Following the Rules is for Suckers.

Example #1.  The Boarder. Amid all the news that Beijing is tightening up the boarder ahead of the Oct. 1 anniversary, this is what happened to me this morning.  Man in line has a problem with the number on his visa.  Immigration can’t read it and it doesn’t scan correctly (I can understand the lady and her manager talking about the issues as I stand in the neighboring line waiting behind some unfortunate man and his wife from the Middle East who are being given a hard time).  She wonders if there she should reject him because it she doesn't know what to number to type in and it won’t scan in either.  Manager says: “Don’t worry about it.  Just stamp it.  He’s from Singapore.”Example #2.  The swimming pool. This is what happened at the pool this afternoon with my boys.  Now I’m always bugged that the pool doesn’t open until 3PM.  I understand that Chinese don’t like the sun, but there are probably 25 plus foreign or part-foreign families in our complex who have been asking for a year or two for it to open earlier since we do like the sun.  I asked in private today, while the manger was mauling my little boys and taking pics of her and them with her cell phone.  She tells me: “We can let you in at noon, if you want.  But you’ll have to swim alone.  We don’t have a lifeguard until 3.”Example #3.  Commercial Invoices. Without fail we are always offered or advised by either shipping companies or by factories to produce Commercial Invoices at much lower than actual costs to save money on duties and taxes going out of China and into foreign countries.  Yesterday we were told: “You guys pay way more than anyone else we know since you put the real prices on your invoices.”Example #4.  Traffic. My wife said to me after a meal with some friends in Dongguan yesterday.  “I hate driving in Dongguan.  They have so many traffic cameras, you have to make sure to follow all of the rules.”Example #4a.  Seat belts. Taxi driver on the way to the China/Hong Kong boarder this AM tells me: “When we get past YanTian Rd, please put your seat belt on.  The cops are checking taxis for seatbelts today.  You can take it off a couple of streets later; we just have to pass the check point.”Example #5.  R&D. This is a story that my friend Mike Bellamy (PSChina) shared at the GS show this week.  When he asked his factory-owning friends about their non-existent R&D departments they told him they get all the R&D they need at trade shows.  There are so many new companies passing out all their plans for new products and requesting samples that the factories don’t need to do any of their own research.Why share all of these?Because all of these experiences happened to me (or were shared by Mike) in the last 24 hours.Because this is the attitude that is most common here.Because this is the business environment that you are headed into when you come to China.This isn’t a slam on China—this is just what really happens here.  Rules are considered to be for people that are being watched.  Rules are for people that don’t have the ability to get around them.You've been warned.