All Roads Lead to China: Business News, Analysis, and Insights from China

So, we all know that there are certain red lines in China that you just don’t cross, and it appears that the  ex – Fonterra head just crossed one when he told a group of people that: China was full of surprises. “You’ve got to go and do business with your eyes wide open.” Asked […]

Chinese firm, Shenghua International, has offered up nearly 5 billion USD for Smithfield Foods. The world’s largest pork producer. It is a deal that I have I have to admit I didn’t see coming, but largely because the memories of Shanghai’s flotilla of pork is still fresh.  Setting that aside, and aligning with the  fact […]

Some of the most difficult, and important, decisions a firm can make are about the balance between price and quality in China.  For many that I have worked with, there is an embedded trust gap in China, yet the pressure to drive costs is simply too powerful to overcome.  It is almost mind boggling at […]

I know I am running a couple weeks behind on this one, but many of you probably heard the news that Foxconn had another incident. An incident that involved 2,000 employees, 5,000 police, and a security guard.  A security guard that reportedly hit a line worker, which then turned into a full on riot. As […]

An interesting article in the FT highlighting the findings of a report put out by HSBC and China Water Risk called No Water, No Power (download here)  highlighting the risk of water becoming an economic force in the medium term: “We think provincial water caps could force a change in the economic mix since 45% […]

While on the HangOut with Terry and Fons last night, we spent quite a bit of time discussing solar and solar policy as part of China’s wider energy policy. It is a topic fresh on the minds of many as the recent actions in US/ EU have put a lot of pressure on Chinese producers.   […]

As a quick follow up on the post from last week,When Sourcing In China. Invest in Systems, I found this fantastic passage from Yvon Chouinard’s book Let My Go People Surfing. A book detailing the story of Patagonia, particularly on its focus of being a firm with values (in every sense of the word), he […]

Last week Dan over at CLB loaded up another post Successful Sourcing From China. The PowerPoint to hammer home the point that firms need to take sourcing in China seriously. And in the first slide he lays out the three things he feels firms need to have in place to source products the right way: […]