How to engage with China more constructively

Peggy Liu, Chairperson, JUCCCE May 26, 2019

No person is perfect, no country is perfect. This is not a comparison of who is more perfect. It's some insight into how two imperfect entities can understand and engage better with each other.

It may not be where you want it to be now, but China is heading in the right direction

China is not the China of 30 years ago. The country is changing so fast, it's a new country every 5 years. Please, be patient and remember how long it took the West to develop. China is doing the same, rebuilding in short decades. Picture a land that was devastated and really just started rebuilding in 1990. The first supermarket in 1990! It's developing basic legal capabilities from scratch. Rule of Law classes were started in 2017 at government academies. It's in rapid prototyping mode- try/fail/learn/try/fail/learn- at country scale.

It was a baby learning to crawl. Now it's a lanky teen, whose parents don't quite understand it. But it's quickly coming into its own by observing and interacting with the outside world and deciding what aligns with its own context and values. Loving, constructive input, rather than nagging put-downs is what this teen needs most.

"China is changing at giga scale and giga pace."

The slang, the food options, the dress style, the access to international travel, the thriving cybercontent... is all changing the sensibilities of the Chinese people. I often read that the goal of Western strategies of engaging China is to instill it with more Western values. As a Chinese-American I see a hybrid model of blended East-West values as where a balanced society should be headed. There is much the West and China can learn from each other; there are also many things on both sides that personally frustrate me. In any case, the only way to fully explore the best of East and West is to engage Chinese citizens at a cultural exchange level.

China is a very diverse country of 7 markets and 55+ minorities, and it's changing all the time. It's hard for even Chinese people to keep up. Rather than view it as a single entity, view it as the European Union, just managed centrally.

The massive population calls for different approaches to problems and creates more need for tools to maintain stability

Try to look at the need for different workflow and processes when you implement at the scale of 1.4b people. It's really different.

This also means that China can help technologies cross the chasm and get to economies of scale in a way that no other country can. This will benefit other countries by making tech affordable and accessible. From solar to electric cars to digital payments. Today's global supply chain is a multiplier matrix. Building moats simply isolates economies. The world can benefit, but only if companies collaborate with Chinese companies, rather than building a wall.

Think about how your country/company can benefit from China's pouring billions of dollars into learning how to scale new tech. Marrakesh did. It was the first city in Africa to deploy electric buses, thanks to a donation of 50 buses by China, and a joint venture EV bus manufacturing plant that will produce 1000 buses a year for the African and European markets.

But the size of population also means that crowd control is really important. I've been in situations where one person can set up bad behavior in a mob (anyone at a sports game experience that?) I live in Shanghai, with 26 million people. My two sons grew up here. I'm really, really concerned about safety. Luckily, I feel both free and safe in Shanghai because of the Chinese-style rules of behavior. The differences in how the East and West approach crowd control is comparable to how differently Chinese treat children, privacy and education. I liken it to parents keeping a safe space at home with teenage boys. I can relate to that. But I am super grateful that China is the safest country I've been to (which is probably around 40).

I definitely acknowledge that sometimes local officials execute national intentions too aggressively. It's learning, and many solutions must be invented from scratch to suit China's local issues and massive scale. In these cases, I suggest experts give suggestions in the form of best practice whitepapers and work out solutions privately with key decision makers in capacity-building workshops on how to improve handling of what China sees as potential domestic threats. Instead of just expressing dismay, offer to help build capacity for legal and monitoring the way the Environmental Defense Fund does with pollution issues. This will work for topics such as intellectual property and anti-terrorism interventions as well.

Spend 50 percent of your time sharing cultural norms before engaging in transactions

Chinese social norms are 180 degree opposite of Americans. I teach whole classes on this to companies entering the China market. This is a huge problem in gaining trust.

On the Chinese side, there is much work to do to understand the West better. I've created the first class taught for Chinese government officials, at the China Academy of Governance, on how to build trust with Westerners. How far are we from misunderstanding each other? My first teaching point is how to smile with teeth. My second point was how to hug (with example videos).

Pretty far.

Without face-to-face engagement, this hurdle is daunting. In negotiations with Chinese, spend 50 percent of your time understanding how cultural differences affect negotiation style. 40 percent building relationships, and 10 percent on content.

China is a country with friendly people and startlingly beautiful landscapes. I encourage you to take a trip to Guilin, Lijiang, Zhangjiajie. Have your kids learn Chinese and spend a semester abroad. Peace will come when we have Third culture kids, mixed-race kids, and multilingual kids come into power.

These cultural differences, engrained in society over a couple thousand years, also make some rules work in China that don't fit the West. Understand that it's okay to act in one way in China, then behave differently in the US. That's respecting each other's cultures. When in Rome... China has zero interest in making other countries adopt Chinese culture. This misunderstanding is where unnecessary fear arises. China just wants to do business with you.

China has very little understanding about how to use Western media platforms to get its messages out to the West, Western marketing style to relate emotionally vs in stats, Western presentation style for stages like TED. It is hopeless in explaining itself to the West. This leaves the onus on the West to understand it until more English speaking leaders are in charge in China.

