Big Idea 2014: China & The West Finally Connect
This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers pick one big idea that will shape 2014. See all the ideas here.
In 2014, we stop focusing on the differences between China and the West, and instead start truly to connect.
There are four reasons why this is going to happen:
(1) The New Chinese Regime Has Shifted
The new Chinese regime, led by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, is more business-friendly, and is trying to end abuses involving corruption, intellectual property theft and fraud.
The pro-business stance has been praised by Western CEOs including WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell. He recently commented, “So, the Chinese government, which I have the highest respect for… if you see the new policies that the 18th plenum has just put in, this all goes very well for the Chinese economy in terms of leadership, direction, attention to detail, the change in the one child policy, is much appreciated. I think it will be a strong stimulant to growth along with the other performers, whether they be in services, social security or even land reform. Their attention to detail is almost unparalleled in the world. I’m very bullish on that.”
For a long time, Chinese businesses have understandably focused on the massive domestic opportunity, but now more of them are looking West and going global. For instance, Fosun is trying to buy the Rockefeller building, while my friend Huang Nubo, chairman of Zhongkun Group, has made a stir with his plan to buy 300 square kilometers of land in Iceland and build a golf resort.
(2) Westerners Are Now Looking To The Opportunity
For more and more Western companies, China has moved from being a bet into the future into a priority for growth for their overall business. Western companies have found the road to China hard – typically start with an export approach, bring a local in, and hope for a third time lucky. In 2014, I predict that more Western companies will get lucky. For instance, Apple will finally strike that elusive deal with China Mobile, enabling it to sell the iPhone and gain access to the world’s largest network of 740 million subscribers.
Such business deals will be accelerated by improving diplomatic relations. The mood during Xi Jinping’s meeting with President Obama, at the Sunnylands estate in California in June 2013, was better than during previous encounters with Hu Jintao. Professor Di Dongsheng, vice director at Beijing’s Renmin Center for China’s Foreign Strategy Studies, told TIME Managing tthat the Chinese public was “warm and optimistic” about the meeting, adding, that in Xi Jinjing, “This time, we have a new leader who is more confident, mature and natural than his predecessors,” and that ordinary people hoped to stem the negativity that had developed over recent years.
Chinese state media went further, with a Global Times editorial calling it a “milestone” meeting that offered a “glimpse of what China’s future might look like when it catches up with the U.S.” It added that the West is growing more accustomed to China’s new standing and no longer considers Beijing policies “dreadful”, to use the language of perceived affronts from the past.
Relations have also improved with the UK, which were strained when prime minister David Cameron met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in May 2012. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post noted that Cameron left “contentious human rights issues on the sidelines” when overseeing the signing of ￡5.6bn worth of business deals with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during a trade visit last week.
(3) Cultural Exchange – East Pushes West
In 2012 we went ‘Gangnam Style’ with the breakout South Korean pop hit, 2013 was the year of the “selfie”, and, in 2014, I predict that many more Eastern influences will impact our music, food and popular culture.
Over the next decade, China’s middle class will top 600 million, and it’s no great surprise that several Western brands are doing well in China. KFC is the country’s most popular restaurant chain and a Buick is the top-selling car. Chinese enjoy premier luxury brands – from Burberry to Paul Smith; and high quality entertainment – from James Bond to Downton Abbey.
I now expect more of a push in the other direction – for instance, movie star Jet Li and internet entrepreneur and Alibaba founder Jack Ma launching Tai Chi centers in the West.
The cross-fertilization of ideas will be led by large movements of Chinese millennials continuing to come to the West on university exchanges, and more Western children beginning to learn Mandarin rather than Spanish or French in schools. This is echoed by David Cameron, who last week said:
“I want Britain linked up to the world's fast-growing economies. And that includes our young people learning the languages to seal tomorrow's business deals. By the time the children born today leave school, China is set to be the world's largest economy. So it's time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin.”
As Nelson Mandela once said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head, if you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart.” Many students agree. Jacob Gill, an American student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, started learning Chinese because he was interested in Chinese culture and history, “I certainly think that learning Chinese has allowed me a different world view that shapes the way I look at culture questions and think about cultural differences.” Bilha Juma, a Kenyan student, adds, “The part that I find easy and interesting is the Chinese culture. The way the Chinese perceive life is quite amazing. They always strive to know more that is outside their culture.”
I for one have been struggling with the pleasure and the pain of learning Mandarin for the last four years, and while it's a hard slog, I'm finally starting to get somewhere.
With more Chinese people coming to the West to study and more Western school-children and business people learning Mandarin, it’s an exchange that can’t be stopped.
