DiligenceChina

Chinese nationalism is back, and international managers have to be very careful. As the banners and demonstrations at the gate’s of Danone’s Wahaha subsidiary underscore, Chinese leaders are more than happy to whip up public opinion to serve a wide range of goals. The problem is that once the genie of nationalism is […]

Last week we talked about 3 broad areas of the Chinese business landscape that have become new danger zones for overseas managers and investors:

1) Food & drug safety
2) Pollution & environment
3) Corruption.
The general message is that when China is forced to look inward, it starts by looking at foreigners doing business in […]

How will the Danone-Wahaha mess end? Look for the existing Wahaha brand to fade away into obscurity (a new tainted-product / bribes-to-corrupt-official scandal is a good indicator that it’s all over but the whimpering) and for a new player to suddenly arise on the Chinese food industry scene – maybe Danana or Dahana or […]

Mainstream western media is determined to push an image of some New China that will take the helm of the 21st Century and relegate New York, London and Paris to the cultural dustbin of history. Business Week has been cramming the notion of China as UberCapitalist down our throats for a while. Their […]

Western visitors and overseas business people often walk away with a view of China that isn’t 100% complete. They see the skyscrapers and read the economic numbers and they get a mental image of great modernity and progress. While that may be true in many respects, westerners tend to associate ‘modern’ with ‘cynical’ […]