Understand Chinese mindset
THE fact that the keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week was Chinese President Xi Jinping is significant for a number of reasons. If we are eager to do business with the Chinese, it is vital to under- stand the Chinese mindset and to grasp the prompts that make it tick over.
China is reasserting its claim on moral grounds as one of the two or three world leaders in an increasingly post-American multi-polarised world. Whereas the US has until recently been the sole world leader policing the globe and enforcing its policies, however unpopular, this is not the case anymore.
In the Far East and the Pacific realm China has progressively staked its claim as the regional night watchman.
With a population of at least five times that of the US and a cultural trajectory stretching back for more than 3 000 years, China takes its responsibilities as a world leader very seriously. By way of illustration, during the British opium wars of the 19th century, a fact that was not known to many Westerners was that the Chinese thought that, provided she was apprised of it, the British monarch could put a decisive stop to the British aggression.
The point I am driving at is that the Chinese expect their leaders to take benevolent care of them. This is, incidentally, the reason the Chinese insist on their own workforce being engaged in construction projects in Africa.
The Chinese strive for win-win arrangements where both parties benefit. For the Chinese, the election of a clown like Donald Trump, who insists on protectionist regulation to the detriment of everybody else, is simply incomprehensible.
Xi carefully alluded to this during his speech.
Despite its reputation (as is the case with the US) as a serious polluter, China has now officially embraced a green economy. Compare this with Trump’s irresponsible statement that climate change is “a Chinese hoax”.
Until 1978, China was a very poor country relying mostly on agriculture for its economic survival. That year Deng Xiaopeng, during a state visit to Japan, observed the massive industrialisation drive in that country and declared famously, “Socialism is not poverty”.
The following year China opened its doors to the world. The idea was always to clean up the environment once China was on its feet economically.
China’s economic engagement with Africa should be judged in this light. One way to stay ahead of the pack while not compromising the environment at home, is to export polluting industry to the third world where it is still possible to see the stars in the night sky.
China has a mature economy that has moved from copying Western inventions (during the 1980s and 1990s) to making significant innovations of its own. China has also progressed from an export economy to one driven by internal consumption.
It is important to remember two things about the Chinese. First, according to Niall Ferguson, professor of international history at Harvard, the Chinese have latched onto a work ethic that we in the West have forgotten for at least a generation.
They are hard-nosed businesspeople who will go out of their way to keep the customer happy. The customer is well advised to complain in an open and honest way if her or his expectations are not met.
The Chinese can be surprisingly open-minded and loyal. As South Africans we are unlikely to match the Chinese in terms of service delivery.
Second, the Chinese are enmeshed in inter-dependency. This is closely tied up with what Herbert Butterfield, possibly the foremost sinologist of his generation, calls the Chinese genius for relationship-building.
Typical of people who had a nurturing upbringing, the Chinese will generally forego a tactical advantage if that will save or cement the relationship.
Hard bargaining and insisting on fair dealing is something the Chinese will appreciate. In making deals with the Chinese, negotiators must insist on reciprocally fair clauses in their trade agreements.
As a China watcher for at least the past decade, I suggest that these observations are profoundly important for us as South Africans in our attempts to do meaningful business with the Chinese. Xi, in his address at Davos, extended China’s hand of friendship and co-operation to the West.
As Africans we should not be blinded by stereotypical, racist thinking on Chinese business practices. “Chinese bookkeeping”, understood as fair (even insistent) dealing, will get you everywhere.
In fact, as one of the oldest continuously existing civilisations on the globe, we stand to learn a great deal from the Chinese.