"How the hell does anyone do business over here?!"* (or China vs. Thailand, pt.274)

So let me get this straight…1.    If my factory makes a mistake I get stuck paying for it or lose my deposit or go to court just to get what I contracted for?  Right.2.    If my factory can’t hit the quality standards specified I get stuck with lower quality goods, or no goods and no refund?  Right again.3.    If my factory can’t understand the language in the contract but sign it anyway, I’m at fault for not realizing what they could/couldn’t do before the contract started?  3 for 3!4.    If my factory is late because of the 0lympics, a typhoon, government raids, not enough laborers, blackouts 2-3 days a week, underestimated schedule or overzealous sales department commitments I’m stuck dealing with missed shipping dates because there is no way in China, to get them to pay penalties except going to court?  Yup.5.    If my factory runs out of money because of the bad economy (non-paying domestic clients) I’m forced to pay early to get my product completed or just lose everything?  Uh huh.6. If I want to send samples to a domestic factory or to the US, the (concluded) 0lympic security says that we can airmail flocking but not glitter, and we can't airmail semi-precious stones, batteries or electronics?  Is it selfish to already be dreading the Shanghai Wold Expo in 2010?  Or the World University Games in Shenzhen in 2011?  Yes to both.One more point on shipping in China, and this has nothing to do with recent security.  We have accounts with all the big three express shippers but typically only use one of them.  This account has been based in the US for years now.  But this last year we have been getting "hints" from the local office that they'd like the billing to be run through them and not the US.  Hints like, late delivery, hang ups when we call for customer service, double billing, and now outright threats to stop service if we continue to use the US account/billing.  We've called the US office and they claim they talked with HQ in Guangzhou and there is no problem.  But the local delivery office in Shenzhen (who I've talked with personally about this a number of times) is insistent that they can't service our account properly unless the billing goes through them directly!  Don't ever discount the power of a good extortion play.  So if we have 3 accounts why do we continue to use this one?  Well first, it's actually a bit cheaper to bill though China.  And second, the express provider has a great international network set up.  Much better than the other two.So despite the extortion our account will move to China--I guess you could say this is economics with Chinese characteristics.  Or maybe just a lesson in getting the same results in a culturally appropriate/different way.Yes, all of these are questions or situations that we’ve either been in or been asked to solve for others these last couple of months in China.  Still think it's not worth it to hire someone to represent you in Asia?  No way you can solve any of these problems without being here, on the ground, 24/7.But it could be worse.  You could be in Bangkok.1.    The new airport really sucks, and it’s getting worse.2.    It’s annual protest season again and that means that hundreds of trucks blocked trains, roads and airport access (ok, that’s not so bad) and generally made the GDP sucking BKK traffic even worse. Poor Aussies.Thailand is unique in that they seem to be able to have total political chaos every couple of years and still maintain a relatively stable work envornment, albeit for the week or so of major protests.Here's my take: The protests will get worse next week, there will be a settlement of some type.  Taksin will not be returned, investor confidence will remain high, exports will continue as will economic growth, old PM will step down, a new PM will be "elected" and by October, things will be back to normal.  In the meantime, getting to and from the office or the markets in Sampeang will be tough, but other than that (and wading through all the new political slogans and bumper stickers) things will pretty much go on like it has for the last 25 years.  Sabaay, Sabaay.3.    The crisp clean smell of teargas is in the air.4.    Inflation is up.5.    So are interest rates.6.    But don’t worry about the economy, political instability is now the biggest concern.At least the beaches haven't washed away.  Yet.*The title is from a client who was visiting a factory and hired SRI to try to solve some QC issues.