(4) Bridging networks: social and face-to-face
At the top of Chinese society, the reality is that many CEOs have now earned enough money for themselves and their family, and are increasingly driven by bigger and more noble aims, such as to how to give something back to their country, society or the next generation. One of the catalysts for this shift is the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC). Founded by the visionary Liu Donghua, there is no western precedent. The CEC’s stated aim is that it is “dedicated to promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship alongside the sustainable development of the economy and society.” The best way to visualize it is as a group of Chinese CEOs, equivalent in size to the Fortune 50, who are friends, travel the world together and try to foster a collaborative spirit.
As the CEC goes global, another elite Chinese bridging network is welcoming in the West. Zhisland (Zheng He Island) is an invite-only social network, with high-net worth business leaders asked to pay a $3,000 fee in order to join. It claims to resemble, “a special fish pond in an Internet ocean, a closed-end social network of entrepreneurs who are provided with valuable information that has been carefully screened and pure ‘positive energy’ social relationships.” In 2014, it is launching the Zhisland Global Fellowship, offering a forum where the top 30 leaders from the West can meet China’s top 30, in a trusted environment.
(Disclosure: my company Xinfu, which means “trusted friend and confidant” in Chinese, is one of the launch partners.)
Beyond these trade fairs and elite business bridging networks, there is a much bigger revolution underway in social media. Last month, I wrote an article observing that Chinese internet firm Tencent has over 1bn users and is set to overtake Facebook. With Western social networks such as Twitter and Facebook blocked behind “the great firewall of China” (LinkedIn is less restricted and slowly gaining a foothold), homegrown equivalents such as Sina Weibo, RenRen and Tencent’s ‘WeChat’ have rapidly emerged to fill the gap. With distinctive and fun features like “hold-to-talk” and “shake” to discover other users in the same vicinity or around the word, WeChat is the first to go global, and it’s now virally coming across here. In just four months between May and September 2013, WeChat’s overseas users have doubled from 50m to 100m.
This is opening up the public dialog in China and forcing the public authorities to publish more data. For instance, the government has started publishing PM2.5 air quality readings in Beijing, prompted in part by Sina Weibo posts and a Twitter feed from the U.S. Embassy that reported readings from the building’s roof. Chinese people have become increasingly vocal about the quality of the environment, and hourly air quality updates are now available online for more than 70 cities.
In 2014, I expect China social media will increasingly encourage not just greater accountability, but also more free thinking. The challenge for the Chinese government will be to grow increasingly comfortable with giving up a degree of control. During a visit to Beijing last week, US Secretary Of State Joe Biden told a group applying for visas to the U.S. that “innovation can only occur where you can breathe free”, adding, “children in America are rewarded – not punished – for challenging the status quo”.
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Jean Charest, who was Canadian prime minister from 2003-12, famously said that, “You can't go east and west at the same time.”
I think in 2014 that all changes – with the Chinese regime shifting, Westerners seizing the unlocking opportunities, an unstoppable cultural exchange and bridges suddenly becoming effective – East and West finally connect.
For those of us who are fortunate enough to be involved in bridging between China and the West, there are not only massive business opportunities but also opportunities for massive personal development.
Photo: From my visit to the Fortune Global Forum at Chengdu, China in June 2013
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By Steve Tappin
Chief Executive, Xinfu, Host BBC CEO Guru & Founder, World Of CEOs
Steve is a personal confidant to many of the world’s top CEOs. He is the host of BBC ‘CEO Guru’, which features in-depth, on-the-record interviews with the CEOs of the biggest and fastest-growing companies. Founder Of WorldOfCEOs.com, Steve is the author of ‘The Secrets Of CEOs’, which interviews 200 CEOs on business life and leadership.
企业创立者
10 年As a business man with entrepreneurial leanings living in the down-and-dirty real world of China, speaking Mandarin fluently (though not always perfectly), I have a lot of thoughts on this, but not many solid answers. I do know that when there is true connection, it will be something of greater substance than the popularity of KFC and the English language (superficial sharings at most). Superficial appearances are big in China, and can often deceive the casual Western observer, but connection requires something more than just appearances. It requires understanding and acceptance - intimate familiarity. Neither parties, I think, have any of those things yet, and it will take a lot of hard work, commitment, and uncompromising determination to truly understand one another, and be understood, before we start bringing down the walls that prevent real connection.
Sr. Manager - Marketing at DS Group
10 年May be in after a few decades; but I am skeptical if this happens in near future. Despite having abundance of new opportunities (in/across China) and cultural change and diversity, West will never go and adapt these things easily. These kind of transition takes decades or centuries. China has to outperform existing Human Resource policies, they have to setup a Skytouching Standard and they only; China and West will work hand in hand...
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