Observations from my latest trip....

I’ve lots on my mind.  I just came back from another two week trip to China.  This was a special trip because I went to places I’d never been to before.  I’d never been to Dalian.  Nor Qingdao.  

These were some of the observations I felt were worth noting.  Let’s get right to it:

I had two major takeaways. 

One was more than a few folks mentioned how India and China were getting ready for war.  Not one, NOT ONE Chinese mentioned to me anything about North Korea.  As such, it is hard for the Chinese to put pressure on their government if the government continues to decide the narrative.  Simple as that.

One nation is developing an ICBM with which to directly threaten the continental USA, with an unpredictable president as the leader of America, fully capable of doing something say, like launching a strike at North Korea, which would only cause China to pour troops into North Korea, not so much to bolster North Korea’s government, but to keep South Korea and America as far from the Yalu as possible.

And yet the Chinese are all atalk about some silly road in Bhutan thousands of miles away from civilization as we know it.   I don’t wish to dwell on India, or as to how by the day India and American relations get stronger.   Maybe the Chinese are all fired up about facing another nation with a billion people?  Who knows?

This really struck me as interesting, if not downright bizarre.

The Chinese People are simply not up to speed on the goings on in North Korea, probably because the Chinese papers simply don’t bring it up as much!

The other major takeaway I had in China from this trip was the inescapable conclusion that more than folks may think, China is actually more intertwined with the rest of the world then we know.   My trip took me to both Japanese and Korean suppliers.  All working very much in China, for their American customer (me).    The Chinese were all responsible for managing the Chinese supply base.  The staff, etc.  while the Koreans and Japanese, all of whom spoke English and Chinese, managed their own companies and were the face to the customer.

Several times in Dalian we had multiple nationalities having dinner together, or conducting various meetings onsite.   Unfortunately during my two weeks in China I don’t think I came across a single American in any of the 4 cities I visited and worked from.

Still, the Japanese and Chinese got along fine.  Why?  They both made money!  Simple as that.   It seems the only impediment to good relations between China and everyone else is….China!  The Chinese Government that is.   Again, I was reminded what the Chinese People can do.  They are fully capable themselves of getting along with other countries.  No problem with that.  Just chill with the Global Times editorials shall we?

While I was in Dalian, the Japanese kept telling me about the naval base there.  That is, they were aware of it. 

Which brings me too…

Qingdao or Dalian?

In my mind, it wasn’t even close.  Dalian is by far the better city to work from.   Qingdao is simply too big, with too much traffic.   While Dalian has the cool breezes, being out on a peninsula.  It had a decent club as well.   Dalian also has an island called BangChui Dao, accessible by bridge.  Maybe I didn’t spend enough time to make a fair assessment, but from what I saw in Qingdao, it was just too crowded and touristy for my taste.  The solitude was missing.  And the airport is at least an hour away from the city by taxi.   Maybe once the subway is connected to the airport in 2020, or Dalian’s new airport opens up(which is supposed to be a staggering 100 kilometers away from the old airport, which I simply can’t believe to be true), things will change.

But I was taken aback with just how hot Qingdao, for a coastal city was (I shouldn’t be though; Boston and NYC are just as bad in August).

Meanwhile, I was really surprised to see that in every city I went two, except Beijing, I was forced to land in the middle of the tarmac, board a shuttle, just to get to the airport itself.  China’s infrastructure spending is really targeted, one can tell.  Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou.  They get priority.  But to see that even popular cities such as Qingdao and Dalian are only just now getting a few subway lines opened up was surprising.

China is building new lines as fast as it can.  But it will be a generation at least before all cities are properly built out with subways and that sort of thing.

More on infrastructure; when I was in Ningbo I did visit the Hangzhou Bay Bridge.   Apparently that cuts the distance from Ningbo to Shanghai to about 35 kilometers.  But if one wants to take the train, then guess what?  It’s still a two hour trip.

Meanwhile, I was surprised to see a suburb of Ningbo, Yuyao, offering a high speed rail of 20 minutes only from one locale to the other.  Yet I still need my passport to get the 20 rmb ticket (good grief).

I flew business class to China.  It was a cheap ticket.  Still, I was surprised to see so many Chinese kids in Business Class.   And in the Beijing Delta Business Class Lounge.  Sometimes whole families.    Too many kids are growing up with a sense of entitlement.   There is no way I’m letting my kids fly business.  Sit your ass in coach.  Several times I saw instances of “Fu er dai” wealth, ie some 20 year old kid with his 20 year old gf, prancing around said lounge as if they owned the place.    Yet another reason why I’m worried about my high school daughter coming back to China.  Simply because I don’t want her meeting, much less mingling with garbage such as this.   My kids have grown up on Honda’s.   Alas, because of their mom’s social status in China, they won’t be mingling with “Honda People” in China.

