“We’re willing to offer some opportunities to local companies. Why not? They are cheap. But it will only be limited to those uncritical systems. For important systems, definitely MNCs will be still our first choice. I don’t think it is going to change in short term.”

It was from an industry executive being interviewed as part of a market entry strategy for a very large “clean” tech firm, and I thought ddid a great job of highlighting the fact that there is space for foreign firms to compete in China.  Even under a time where the government if looking to reward domestic innovation.

Building on the quote from my own experience, where I think firms entering China would be best to focus is on areas where there is a KNOWN need.  Where air pollution is a KNOWN problem.  Where food safety is a KNOWN problem.  Where water shortages are a KNOWN constraint.  I stress KNOWN because there are plenty of industries/ areas of China where domestic innovation trumps quality because the problem really isn’t tangible, and the solution really isn’t needed.

Then it is a process of identifying the key stakeholders and putting forward a value proposition that provides a way forward for a leader to roll out a solution for a KNOWN problem.  Best case, this happens without much effort.  A knock on the door.  A ring of the phone.  They come to you. But for others, the path is a little more complex.. the hill a little steeper.  It requires investing into a pilot that is VISIBLE, and spending a bit mroe time than normal explaining the value proposition to the right people.

Which hopefully will lead to a phone call.  A knock on the door.

All things that I personally find to be of importance, and for me make for a great airport.

So, when I saw Beijing Capital airport rank in 5th place and Shanghai Hongqiao at 19, I was left wondering.  Seriously… Beijing at #5?  Only one slot below HK?  Hongqiao 40 places above Pudong?

Perhaps I am simply looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps I am being too critical.

Feel free to review the full list for yourself

A few passages to pick out:

QinetiQ treated a series of attacks over the next several months as isolated incidents. The hackers followed a more meticulous strategy: In the first 2 1/2 years, they gathered more than 13,000 internal passwords and raided servers that could give them detailed information about the company and how it was organized — data they would use to devastating effect.

[...]The hackers logged on through the company’s remote access system, just like any employee. It was a trick they were able to use only because QinetiQ didn’t employ two-factor authentication, a simple device that generates a unique code employees enter, along with their usual password, anytime they work from home.

[...]The security teams found evidence that the hackers had burrowed into almost every corner of QinetiQ’s U.S. operations, including production facilities and engineering labs in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Long Beach, Mississippi, Huntsville, Alabama and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where QinetiQ engineers work on satellite-based espionage, among other projects.

[...]It began to dawn on the security teams that the hackers had established a near permanent presence in the defense contractor’s computers, mining new information almost as soon as it was written onto hard drives. “Oh yeah…they are f’d,” Wallisch wrote to Hoglund in September. (emphasis mine)

Oh yeah…they are f’d…

Having seen several of my own sites and servers attacked over the years, some very very cleaver and specific, the best advice I can given anyone who suspects they have a problem is immediate action. I honestly cannot stress this enough.  This article is about a defense contractor, but hackers are not only focused on getting blue prints of the newest military gadgets.  they are also looking at commercial secrets as well, and from all I have read, you don’t need to be a big firm to garner interest.  You, or your firm, simply need to be interesting enough to a player with the money to spend on a team of university students in any number of countries.

Personally, I have always taken these threats seriously.  Part of that was speaking to friends who managed servers, others who were a bit paranoid, and knowing that as someone who was involved early with the third sector I was always interesting to someone.  I have had to run through offices and servers changing passwords, take sites offline, have tech support come in and clean databases of anything and everything suspect.

With that, I highly recommend you read the article, and I would recommend that you change your passwords often… and be a little more creative than this list.

Real estate agents who help Chinese investors buy homes abroad say they can guess which country is facing financial ruin by the level of restrictions attached to their investment immigration programs. That is, the easier it is for their clients to buy citizenship, the likelier it is for the country’s economy to tip over into crisis.

Which is interesting as for years nearly every time China opened up a new market to the West, that is exactly what “we” said about China.  That it would only throw open a sector after the good deals were gone, the money was gone,and a sucker was needed to keep the house of cards up.

A few relevant passages:

Entering China a decade ago, Japan’s automakers relied heavily on parts from their affiliates, or “keiretsu” companies, which were often imported from Japan or elsewhere. To check costs, the automakers urged suppliers to shift production to China – and Honda and Nissan say they can now secure more than 90 percent of their car parts locally depending on brand. But even these parts made by “keiretsu” suppliers at Chinese plants are more expensive than those from Chinese manufacturers as they often rely on materials imported from Japan.

[...] The quality of Chinese-made car parts has improved as manufacturers gain experience, though many still fall short of those made by Japanese rivals, people in the industry say.

“During the trial stages in the lead-up to the Venucia launch, we had quite a few problems that were unthinkable,” Yamazaki said, recalling how sun visors wilted and parts were often delivered with the wrong labels

[...]“The carmakers will never admit that quality will drop, but it will. There’s no doubt about it,” said an executive at a main Japanese supplier to Toyota, Nissan and Honda, who didn’t want to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“Sure, they’re making suppliers provide samples and so on, but that’s not bullet-proof. Things like the endurance of an auto part are very hard to check unless you actually apply them in cars on the road.”

It is a process that in many ways reminds me of a conversation I had with an electronics executive several years back who said “I wish we could just trust our Chinese suppliers to do the right thing”, but knowing full well that what is needed by firms is a full blown investment in their quality control processes.

Lest the end up with melted car visors, deadly dog treats, lead painted dolls, or relabeled milk powders.