F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

Trust or Not?In recent press there have been variousreports alluding to the conductof foreigners in China. These haveranged from the disgraceful and unseemly,notably the behaviour of a Britishman who drunkly molested a Chinese girl,to the frivolous, best illustrated in the anticsof a rude Russian cellist refusing to movehis feet on a train – something that bewilderinglyreceived nationwide coverage in acountry the size of a continent.The increased reportage and interestin such stories, which are also findingtheir way into social media platforms suchas Weibo, suggests that the Chinese maynow be saying out loud what they havebeen thinking privately for some time, thatthose who are guests in the country shouldbehave as such and not abuse the privilege.Some say that an uncharacteristic impatienceis emerging exemplified by the startlingremarks of Yang Rui, one of CCTVNews 9’s foremost hosts who outlashedagainst ‘snakehead’ foreigners and aimeddirect expletives towards a respected femalejournalist. This was particularly surprisingas his presenter role is with a foreignlanguage CCTV station and is essentiallymeant to help facilitate understanding ofboth Chinese and foreign culture.Undoubtedly a small minority of foreignersdo take advantages and libertiesthat they would not attempt at home. Atthe same time, we shouldn’t overlook thebehaviour of some Chinese who look to exploitforeigner’s naiveties and wallets. Mostforeigners would say that a local businesspartner is not only essential but desirable.But I have heard others say that they are reluctantto trust Chinese partners. We needto explore why. Is this genuine mistrust oran anxiety about language or cultural exclusion.Many Chinese business people believethat with an international business partneror overseas presence, their business gainscredibility, yet others dismiss the idea asforeigners can never “understand” the localmarketplace.So, what does all of this mean for business?Should business partners of differentnationalities, or more importantly cultures,be trusted? Can they be trusted? Unfortunatelythe nature of the media is that storiespeddling bad experiences sell better thangood ones – so you rarely hear of the manyand far more common successes and benefitsthat such joint ventures and cooperationenjoy.Recently a Chinese prospective businesspartner approached me, he cited thatin his view I ‘understand’ China as the reasonfor doing so. In a literal sense, this is ofcourse untrue, it would be wildy foolish ofeither of us to believe I understand China,having only lived here for two years. Whathe meant however, was that I was makingthe effort and trying to ‘understand’ China.From a man who has established a successfulcareer in developing links with Chinaand foreign countries it was my endeavoursand enthusiasm to learn about China andlocal business practice that attracted hisinterest. It was intent rather than achievementthat provided the foundation of histrust and what could grow into a long termbusiness relationship.This experience is probably atypical.Trust is usually established over a periodof time rather than immediately and this isevident in international and local Chinesebusiness behaviour. It is quite natural to favourpeople of your own culture and everyonehas heard horror stories of trade scams,missed payments, financial default and latedeliveries. Too often these are wrongly attributedto the cultural aspects of partnershipwhen in fact the fault lies with thenaive and the dishonest. Individuals, notculture, not language. Yet an initial basisand opportunity must be allowed for peopleto demonstrate dependability. Whetherthe relationship goes on to develop frompersonal likeability, robust financial performanceor professional capability is almostincidental, it is probable that as long asthere is fair treatment between the parties,and an enduring effort to understand andwork together there will be trust.When frivolous stories such as the oneconcerning the Russian cellist are givensensationalist news coverage in an attemptto exploit or distort more serious issues, weforget that economies and cultural exchangegrow and rely on cooperation with peopleBy Lewis McCarthyfrom different backgroundswho may also behave differently.Singling out for disproportionateattention theactions of a handful of fecklessforeigners can do widerdamage to our perceptionsof and our trust in our (potential)foreign partners.Of course, this exampleis something of acaricature but you get thedrift….a local businessmanor a small enterprise may beinfluenced by such nonsenseto think again about workingwith foreigners whothey come to regard as notfit for partnership or purpose.So let us have morepositive news, a bit moretrust and a more enlightenedinsight into the unreportedskills and talents offeet planting foreigners.93