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The Blogsmith
Blogging China
By Peter Renton
You can’t read a business magazine today without reading about China. Having staged a successful Olympic Games and endured a devastating earthquake, China has been in the news a lot this year. With the world’s largest population and the second largest economy (which grew at 11 percent in 2007) China is becoming an important part of the international strategy for more and more companies. However, you can’t just take your knowledge of doing business in the United States or Europe and apply it directly to China. The business climate, culture and political system are vastly different from any Western country. If you want to succeed in China you need to be armed with a vast amount of local knowledge. The five blogs reviewed here can help you gain some necessary and practical knowledge that will help you in the launch of any Chinese business venture.
All Roads Lead to China (http://www.allroadsleadtochina.com/)
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The China Vortex (http://www.chinavortex.com/)
Paul Denlinger is a business consultant fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and he has been writing about China for many years. He is currently based in Beijing and he launched the China Vortex blog in July 2007. This blog has more of a technology focus that the other blogs reviewed here. Posts are divided into five main categories: China, internet, technology, business, and economy with extensive coverage of the Chinese internet industry. Denlinger has worked most of his career either in China or California, so he is able to comment with authority on the many cultural challenges for westerners in doing business with China.
China Success Stories (http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/)
China Success Stories is something a little different. It is an advertiser-supported blog that is run by a Dutch company. Rather than one or two authors as in a traditional blog, there are dozens of authors here and a new post is published almost every weekday. Most are detailed, running well over 1,000 words, and there is a short bio on each author so you can get some idea of the perspective. There is also a huge wealth of information here aside from the regular blog postings; the China Guide has hundreds of links to useful resources featuring information on everything from Chinese banking to hotels.
China Solved (http://www.chinasolved.com/blog/)
The optimistically titled China Solved blog is the brainchild of Andrew Hupert, an American management consultant and sales trainer based in Shanghai. It is part of a suite of blogs he publishes that are all concerned with doing business in China. China Solved is targeted at the new international manager working in China, a western manager who is trying to come to grips with the Chinese way of doing business. China Solved was launched in December 2005 and most posts deal with business challenges such as HR, negotiating, customer service, and sales, all of which are decidedly different in China than the west. One thing I found particularly useful with this blog is the Expert Advice area, which is a gathering of practical information gleaned from the mistakes made by others.
China Law Blog (http://www.chinalawblog.com/)
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