re: #169 Single-handed sailor

I went through that with Chinese “investors” in the 70s in traffic computers and in PCs in the 80s at various employers.

Doing business in China and with Chinese is fraught with cultural dilemmas. Traditional Chinese business deals depend more on personal relationships (guanxi) than on written documents. Business deals (and political ones) are prefaced by long meals and a lot of drinking, followed by visits to karaoke clubs and more drinking. Any Westerner who expects to cut any deals in China has to steel himself (and I mean him — businesswomen operate under a separate set of rules) for a lot of schmoozing and drinking before his Chinese counterparts will begin to trust him. Even so, a foreigner is at a major disadvantage, because he doesn’t have an intricate, well established network of relatives and friends, and Party leaders, behind him. So, he might find himself suddenly out in the cold, when his deal goes sour and his Chinese counterparts sign a better contract with one of their cronies.

I admire any Western company that manages to succeed here, because it’s not an easy business market to crack. And it’s a dicey arrangement, because the government could at any moment decide it doesn’t like a foreign firm and order the deal ended.