Absolute Freedom, No Human Rights
It’s funny, I get sent a lot of articles by many different
people, and I’m seriously starting to wonder what’s going on at home. The USA is concerned with Huawei possibly
purchasing Sprint/Nextel, and upset at the Chinese connection. What I don’t understand is why the government
should have any say whatsoever in who purchases a business. If Americans are upset about it, they have
the option of not being customers of Sprint, and changing service
providers. Why in the world are we
giving the government the say in who we can sell our companies to? Allowing the government to justify this
because of “human rights violations in China” is ridiculous as well. The USA does not have any say in how China
runs it’s government or of the “human rights violations” or anything else. I don’t understand why they think that they
can police this.
Some of my friends here and I like this phrase to describe
China: “Absolute freedom, no human
rights”. It’s hard to understand until
you live here or spend some length of time here. Yes, there are no human rights in China, to a
certain degree. As a foreigner in China,
you have human rights, of a sort. Many of
the official police here have been to the USA to go to school or to learn English,
or whatever. As such, they have an
understanding of basic human rights. They
do not agree with them, but they understand them. If you get into any sort of problem with the
police in China, the official police, (the security guards and community police
don’t count, just tell them to go away and be on your way, just like everyone
else does. One of my friends who owns a
business here recommends that you only use two words when talking to them, I’m
sure you can come up with under 5 words to replace the obscenity with, if you’re
so inclined. I recommend “shut up, go
away”, although they sometimes don’t understand this as well as they do the
other 2 words.), as a foreigner you have the right to know what’s going on
around you. Whether you do or you do not
speak Chinese, you DO NOT SPEAK CHINESE.
So, the police will get the specialists in who operate in your
city. These are the ones who have all
been to America, and have trained to deal with foreigners. Most of the time, your problem will go
away. If you’ve done something wrong,
that wouldn’t be covered by your human rights or civil liberties or whatever,
expect to get into a pile of trouble, usually ending up either kicked out of
the country, or spending some quality time in a Chinese jail. Chances are, if you get either of these
sentences, you very much deserve it.
I’ve tried to write and tried to write for the past week or
two, but quite honestly, my life has settled into a routine, and there isn’t a
lot that is notable going on. Rest assured,
I will write when something interesting happens, or when I find out something
new and think that I can send it out. Sometimes,
that’s just not the case, and you have to keep some things to yourself, not
knowing if you can post them anywhere. Other
times, it’s just something you keep for yourself to give yourself advantages in
business later.
I have come up with some major questions about China, but I don’t
want to post them until I find out the answers.
I also don’t know if they’re sensitive subjects. A lot of the time here, you find out when you’ve
broken a law, after you broke the law. They’re
not really posted anywhere, and there’s no way to find out until someone gets
in trouble. I was talking to a friend DJ
about this, and he said that he’s just accepted this, and that he sees it all
of the time. Whenever he finds out
something new, he emails all of his friends and acquaintances, to keep them up
to date. If, for example, someone
decides that every single currency note should always be passed out with the
government face up, and you give it to someone face down, you’ll get yelled
at. Oddly enough, the Chinese seem to
know what’s going on at any given time, I think it’s all word of mouth, but I really
have no idea, maybe it’s on QQ or some social network that I don’t really
understand how to get the news on. Or maybe
it’s one of the 50 random text messages that I get every week in Chinese, I used
to translate these, but I’ve become bored with it.
I’ve been helping a friend of mine, to some degree, with his
sourcing business. He’s in the middle of
doing quotes right now. This is absolute
insanity. Most of the people he’s
dealing with are ultra-wealthy and have just gotten into the production
market. So, his quotes are all over the
map. You expect, when purchasing
anything in China, to have to do some bargaining, but the way that the other
side is doing business is absolutely insane.
For example, for the component list that he’s given out, he’s had quotes
ranging from 200,000 RMB to 700,000 RMB.
It seems crazy until you realize that these people can’t see the
difference between bargaining for an item that’s worth 150 RMB and starting out
at 700 RMB, and bargaining in the 100’s of thousands of RMB. If something is worth 200,000 RMB, you’d
think that the supplier would start out a little higher, say, 250,000 RMB, or
less. These guys though, think that if
they start out at 700k RMB, that you’ll bargain them down, not realizing that
that money is more than bargaining for a sweater in dongmen. It’s nuts.
My friend asked for my advice in dealing with them, because it’s such a
huge difference in money, but he doesn’t want to burn the source, he just wants
to let them know that they’re ridiculous.
His first instinct was to go yell them into submission, which is exactly
what a Chinese sourcing agent would do.
I’ve come to the conclusion, though, that as an American here
you can do one of three things:
- 1. Approach everything as an American and pay the “Skin Tax”, getting ripped off at every turn.
- 2. Approach everything as a Chinese local, get good prices, but aggravate everyone in the process, probably giving yourself an ulcer in the process. It’s stressful yelling at everyone until they do what you want them to do.
- 3. I think that most tend to miss this option. If your supplier is out to lunch at an amazing degree, why stress yourself out about it. Go into their offices. Sit down, let them explain their position. Then tell them, very calmly, “I have made a mistake in thinking that you were capable of doing international business and adjusting your pricing accordingly. I realize that you expect to bargain, but I have to talk to a lot of people, and I don’t have the time or the inclination to get into a giant war on pricing with you. So, I am not going to do business with you at this time. Your competitors have done enough business to know what it takes to get things done. That said, I would like to try again with you in the future. Please figure out how to run your business.” Or something to that effect. You don’t burn them, you drop their face, and you guarantee that they will want to please you in the future. You also make it dead clear that they have lost the deal, so that they don’t come back to you 2 or 3 times a week every week with a new price. Very few people do business this way here.
I think that part of the problem is that most are using
translators who are Chinese, and while they understand the Chinese culture,
they don’t understand the American or foreign culture that they’re dealing
with. I don’t feel the need to educate
them in this, I just think it’s important that they understand your point of
view, before you turn away and deal with their competitor. You’re going to be spending quality time in a
bargaining room yelling at someone either way, but, I’d rather do that with
just one or two people, not 6.
My pronunciation is getting better, I can carry on parts of
a conversation now…actually, I understand 10-25% of what people say to me, and I
have a very limited vocabulary that usually enables me to get my point
across. If I can’t get that done, I usually
have access to a translator and Wi-Fi, although that’s just a last resort. It’s frustrating trying to get a bad
translation to get you what you want, and all phone apps are bad
translations. Additionally, assuming
that everyone speaks mandarin well is a bad assumption, and is usually dead
wrong in most cases. Many also will
claim not to understand you if it is to their benefit. There’s also the problem that many Chinese people
don’t believe that you speak mandarin, however poorly, so, they can’t
understand you. They stare at you, deer
in the headlights, hoping that you’ll go away sometime soon so that they don’t
have to figure out what’s going on. I recommend at this stage, having something
you can hold up in front of your face, your hands will do, in a pinch, and then
talking while they can’t see your face…most of the times, this is the solution
to your communication errors.
I’m going to go try out a new Japanese Curry restaurant…
they don’t speak Chinese, English, or Korean, only Japanese, so it should be
fun and frustrating in a whole new way. The
menu is in Japanese and Chinese, and only has pictures, I’ve never seen anyone
eat there, but, that may just be because they can’t talk to or understand the
waitress. If it’s a total bust, I’ll go
to the place next door for some French pizza.
No comments:
Post a Comment