ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book recounts what happened through that period of more than a decade in which Western companies went hunting for business in China, signed contracts, started up operations, and then, often, became increasingly frustrated and disenchanted there. The author has chosen to tell this story primarily through the eyes of the executives and other employees in one particular company, the American Motors Corporation, which in 1983 agreed to set up a new joint venture to manufacture Jeeps in Beijing. Beijing Jeep was the most closely watched business venture between China and the West, the one most regularly visited by political leaders such as then Vice President George Bush and then Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang.
