China Speakers Bureau: March 2010

Google damaged China's internet reform - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Contrary to its intentions, Google has been rather damaging than helping China's internet reform and opening up, writes Shaun Rein in an editorial in USA Today. Reform-minded officials have been trying to give Google access to the Chinese market, and Google decided to turn their back on them:

Contrary to the way Google founder Sergey Brin makes it sound, the Chinese Internet has in fact opened up since the Olympics. The government has become less scared of content, and sites such as The Huffington Postand the BBC have been unblocked. True, sites heavy with user-generated content, such as Facebook andTwitter, are now blocked, but home-grown versions have flowered because the government feels they will follow local laws.

Google's ultimatum — to let it stop censoring searches or it will leave— has cut reform-minded officials' legs off at the knees, as well as strengthening the power of officials who take a dimmer view of allowing Chinese Internet users access to sites outside China.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Worldexpo 2010: a tribute to the emperor - Paul French

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

The Worldexpo 2010 in Shanghai is mean to make the Beijing Olympics look small: bigger, more expensive and meant to attract many more visitors. Apart from the US pavilion, the other 190 national pavilions are government-funded, even in these financially disturbed times, as it is a way for countries to move into the world's fastest growing economy.
Paul French of Access Asia to Reuters:

"It's for countries to cozy up. For countries like Australia or France, it's make-up money, a tribute to the emperor. They are apologizing for all the trouble caused in the last few years," said Paul French, chief China analyst with retail consultancy Access Asia in Shanghai.

Germany is spending USD 67 million, the article says, Saudi Arabia USD 146 million.

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Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him at your conference, do get in touch.

March 2010 newsletter is available

Janet Carmosky by Fantake via Flickr

Our March 2010 newsletter of the China Speakers Bureau is out. For those who missed it (you can subscribe in the top-right corner), you can read it here too.
This month ambassador Sergio Marchi debates the WTO, we publish our top-10 speakers list for March 2010 and we give an overview of the most important stories in mainstream media, with many quotes of our speakers. Of course, the Google departure is prominent, but also new emerging debates on China's debts crisis.

Stereotyping as a necessary evil in literature - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia, with hooker in Shenzhen by Fantake via Flickr

A candid report from the International Literature festival 2010 at the Bookworm in Beijing brings up a range on controversies between different Asian writers in the China Daily:

Does putting a qipao-clad woman on the cover create instant brand recognition for readers interested in China? Is it an image persuasive enough to push sales? The qipao lure seems to work for factory-worker-turned-author Zhang Lijia (Socialism is Great, 2008), or so she would have us believe.

Zhang Lijia, currently working on her second novel, The Lotus, on the life of a hooker, explains she has no problem in adjusting the images she used to the taste for her targeted audience:

"If I write for the domestic market I will clothe my heroine in a low-cut Gucci dress or nothing at all, but if I am writing for the Western audience I will make her wear a qipao," says Zhang.

While her first book is a memoir of her growing-up years, slogging away at a missile factory on the banks of the Yangtze, her second has a hooker as the central character. "Western audiences will probably find an attractive prostitute more interesting than a yellow-toothed factory worker," Zhang says.

More arguments at the China Daily.

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Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your conference? Do get in touch.
Zhang Lijia also contributed to our recently released book A Changing China.

Google, US supporting Chinese nationalists - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo by Fantake via Flickr

In the Google debate, at the US side the players do not see they are losing the hearts and minds of the Chinese internet users, argues Kaiser Kuo in the Wall Street Journal. China's nationalists are winning this fight:

“Even if it is their goal to throw open the flood gates of information freedom, I don’t think the best way to do it is to plant an American flag on that endeavor,” said Kaiser Kuo, consultant for Chinese online-video Web site Youku.com. “Anyone in China who wants to look for evidence that the U.S. wants to use the Internet to undermine the Communist Party’s rule is going to find ample evidence of this.”

Indeed, Google has been criticized in China since its Jan. 12 announcement for waging an “ideology war,” for “cultural imperialism” and for being a lapdog of the U.S. government. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned Google by name in her January speech about Internet freedom and Congress has appropriated $35 million for State Department grants to organizations that develop technology to circumvent Internet censorship.

Kuo said moves to fund the development of circumvention software to help Internet users get around blocks set up by their governments give the impression the government is funding something “that looks deliberately subsersive.”

“Is that going to win people over?” he said. “It sounds preposterous to Americans, but how can it look otherwise from Beijing? You’re just giving ammunition … making the nationalists’ argument sound a whole lot more persuasive.”

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Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference? Do get in touch.

