ABSTRACT
We are not sure this proverb is still entirely true. Rules only seem to be fixed for the moment; they may have been promulgated, but overtaken before officials get around to implementing them. If anything, though, this makes the need for relationships all the greater. Researchers in many parts of the world have noted how, in the absence of a formal structure of laws and regulations, personal relationships become the framework through which connections are made, trust established and business done. China, as we shall see in the next chapter, is in the throes of large-scale legal reform, but that does not mean relationships are becoming less important. Indeed, in many subtle ways they are becoming more important. Foreign businesses in China need local partners in much the same way
that they do in any world market. Relationships always have to be cultivated with distributors, suppliers, customers, local government and administration, and the community in general. Relationships are more important in China than in most other countries, however, for three reasons. First, the government plays a much more direct role in the economy in China than it does in most Western countries or even in many developing economies. As we noted in Chapter 2, in China the economy is seen as being at the service of the state, and the state does not hesitate to intervene when it thinks the economy is going in undesirable directions. This applies to local as well as central government in the People’s Republic of China, and to a greater or lesser degree it applies to every government in the region. Cultivating good relationships with government is therefore often a critical factor in assuring the success of a venture. Second, there are sharply differing attitudes to law, particularly to its
aims and purposes, in China than in the West. In the latter (for better or
for worse), we tend to see the law as the essential set of rules of conduct governing our society, and also as our primary form of redress when things go wrong. Quite different traditions exist in China; here the ‘rules of conduct’ are the ethics and standards of behaviour required in a Confucian society. Social pressures rather than legal instruments are more often used to ensure compliance. Of course this does not mean that law is of no relevance in China, but the laws are used in different ways. As we discuss below, many of the issues that Westerners tend to think of as legal are better seen in China as relationship issues. Third, and related to the above, there is the fact that much of Chinese
society – including its businesses – is and always has been organised on relationship principles. There are three key principles which can be added to the box in the previous chapter:
Qingmian, or ‘human feelings’; respect for the feelings of others is of great importance, particularly in relationship management.