Actually, the Chinese government is very transparent about its goals, it's just not presented at all in a way that the West can digest. Its 5 year plans lay out in numerical targets where China is prioritizing and investing. The "CEO" then spends 3.5 hours explaining it. Unfortunately that means a lot of announcements around market opening, transparency, green, education, legal capability building made at the Belt and Road summit in April were completely missed. No matter how earnest China's intent was to respond to international concerns.

Patience to wade through boring announcements aside... It's hard for people who don't understand Chinese language and culture to report about China in a nuanced way. Translations are often bad, and Chinese people often say different things to foreigners than Chinese in private conversation.

Instead, read China Watching articles from people who have actually lived in China and can read Chinese. e.g ChinaDialogue, SupChina, China US Focus, RADII China, Sixth Tone, Quora experts Janus Dongye and Paul Denlinger.

Be detached and do not project Western values and history on China's current development. Just because the West colonized and went to war, does not at all mean China wants to do the same. It just got out of war time, China wants peace and stability. I asked one of my students, the Vice Dean of the China Military Academy, what he taught his students about international relations. He said the first things was "don't go to war". The second was "don't go to war." The third was "don't go to war."

China loves learning from the West, and it now has much to share with the rest of the world

China is not really "Communist" anymore- in the way Westerners have a knee-jerk reaction to that word. A high level Ministry of Finance official once told me China is run more like a multinational corporation. Like IBM or GE. The government is led by people with Masters degrees in engineering and economics. These are "techonomist" leaders who think long-term and systematically. It is super aware of its shortcomings and vigorously debates them domestically. It welcomes solutions presented constructively, in private settings.

The best way to problematic areas in China is through its educational system for government. They have a minimum mandatory 12 day training for anyone in government. I've taught over 1000 mayors and central government officials at 3 of the 8 official academies teaching the first classes on ecocities. Many overseas experts have come in to help present solutions, have open conversations about where China is in its stage of development, and open up opportunities for collaboration. With collaboration, China has been able to learn and leapfrog. Now, China is starting to share its learnings with the rest of the world.

My suggestion for other countries is to cooperate on the ground in China to build towards the behavior you want to see in China. China wants to be better. It does that by researching best practices and seeking out top international experts for private dialogue. Shouting at it in public and pointing out weaknesses today does not help it get better for tomorrow. It wasn't clear what kind of response Hillary Clinton was calling for when she wagged her finger at Xi's women's rights record on Twitter. Firstly, Twitter is blocked in China so it's clearly a cheap attempt for domestic political points at little risk of angering Chinese government. Secondly, why not give Xi some credit for moving in the right direction on women's rights and encourage more of the same? Lastly, if she really wanted to make a difference in women's rights in China she would have used white papers on best practices, private delegations, involving the right decision makers in China in creating a pathway for progress. The best way for governments and private companies to help improve China's international engagement is to leverage its educational system (workshops, vocational and compulsory) and international advisory boards.

A great example is how Lawrence Berkeley National Lab worked for years with the Chinese government on reducing heavy industry energy emissions. This single collaboration has had tremendous impact on how China has been able to (almost) halt emissions growth. The UNEP says China is one of the few major economies on track to meet its Paris target for reigning in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. International company CEOs vie to be part of the Shanghai and Beijing mayors advisory councils. Even at the highest level, the State Council, China relies on a heavy-weight international advisory council to help it critique its policies and give suggestions for future country direction. This includes people like Director of Norwegian Polar Institute's Jan-Gunnar Winther on "Blue Economy." Which other countries actively ask for critique in that way?

The Chinese emphasis on "saving face" means it really doesn't help change things in China by critiquing it in public, or doing protests on streets. In private dialogues, over dinner and drinking, Chinese are very open and self-effacing. It's not that Chinese don't know there are issues, it is just trying to figure out how to get to a solution that works in the China context. Help it see a solution and they will jump on it with policies, investments, pilots at city-scale.

If you think engaging economically with China means that China will lean towards democracy, please stop wasting your time. Most Chinese have seen their living standards get better day-by-day. They are happy with the current government enough to really believe that democracy isn't the model to follow, and the China Governance Model is constantly being tweaked to move towards a middle ground which is better. The energy on the streets is generally hopeful for the future. Optimism prevails.

As a Chinese-American, I clearly see the weaknesses of both countries - just like a child who one day wakes up and finds his parents are just human. But having feet in both worlds also allows me to pick from the best of both societies. As a new multipolar world emerges, it's time for leaders who can find the light in all sides and merge them into a new global restorative narrative.

I'm a Chinese American who has worked deeply with central and local government in China, and was born and educated in the United States. I now consult with governments and companies around the world, from Shanghai.

About Peggy Liu www.juccce.org/peggyliu. If you liked this, you can see more of my talks at www.juccce.org/media.

You might also enjoy my article on high speed rail https://bit.ly/313yRAU.