Room for improvement in China's education - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Education is lagging in China, warn Shaun Rein, who sees a country that is too content with its current achievements and stalls much needed reforms, he tells in Forbes.
Some of the faculty are becoming world class and much money is being spent, but that is not enough, it has to deliver graduates that can Chinese editions of Google and Apple:

By that measure, China's universities aren't succeeding. Too many multinational corporations can't find enough highly skilled white-collar workers in the country. In interviews my firm, theChina Market Research Group, conducts every year with senior executives at foreign companies in China, we hear a common complaint that younger workers just don't think analytically enough, despite being intelligent and earnest. It's incredible, when you consider that the number of university graduates has risen from 1 million a year a decade ago to more than 6 million this year.

Too little has changed for the majority of China's university students, Rein writes:

Finally, China's universities should make more effort to teach students to think critically. Too much learning is done by rote, and by taking in lectures and reading assignments with little or no discussion. Too many classes are graded solely on the basis of large multiple-choice exams, and there is little classroom interaction.

More in Forbes

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch. Rein also contributed to our recently released book A Changing China.

Why China's consumers won't save the world - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff by Fantake via Flickr

Wrongly the world hopes China's consumers will contribute to the economic rescue of the world. Not anytime soon, writes Tom Doctoroff in the Huffington Post.

Over the next decade, Chinese consumers will not save the world; they can not make up for a sharp pullback in U.S. consumption. The Chinese, poor by global standards, are extremely cautious, ruthlessly price conscious and risk averse. This tendency, reflected in a bargaining impulse that approaches blood sport, is underpinned by: a) contemporary government policy and b) ancient cultural imperatives - i.e., assumptions regarding the relationship between society and individual. The relevance of the latter is indicated by persistently high savings rates even in "developed" Chinese societies such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

More in the Huffington Post.

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Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.
Tom Doctoroff also contributed to our recently released book A Changing China.

Registration bug CSB newsletter fixed

Hurun by Fantake via Flickr

Just in time for our March Newsletter, we discovered a small bug in the registration tool for our popular newsletter. You can now register again for our newsletter by filling in your email address in the box at the right top part of this website. We expect to run the newsletter by the end of Thursday,

The Tibetan mastiff as a symbol of wealth - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf by Fantake via Flickr

Dogs have been a symbol of wealth in China, since its economic developed took off seriously in the 1990s. But just a dog is not enough anymore, the rich of today need a Tibetan mastiff says Rupert Hoogewerf, next to houses and cars of course to AP.

"You could call it a local luxury brand," said Rupert Hoogewerf, publisher of the Hurun rich list who who compiles a popular annual list of China's richest people. "Luxury brands are growing at phenomenal rates in China and owning a Tibetan mastiff is another channel for increasing your credibility and showing off your rich status."

More dog news from China here.

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Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference to talk about the rich and wealthy in China, do get in touch.

What does the Google showdown mean?

Kaiser Kuo by Fantake via Flickr

Many China commenters have given their verdicts about what the departure of Google's search engine from China means. Here a short overview of what the members of the China Speakers Bureau had to say in the past few days.
Global Post:

Kaiser Kuo, a Beijing-based technology writer, said what happens next is important. If China’s official reaction is “kept to the level of a few indignant editorials upbraiding Google for failing to live up to its written promises and goes no further, then I think we can assume that Google.com will remain unblocked.”

“Clearly, the best-case outcome would be one in which Beijing accepts this new status quo,” said Kuo. “Obviously they're not going to announce that this is their plan. They'll just declare victory and let things be, not blocking Google.com.hk and not drumming Google out of China entirely.”

But, Kuo said, if the situation worsens, “Beijing could still very well make things more difficult — blocking, torpedoing Google business with mobile carriers and handset makers, et cetera.”

CNN:

"If people can use overseas services, the impact will not be that great," said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of the Chinese media site Danwei.org.

"If the filtering increases in any way from the past, it is going to be a problem because none of the Chinese search engines are good at searching the international Internet in English. That is going to impact anyone who relies on that," Goldkorn said.

Reuters: (in the understatement of the year)

Kaiser Kuo, an independent technology commentator based in Beijing, expects advertising revenue from China to be soft for this period as advertisement resellers would not want to make advertising budget decisions with so much uncertainty.

"[The internet in China] is becoming more like an echo chamber," said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of media and advertising website Danwei.org. "It is one step closer to this word ... Chinternet -- or the Chinese Internet becoming more like an Intranet."

Boston.com:

"The Google affair is both catalyst and evidence of change,’’ said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Dragonomics, a Beijing economics firm. “We are at a turning point. It had been very, very unusual for foreign business to say anything too negative about China, because the opportunities here were too large."

