Silk Road International Blog

When I read a book I look for three things, entertainment value, new information and applicability to my current situation (whatever that may be).

I first read China Shakes the World maybe 6 months ago, and honestly, I left it on the plane when I was done—it was very entertaining to read but it didn’t do much for me beyond fill my flight time. Basically, I didn’t see myself pulling it off the shelf in the future and citing it or recommending it to others.

But since then it won the Business Book of the Year (Financial Time) and it got some good reviews by people that I respect so I figured that maybe I had given it a bad shake or missed some hidden nuggets of practical information. So I bought it and read it again.

My second reaction isn’t much different from my first.

I loved the stories and the travel log-like experiences. Indeed, the best parts of the book are Mr. Kynge’s writing style and the personal experiences he relates. The personal stories of individual Chinese involved in the worldwide changes are indeed fascinating too. Tales of illegal Chinese textile workers in Italy becoming factory owners in China are great, personalized versions of stories we’ve all heard. Equally interesting are the stories about oil barons, auto magnets, lawyers, politicians and activists. The human side of the “China experience” is a successful pattern for humanizing the numbers—and there are a lot of numbers here—that has been followed by many an author trying to make sense of China for the lay reader.

I like to read books about China by authors who can speak Chinese, Kynge speaks Chinese and that gives him insight into China that writers who do not are not able to grasp. Further, he’s been here a long time—and while that may not mean much in other parts of the world, in China it means that he’s witnessed history. Earth shaking history.

Kynge also collates a mess of stats into the kind of reports that make people’s head’s spin. And judging by the title of the book that was his purpose. The growth in China is astounding, amazing and truly unique in the history of the world.

But with all that praise I’m still left, after I read the book (again), wondering what to do with the stories and the numbers? Most troubling is the fact that the banking and legal data is at least three years old. Which in China Years is more like 10.

China is now shaking the world and will continue to do so, but this book will not. It should be read for all the individual stories, personal insights and Kynge’s extensive experience—it’s a very entertaining read. But it’s not all that new and it won’t help you do business in China.

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Once in a while a book that is originally about one topic illuminates greatly another. One book (that I can’t blog about in China but contained a number of internal government documents about the happenings in a large square in Beijing in the late 80’s) was one such book—highlighting the Chinese leadership and psychology behind the decisions of that summer almost two decades ago. This year another book has done much the same thing—while “The Great Wall” is about the history of the wall, its value is in the light it sheds on the development of the Chinese international perspective.

The Chinese Govt., in the last 15 years, has obsessively used the call for a peaceful and harmonious society to limit opposition and galvanize support any and all state sponsored social positions. What’s so interesting about “The Great Wall” is the historical context into which this “new” desire for social harmony can be now placed. Indeed neither the desire for social harmony nor the enforced superiority of the Chinese “official” position is new to China. And more than just a list of dates, Julia Lovel’s analysis of Chinese international decision making over the last three millennia contextualizes beautifully the current regime’s thinking.

Further illuminating is the historical details of what can easily be called a national superiority complex. I have for years been personally detailing what I see as a national inferiority complex—and I think they are one and the same. Chinese, in general, feel like and have been taught that they are historically, socially and educational superior to at least all others in Asia if not the world—hence the superiority complex. But very few of them can rationalize the current economic, military or political superiority of the immature (less than 300 years old) United States and it’s perceived humiliation of China-hence the inferiority complex. Lovel addresses these insecurities in the context of the national obsession with building and now showing-off the wall.

Tackling 3000 years of wall building is no small task, but Lovel does it with such an easy flow that you forget about the dreariness of the lands and lives through which the wall passes. The book is fantastically descriptive of major historical events related to The Wall without ever becoming a boring list of names and places.

Certainly not a quick read but definitely worth the investment if you want to understand the historical drivers of China’s international perceptions of itself.

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This is one of my new favorite books on China.

Fantastic insight from someone who has been here for more than 30 years, Susan Shirk knows not only about China’s history and current political and economic situation but she knows the leaders, personally. Her insights into their fears, their decision making, their expectations and their historical chains are the most insightful and up-to-date that I’ve read on china—and I’ve read more than 30 books on China in the past couple of years.

If you want to know where the leaders of China are headed and why they’re taking China in that direction, Shirk can tell you. This isn’t just a book about politics and the personalities in office, it’s a book about how the people and the system affect the business decisions of the Chinese economy.

