’t sweat the small stuff. Let the little things go but maintain and push for high quality, effectiveness and higher standards on the important issues.
– Focus on the areas where you can help make positive change. Seek deeper understanding of what your partner wants and try to match that with your knowledge and ability to serve.
– Maintain a healthy respect for the Chinese and specifically your partner. Understand respect is earned and if you respect them they will respect you.
– Don’t let some of the not so pleasant cultural habits diminish your respect and appreciation. You will often face busy people constantly answering their mobile phones, “meishi or bukeneng” reactions without consideration, even possibly even a real lack of critical thinking or common sense so remember where they came from and maintain healthy appreciation.
– Guanxi “relationships” and “face” is important in this culture as this is how many things move forward so go out when invited and give the host sincere respects and never criticize or call them out in a public setting.
– Be professional, well groomed, and polite having patience to build a long-term harmonious relationship in your business venture.
– Finally find a good friend or group of friends that you can love, trust, respect and share your life experience with. All data points to those that have an intimate family or close healthy social life tend to be happier, healthier and more overall life satisfaction. I think the point being we humans are social creatures so having rich social or family experiences is clearly beneficial. If you really just not interested in building a social network or like the solitude life then consider how to have a small group or one or two individuals that you can be transparent and open with or at least be aware that a solitude life can be fulfilling but may require the type of training that the monks of Buddhism engage in or what I believe to be more advanced and that is the engagement of 21st Century personal development which departs from the excellent mind training practices of the monks into more advanced and complex critical thinking of a highly aware 21st century human being responsible for his or her own outcome including that of their neighbor and or fellow global citizen as we try to learn how to satisfy 7 to 8 to 9 billion people on a finite planet.

China Video Resources on [ Videos ]

[Kevin Rudd Imagining China in 2023 – China’s Domestic and Foreign Posture under Xi Jinping]

[Martin Jacques-When China Rules the World]

[Understanding the rise of China Martin Jacques] Ted Talk 2010

[Would Western liberal democracy be wrong for China] Intelligence Squared Debate 2012

[Professor Zhang Weiwei (张维为)_ The China Model and Its Implications]

[Chinas-Century-of-Humiliation]

[Understanding-the-Chinese-mindset]

[Leslie-T-Chang-The-voices-of-Chinas-workers]

[Ann-Lee-What-the-US-Can-Learn-from-China-Talks-at-Google]

[Dr-FeiFei-Li-talks-about-Google-Cloud-Next-2017]

[Chinas-Future MEGAPROJECTS-New-Silk-Road]

[Chinas-Future-MEGAPROJECTS-2016-2050]

[Future-Cities-Shenzhen-Silicon-Valley-of-Hardware]

[Xi-Jinping-Davos-2017-Opening-Plenary-with-English]

[Xi-Jinping-Davos-2017-Opening-Plenary-with-Chinese]

[Western-liberal-democracy-would-be-wrong-for-China-IQ2-Debate]

[What-Happens-When-China-Becomes-Number-One-Institute-of-Politics]

[Noam-Chomsky-The-So-Called-Rise-of-China-2017]

[China-Architect-of-a-New-Global-Order-Panel-Discussion]

[Western-liberal-democracy-would-be-wrong-for-China-IQ2-Debate]

[The-Origins-and-Dynamics-of-Crony-Capitalism-in-China-Dr-Minxin-Pei]

[Xi-Jinping-delivers-speech-at-the-celebratory-conference-English]

Thanks for visiting.