Economic Times:

"There actually isn't that big a difference in terms of getting information," said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.
"When (Chinese web users) click on those sensitive links, it hits the firewall."

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All quoted experts are also speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need them at your conference, do get in touch.

WTO-reform? First adjust the plumbing - Ambassador Sergio Marchi

Sergio Marchi by Fantake via Flickr

We hear many refrains from trade supporters and critics alike. But one that unites both camps is the need to ‘strengthen’ the WTO.

Indeed, in a shrinking, integrated world, where most of our multilateral institutions were created in the aftermath of WWII, strengthening the system would be a hugely important and timely endeavor.

While the force of the ideas--- the poetry ---will ultimately determine the quality of the renewal agenda, countries first must adjust the plumbing.

Plumbing? Let me explain.

1. First, the WTO is an invaluable institution.

It plays a vital role in our international community. If we did not have the WTO --- in a global village where every country has aggressive commercial ambitions, and where rules thus become an absolute imperative ---- we’d have to create one.

But we also have the obligation to nurture the institution. To situate it in the political and economic times we live in.

2. Second, the WTO can be made better.

It is not infallible, and those who deny any reform will inadvertently weaken the institution over time. Good ideas can be turned into effective improvements, that would serve to reinvigorate the WTO.

Over the years, there have been many recommendations for improvements, but they have gone nowhere because they have had no process to feed into. Moreover, the lack of any follow up only breeds frustration and cynicism on the part of the trade stakeholders.

3. Thirdly, we cannot put the cart before the horse.

We need a process. In other words, we need a ‘horse’, so that it can pull our cart of reform ideas. Only then will ideas have an opportunity to be transformed into agents of change

4. Fourth, the process must be one that is endorsed, owned, and led by WTO Members themselves.

As an intergovernmental institution, successful change must be agreed to from the inside. While civil society can contribute, change will not be imposed by the outside.

5. Fifth, Ministers must be fully engaged.

First, Ministers act as the collective ‘Chairman of the Board’ for the WTO. The political buck stops with them. Second, as elected representatives they have a pivotal role in ensuring that the voices of their citizens --- the ‘share holders ’---are heard. And third, Ministers should not just be summoned to the WTO for trade negotiations alone. Ministers must also provide the strategic oversight and leadership so desperately required.

Yet, the reality is that beyond negotiations, the WTO does not ask much else from Ministers. This is a serious gap, which should be addressed with appropriate urgency.

6. Sixth, some feel the timing is not right; that we must exclusively deal with completing the Doha Round of Negotiations (DDA) first.

I fully support the DDA. Indeed, I was there when we launched it. But I strongly disagree with those that argue that we cannot ‘walk and chew gum’ at the same time. Quite frankly, we can and must do both. Not only would they be on separate tracks, but a more effective WTO would only facilitate negotiations, and not make them more difficult.

In closing, the members need to understand that the WTO is not just about the DDA. It is much more. And ‘betting the entire farm’ on the DDA has been a strategic error. The WTO’s credibility is on the line.

Countries cannot afford, therefore, to be timid about change. They instead need to guide and shape reform, as a tool for reinvigorating and strengthening the WTO. In this regard, they must first and urgently adjust the plumbing.

Ambassador Sergio Marchi is a Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. He formerly served as Canada’s International Trade Minister and Ambassador to the WTO, including as Chairman of the WTO General Council. He is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Just added: Tom Doctoroff on the automotive industry

Tom Doctoroff

Hardliners grab chances after Google's departure - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

At Bloomberg Shaun Rein describes the rising tension in China's bureaucracy after Google decided last night to redirect its China searches to Hong Kong. While he praises the government's "measured response" (or merely the lack of any response to Google's actions), now he sees how the hardliners are grabbing their chances, as China's state-owned media have started to attack Google fiercely.
Also comments on the Rio Tinto trial, as an effort from the Chinese government to stem corruption, also corruption by foreign companies.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

The winners from Google's departure - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean by Fantake via Flickr

Google's announced closure of its Chinese search engine - and potential further fallout of that decision - changes the internet playing field in China, says William Bao Bean, partner at Softbank China and India holdings at Media Asia.

“This is definitely going to open the market up to the guys, including Tencent and to some extent Sohu and e-commerce search engines like Taobao’s,” Bean said. “In terms of taking over, some of the more traditional portals have an opportunity there and Tencent is well-positioned. It has the image of being a platform for younger users but these users are going to grow up with the company. For example, MSN was the messenger of choice for corporate users but the number of QQ IM users has grown and now it dwarfs MSN.”