The book is filled with first hand accounts of the major events in China over the last few decades. Personal story after personal experience gives the events in China’s recent growth both personal insight and current applicability. Shirk was the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for US relations with China and is currently a Professor at UC-San Diego.

As the name implies, this book is certainly written with a cautious if not hesitant tone. But I find that in the current atmosphere of exploding stock markets and real estate bubbles, caution is good. I think that most investors in China and many SME’s that come here for business assume that money is money and business is business and China is open for business just like the West. This is not the case. Informed decision are always best—this book is the opportunity to inform yourself as to the nature of the worlds largest state controlled command economy.

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Other than the title, which I think is misleading, I really like this book. Ross Terrill has been a “friend of China” for 40 years and his experience shows in this in depth narration of Chinese history and it’ modern implications. He tells a story of continuing Chinese empires in the modern Chinese Communist party. But if there is anything specific meaning for the US, you’ll have to find through inference and personal deduction. That shouldn’t take anything away from this great book, though. It’s just mislabeled.

The New Chinese Empire is a review of thousands of years of Chinese imperial thinking. It’s a look into the minds of leaders who, for centuries, have been concerned with “stability” and “harmony.” Ross describes how the Chinese see themselves, international relations, domestic politics and the historical march toward the (glorious) future in terms of both domestic (in)stability and China’s turbulent international history.

Due to his knowledge of Chinese history Terrill is able to clearly detail how current Chinese political decisions are based on past historical trends and events. For example, the fact that Communism (Leninism in particular) is heavily based on the historical dialectic feeds even more the historical determinism of the Chinese leaders.

Many bloggers and writers have recently been asking the questions like: is China’s ascension to world super power status as benign as the Beijing regime likes to claim? Terrill has a definitive answer—No, it’s not.

Terrill documents that historically the Chinese have asserted regional dominance in Asia and their current overt goals now are the same. They specifically want to be the “dominate influence in Asia” and their new policies for going abroad (specifically to Africa and the Middle East) are designed in a similar vein. China, as a government, as a people, as a historical dialectic, all aspire to be the Asia’s and eventually the World’s dominant power.

This book is a great read if you want to understand some more about Chinese politics, history and psychology. To that end there is much use in a business setting too. But like the specific meanings for the US that the title claims, what you get out of the book will be more deductive and personal than overtly detailed.

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Like most other authors in the past 5 years, Donald N. Sull is pretty high on China and its coming ascendancy to world super-power status. Sull’s Made in China details many of the same company profiles (Lenovo, Sina, Haier, Wahaha, Galanz) that others use to talk about the rise of China.

Sull’s difference is that he holds up the Chinese companies as success stories “despite” their humble Chinese origins and then compares them with the failures of larger foreign companies is a similar environment. A pessimist could read this book as a litany of of foreign companies’ inability to really “get it right” in China.

But I’m not a pessimist–I like what this book has to offer.

I think that Sull has filled his praise for Chinese entrepreneurs with a ton of practical advice—and that’s what makes this book so valuable. Rather than just rehash mind boggling stats Sull includes a detailed and useful review of successes and missteps by both domestic and international companies in China.

This book makes stories and stats from China USABLE!

Some of the concepts that work for anyone coming to China include:

1. Fog of the Future: understand, truly understand that China is unpredictable and is constantly changing. What is true today probably will not be tomorrow. This means a complete mindset change. You have to be constantly looking out into the uncertain future and at the same time taking active advantage of today’s opportunities. Change is the only constant here. Learn to embrace it or it will crush you.

2. SAPE Cycle: Sense, Anticipate, Prioritize and Execute. Basically do it and do it now. If you don’t do it now, the fast pace of change in China will make you outdated before you even get started. Be capable of successfully managing internal and external change.

3. Manage Relationships Dynamically: Ironic here that the same book that holds Wahaha and Danone up as a success story also warns readers to be wary and cautious about relationships. This is not just “don’t do JV’s in China” but a how to grow and use relationships effectively in China. Despite what many people will tell you, personal relationships still do play an important part in doing business in China. I don’t mean that you still need to use guanxi to get in through the back door. Today, it’s about professional relationships that can also be intensely personal in nature and can be used to facilitate opportunities that appear in the ‘fog.”

Read up on the recent crumbling relationships between Danone and Wahaha at the same time you read this book—a timely confirmation that change and relationships are what you need to pay attention to in China.

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