Back to business in China (once upon a time the original purpose of this blog)

I’ve found over time Social Compliance has become big business in China.  Work Compliance Audits (WCA), as well as Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) have become all the rage.  Many a 3^rd party company has been all the too willing to pick up the slack.    Verifying such things as wages being properly paid, etc.

My problem with all this is….how does one fail such an audit?  After all, isn’t it akin to a broker back in the day putting a “buy” rating on every stock out there? 

My suppliers all complain about such audits, with little recourse of action of course.  Target, Wal-Mart, they all want them, expect them, and no, one cannot refuse.  The inevitable is risk of corruption.   One of my suppliers in Qingdao last week complained of such. 

US companies in a way are guilty of pushing the lazy button when it comes to social compliance.  We don’t know China.  We can’t tell if a supplier is keeping a double set of books.   There’s no way.  We need a local for that.  And not just a local, but one well versed in how the game is played. 

 

As such, the audits are so “cheap”, around $1500 or so per visit, and infrequent enough that it doesn’t really merit sending a laowai over there to “monitor” the situation.   That is, we simply take the emailed report we receive and file it away.  No facetime with the mysterious guy doing the auditing.  And you know what?  That’s just fine.  Because it gives American business another level of deniability. Another layer of insulation between the supplier and us.  In effect, all liability, regardless of what the contract may say, falls on the guy doing the auditing.    In the end, it’s simply not in the customer’s best interest to have a laowai over there poking around.

My final observation is the damn number of times my passport was requested of me.  From check in at Beijing until boarding my flight in Beijing I had my passport inspected 4 times.   Check in, security check, x-ray inspection, customs, and boarding the flight.   Whoops, that’s 5 times.

I didn’t like the way various airports had their own peculiarities.  Beijing and all others wanted me to take out my chargers, and laptop of course, as well as cell phone.  Beijing wanted my power supply taken out as well.  In the end, I just took out the bare minimum and put the onus on them to figure it out.  

But Chinese customs was not only more strenuous, but also more diligent.  I need to be honest; I found China’s x-ray inspection far more attentive to detail than our “vaunted” TSA.  Simple as that.  I really did not like having my bag run through x-rays two or three times for this or that, but the fact they found what they were looking for, and could tell the difference was impressive.  However, it made for terribly long lines and waits.   

One comes away with the perception that the paranoia, the sense of security ever so present in Chinese society is still strong.   The Chinese airport staff was all a stickler for rules.    While in Beijing I was wanded by one fellow for a full 45 seconds.  Now, do I really need to be wanded for 45 seconds?  And it was by a dude no less!

Finally I saw something I couldn’t simply believe.

Once a Chinese staff member had to go inside the jetway, towards the entrance to the plane.  Upon exiting the jetway he was promptly wanded by the other local staff.    Incredible.

I feel that China learns from America.  It studies America.  It will never admit it, but I’ve never experienced certain parts of China’s airport etiquette until I’d already experienced it in America for years.   The 3 ounce rule for example was never an issue in China until it was a rule in America. I had to check a bag in once that didn’t have to be checked in, simply because I had a bottle of shampoo inside that exceeded the 3 ounce rule. 

My problem with China “learning” from America is it goes overboard.  It really does.

The latest example of this was the notice I saw at all the boarding gates I visited in all the airports I boarded a plane from:

“Military personnel board first”.

Now I’ve never visited Russia.  Perhaps I will one day.  And maybe that is how things are done in Russia.  But giving such privilege to the military is a dangerous slope.  They already get a free pass at the toll booths in China.   

When I was recently at an airport in America I heard a public announcement about a lounge dedicated to American soldiers and their families, and you know what?  That’s a brilliant idea.   But last I checked our soldiers still need to stand in line at McDonald’s.  And when checking in.  and well, for everything.  As they should have to.  And I’ve been on planes where veterans are allowed to get off first, which is fine by me, I really don’t care.  But making it a public policy sets a dangerous precedent.

The Chinese Army hasn’t fought a serious battle since, well, it fought Vietnam in the 70’s.   It’s a good thing to respect one’s national army, but a dangerous precedent to deify it.   It’s a peculiar situation in China, to so honor an institution with so little about its recent history worth honoring, if only because there hasn't been much of it to talk about.  And yeah, that can be a good thing.  After all there have been no Chinese versions of Full Metal Jacket released in China.  Or of Platoon.

Study from America.  Fine.  Just don’t learn the wrong lessons.   And yeah, we know your 90^th anniversary just came and went.

Lastly, while waiting for my return home, I was once again taken aback with just how shoddy Delta’s Biz Class lounge was.   Potato chips?  Seriously?