Seeing China for what it really is...
Last week I was forwarded an article (sales pitch actually) from a Singaporean consulting firm in Shanghai that makes a living providing “advise” to unsuspecting foreigners in China… The company shall remain anonymous, as I do not want to be sued for telling it as it is, but these guys are so full of it that it is hard to hold back.
They started by comparing “the cultivation of traditional guanxi” with pure corruption, and then went on to talk about how this is changing…
First of all, guanxi and corruption is not the same thing, never was and most likely never will. Granted, the word has been used to justify corruption, but it is not correct usage, it is only another way to justify “this is the way things are done in China”, and whenever I hear it I am seconds away from kicking the speaker’s teeth in.
If someone pays an official to grant them a favour, they are simply paying a bribe and not building guanxi with the official. IT IS THAT SIMPLE… The official’s guanxi network will benefit and take your money as long as it is to their benefit, but as soon as things get hot they will cut and run…
If you did have guanxi with the official, there would be no need to pay for a contract, or as the article states, pay for the official’s kid to go overseas for university studies… The guanxi network takes care of itself, building value for all members of the network and making sure they all benefit financially.
The article continues by giving a concrete example of someone (a friend of a friend as he writes) that was used to buying contracts without any business substance behind him, and how he now (because of stricter control from the central government) no longer is able to retain his guanxi… THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT… THE FOOL NEVER HAD ANY GUANXI IN THE FIRST PLACE… HE SIMPLY PUT MONEY INTO A CORRUPT SYSTEM, A SYSTEM THAT HAS BEEN FALLING APART FOR THE BETTER PART OF THE LAST 10 YEARS.
If he had any guanxi, nothing would have changed in the way he conducts his business, or in the expected results of bidding for a project… Just because you submit a competitive bid does not mean that you stand a chance of succeeding, and you will not succeed if one of the bidders is in the buyer’s guanxi network. The simple truth is that the buyer will release all competitor information, bids, etc. to their guanxi friends, and then the friends ensures that the bid they submit is superior to the other bids submitted… Regardless of them having any chance of ever delivering in the end…
True guanxi cannot be bought, it is cultivated over a long time, most often through family and school ties…
If someone tells you they can help you cultivate guanxi, and proceed to tell you they need a slush fund to do it… LAUGH IN THEIR FACE AND WALK AWAY… Or pay… Just be aware that corruption is illegal in China and can carry the death penalty.