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March 30, 2006
Yours Truly, Interviewed
As part of his series on international business, Wayne Turmel, host of The Cranky Middle Manager Show, interviewed me recently on the state of Chinese business management. It was an honor to have been asked and a pleasure to have been interviewed. We hope you find it worthwhile as well. Here it is at Wayne's site on The Podcast Network. Alternatively, click this link to listen to an mp3 of the show. After Wayne's preface, we begin conversing at around the 5 minutes and 40 seconds (05:40) into his show.
May I also say that, during the lengthy hiatus from blogging, I was amazed and grateful to many readers for their kind email asking where I had gone to. It was only the rush of pressing projects that kept me away from this site, and I will be back writing within the next few days.
Posted by Richard at 7:26 PM | Comments (1)March 6, 2006
Request for Articles
欢迎任何在中国商业界法律界人士或在学研究员，若有兴趣将您的文章刊载此网站，请直接把文稿或摘要email给总编辑。文章内容必须有助于让美国商人了解中国商业环境且要适合网站的题材。Posted by Richard at 10:36 PM | Comments (1)Do you have an article, in either Chinese or English, that would help Americans understand the way business is done in China? If you are a Chinese national, currently working or studying in the PRC, we'd like to hear from you. Send us an email with the text of your essay, or with an idea for an essay, and， if we think it's suitable for this website, we'll publish it.
March 1, 2006
Audio: Not Made in China -- Another Danish Cartoon Scenario?
Click the little triangle to hear today's post.
"Not Made in China" -- Another Danish Cartoon Scenario?
[UPDATE: Shanghai Securities News picked up our post below and commented on it in the last two paragraphs of the article. In Chinese.]
[Editor’s Note: "China is coming," says Malcolm Bricklin, the entrepreneur who intends to introduce Chinese-manufactured automobiles to the American market. Does the American consumer need a further addition to an already overwhelming choice of middle-market cars that aren’t terribly well made? Gee whiz, we already have our stock of home-bred (home-brewed?) models.
Ah, but, it’s the price, you see. The export engine that forms the backbone of the Chinese economy incessantly pumps out passing product at low cost. And – everyone says this is the case – the consumer benefits. At least, plenty of consumers think they benefit from $75 microwave ovens, $50 DVD players and $7 reading spectacles. But casual conversation with Americans gives one the distinct impression that, while they acknowledge the savings, they are uneasy about its long-term effect.
Give me a dollar for each time this phrase has echoed in my ears over the past year and we would dine well (I’m salivating already): “We’re importing so much from China that soon no one will have the income to pay for it.” The point being the loss of manufacturing jobs. Despite the contrary claims of pols and economists, the general populace are very much out of step with the curious and often querulous statement that American manufacturing jobs have increased.
This writer, despite reading many studies and declarations, frankly doesn’t know which to believe. (When the logical mind fails to discern the truth, one falls back on the eyes and ears.) The fact is that the plethora of small factories that dotted my youthful stomping grounds here in the Northeast of the United States have all disappeared. Well, not entirely. Their corpses --- the hulks of their decrepit structures -- remain.
And those whose minds are flush with these memories – of men and women made to work with their hands and who easily found such work near home – are naturally concerned. Where, indeed, have they gone to find work? They’ve been retrained (whatever that may mean) for the service industry – stocking the shelves of those products they would have made themselves in an earlier time.
But they do so awkwardly, in my opinion. Their natural talents point them to manual factory labor, not the retail trade, and they crowd out those who are naturally inclined to services. Labor statistics showing job growth in the services industries – which exclude those who have “dropped out” of the labor pool because national statistics stop counting them -- fail to account for this serious disjointment.
Someone very bright will come along to cite statistics or studies in an attempt to prove my gut feeling wrong, but even I, who intends to purposeful objectivity in daily life and work, find it hard to dispel. Imagine the mindset of those Americans who haven’t been so trained.
Or those in Europe. Hence our post today. I have translated an editorial appearing today in the 上海证券报 (Shanghai Stocks), an influential newspaper. An entrepreneur in Europe has seized upon an idea evidently growing within the minds of consumers in Europe, and paralleling that in the United States. But Chinese, who view commerce as a natural extension of an ever-fervent nationalism, intend to fight back. Another Danish cartoon scenario?
This can’t be good. Goose liver pate is delicious, but the goose itself is force-fed and, it is said, would perish from an expanded liver if it weren’t sooner sacrificed on the altar of some gourmet. But consumers act of their own volition. They can’t be force fed in this capitalistic system. So, the question is this: if, knowing of the nascent Chinese attempt to prevent the legal registration of a trademark, would Americans ever see past their wallets to boycott products originating in China?
Unlikely, but one never knows. Chinese need to tread very carefully around this issue. It is not as simple as they seem to think. Fanning the proverbial flames may scorch the golden goose.]
Stopping the Registration of the Trademark “Not Made in China”
抵制"非中国制造"商标注册倡议书
“Made in China,” already a popular phrase, has given global consumers cheaper prices. But it has always gone hand in hand with defamation, even carrying with it a flavor of hatred.
This hatred has been transformed into an emotion, spreading globally as economies gradually become one system, and causing Chinese, who have themselves spread to all corners of the globe, to feel powerless.
This hatred has created ever greater misunderstandings, even causing some people to turn it into a commercial product.
Imagine what you’d feel when, like our friend, while in London, you picked up a microwave oven, and was shocked to find it printed thereon “NOT made in China.”
Imagine what it would be like if, like our compatriot in New York working in a job all would envy, receiving accolades, when one of his American colleagues waved a pair of shoes in his or her face that read “NOT made in China.”
This is not being hypochondriacal. The Alvito Company, registered in Gibraltar, has applied for the trademark to “Not made in China,” which was accepted by the “European Union Trademark Management Bureau.” If there are no objections from a third party within three months, the mark will become registered.
[Editor’s Note: The Bureau referred to is most likely the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs). Indeed, the mark exists – search here.]
When a trademark is registered, according to law, it becomes effective in the 25 nations of the EU. The chain reaction is that the U.S. may also approve the registration.
Truly, “Made in China” began with low value added products, and as China was situated in a period of economic development, “Made in China” left a bitter aftertaste. But China continues to develop, to “innovate,” and is precisely in that stage of moving upwards.
We can forgive them their eye to competitive challenge, but we must not look askance at their barbaric discourtesy.
As the saying goes, “all merchants are profiteers.” The initiator of this evil wind is a small company, and as such we may call this a small evil. When the brand is communicated to others, it will be distorted and not rectified. At that time, it will move toward an extreme: the subtle meaning of “not made in China” is that “Made in China” means “no good.” The greater its effect, the greater “Made in China” will be distorted.
Perhaps, when it comes to “Made in China,” we have a set of complicated feelings. But we obviously do not hope that it becomes as distorted as it has done here.
Fortunately, we have another opporuntity to prevent this situation from getting worse. We have the right to raise an objection with the European Community, and change the result.
We have one other directly viable road. Shanghai Securities News, China Stock Net, the United Nations and its personnel, and experts can raise a protest to the European Community. Our opinion is that it will receive close attention.
We hope that we all rise up to prevent the registration of this discriminatory trademark.
Pick up your pen, type at your keyboard, pick up your phone, use your emotional energy and your intelligence and do your part for the China you love.
Posted by Richard at 1:58 PM | Comments (0)