According to William Bao Bean, Google's China operation had just in 2009 become profitable.

Overall, Google made an estimated US$300 million in China last year, and it became profitable by the end of 2009, partner at SoftBank China & India Holdings, William Bao Bean, cited. The idea that this figure represents merely one per cent of Google Inc.’s total sales has prompted analysts to suggest that its exit from China is not crutial, but Bean notes that, over time, “it would have been immense for the company in the long run as the company takes shift”.

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William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do let us know.

Why China is different - Janet Carmosky

Janet Carmosky by Fantake via Flickr

Google might not be the first US company to note that China is different, and will not be the last one to find out that things are not like back home. When you need somebody to explain the differences, ask Janet Carmosky, one of the speakers of the China Speakers Bureau, who made a great contribution to our recently published book A Changing China.
Here is her start:

This whole essay is an invitation to everyone who has never questioned that western values—logic, faith, individuality, transparency, freedom—are universal, or that they necessarily form a superior platform for the building of societies, nations, and economies. This essay challenges us. When we look at China's cultural values, can we see aspects that complement, counterbalance, or inform the values currently most prevalent in the west?

For China is, at its core, permanently Other Than Western. Although currently expressing its economic strength within a system of rules largely designed by the west, China knows that all its strengths are expressions of their own culture.

For more: get our book, or ask Janet Carmosky. Janet Carmosky is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her to set your straight before you enter the China market, do get in touch.

Most-sought speakers for March 2010

Victor Shih by Fantake via Flickr

The world is in too many cases waking up too late from a prolonged winter. China has jumped into action, after the annual meetings of the NPC and CPPCC meetings in Beijing, and also at the global offices of the China Speakers Bureau hibernation has ended.
Those annual meetings in Beijing brought our speaker Victor Shih instant celebrity, as he was able to substantiate the stories on China's rising debts because of its financial rescue operation.
Victor Shih was our most quoted speaker of the past month and that brought him to the top position on our most-sought speakers list for March, joining Shaun Rein and Kaiser Kuo who have been alternating on the two top positions for the past months.
Kaiser Kuo has been very active, for example with his speech at SXSW in Austin, Texas, but also Shaun Rein had weeks when he popped up daily at Business Week, Forbes, Bloomberg or elsewhere, castigating Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman and others.
Getting attention from the mainstream media is difficult but still possible, as Victor Shih shows. But getting coverage seems to be harder as the resources for foreign correspondence are dropping. We will continue our monthly listing of most-wanted speakers, but will increasingly look for tools to put some of our excellent speakers, who do not make it into the top-10, more in the limelight.
Our book A Changing China is one of those tools, but we will develop more in the months to come.
But now, without further delay, our top-10 of most-sought speakers in March 2010 (and February in brackets)

Property tax unavoidable - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr

Local governments in China depend for their income mostly on the sales of land, not on tax revenue. As debts went up and only the larger cities have still enough land to sell off, that methods might not be sustainable in the long run, says economic analyst Arthur Kroeber in the New York Times.
The Chinese bureaucracy is now debating an alternative, a property tax, but is running into fierce opposition, especially by them who own a lot of real estate. The New York Times:

“It is widely recognized that the current structure of property, which has been a big source of growth, is not sustainable,” said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Beijing-based Dragonomics, an economics research firm whose clients include hedge funds and Fortune 500 companies.

The Finance Ministry and other government supporters of the tax will eventually prevail, Mr. Kroeber said, overcoming resistance from officials who say it will hurt the value of their own real estate investments.

“They will come to grips with this,” Mr. Kroeber said in an interview. “It will be messy and it will be a drawn-out battle, but I think that it will happen.”

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Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference? Do get in touch.

Launching twitter in China, means you have to conform - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean by Fantake via Flickr

Twitter is blocked in China and some suggest the US company might give it a try in the Middle Kingdom. But that has consequences, warns VC William Bao Bean from Shanghai in Media Asia. While the saga of Google in China is still unfolding, Twitter should know what it means to operate in China, says William.

According to William Bao Bean, partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, Twitter would be expected to start from the ground up in China in order to launch its operations, which means registering itself as a new entity and vow to adhere to censorship regulations, similar to a policy that Google China is trying to shed.

“To launch a site in China, you have to conform to Chinese regulations, which means that you have to apply and receive an ICP licence,” he said.

That looks like a step too far for yet another US-based internet company.

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William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Google damaged China's internet reform - Shaun Rein

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Worldexpo 2010: a tribute to the emperor - Paul French