Research & Analysis

A small candle company finds glowing success on both sides of the Pacific by Virginia A. Hulme Founded in 1994 by wife-and-husband team Mei Xu and David Wang, Pacific Trade International, Inc. (PTI) has grown from a makeshift candle lab in a basement in Annapolis, Maryland, to a thriving company with revenue from US wholesale […]

A leader in China’s western development faces tough challenges by David Lammie Chongqing’s rise to prominence can be traced back to the middle of the twentieth century. From 1937 to 1945, when Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, Jiangsu (China’s capital at the time), the mountainous city of Chongqing was regarded as a safe haven and chosen […]

China plans to unionize all foreign-invested enterprises by 2010, but companies can work with employees to achieve a relatively positive outcome by Andreas Lauffs and Jonathan Isaacs The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) last June formally announced a new phase of its unionization campaign that targets the Global Fortune 500, the top public companies […]

USCBC Chair Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO of the Dow Chemical Co., and USCBC President John Frisbie led a delegation of 12 USCBC board members to Beijing at the end of October. The delegation met with Vice Premier Wang Qishan, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, and other senior officials from the National Development […]

The National People’s Congress (NPC) and State Council both announced initiatives in spring 2008 to increase transparency and public participation in the formulation of legislation and administrative measures. The US-China Business Council (USCBC) has been tracking NPC and State Council compliance with their commitments in this area since late summer. Based on USCBC’s review, the […]

Targeting key segments of China’s diverse and rapidly emerging middle class will be crucial as household incomes rise by Kheehong Song and Allison Cui Gone are the days when companies looked at China as a monolithic land of 1 billion potential customers. Companies are now focusing on how to capture small segments of China’s giant […]

Face, guanxi, and other cultural norms are changing in China, but acquiring a basic level of cultural competence is still important for doing business there. For neophytes beginning to approach China, the long list of cultural dos and don’ts understandably brings some jitters. Those new to China are told that they must understand the complex web […]

From new construction projects to attracting the spotlight, the Olympics will have a lasting effect on China. For the PRC leadership and most Chinese, the July 13, 2001 International Olympic Committee (IOC) announcement that Beijing would host the 2008 Olympic Games marked China’s emergence as a major global player. Just as the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and […]

The future of effective human resources management in China lies beyond the challenges of recruiting, training, and retaining qualified workers. The engine of international commerce is roaring in China, yet its enormous population belies the fact that the country lacks qualified talent to meet foreign employers’ demand. An often-quoted McKinsey Global Institute 2006 study notes that […]

Wise companies prepare for—and minimize their exposure to—risks when investing in China. On the surface, China appears to be one vast market with a strong central government. But deeper down, China is a conglomerate of disparate markets that vary in their levels of economic and social development—from modern municipalities like Shanghai and Beijing, where officials are […]