What is Coming with CPEC - Are We Ready ?

Working with Americans or Europeans Companies is very easy to manage because they have very deep routes within our culture, but we know nothing about Chinese or vice vera. Americans, British/ Europeans do research about the area and people where they are doing business and keep themselves informed about the cultures and norms of the region. But, unfortunately, the times when Chinese are spreading out and are entering in the unusual (for them and use as well) environments, they don’t know enough about outer world nor we do about them.

During my early days to work with Chinese, I had many confusions about their life style, their food habits and other social activities, as working with Chinese was a new experience for me. During my stay with them, I got an idea what a common Chinese like or dislike and what I foresee is a big problem i.e. cultural differences. Let us start from their food habits.

Chinese would eat any thing which a common Pakistani (Muslim/ Christian) will consider unusual. There were times when we faced a situation where Pakistani workers were found selling ducks and tortoises to their Chinese colleagues or giving these poor animals as gift to their Chinese superiors. Please keep in mind that a Chinese have no family to spend on them except one wife and one child, so they prefer to spend their dollars (which of course is a precious currency in Pakistan) over themselves. They eat well, they wear well and they drink well. We found that they were paying a very handsome amount to their Pakistani colleague workers/ juniors, for ducks and tortoises.

Please don’t ever try to use a Pakistani Chef for Chinese. Always ask your counterpart to send a Chinese chef to Pakistan, if you are having a bulk of Chinese in your Company. They don’t like Pakistani style of Chinese cooking. And a Pakistani Cook may not be able to cook any unusual dishes which I will describe later.

Once, one of my Chinese Colleague found a wandering dog in his way back to his residential compound. He took it, washed the poor creature and announced that he will keep this wandering creature with him. We took it as usual like any other pet loving person. But one day, another Chinese colleague told to remove this dog from compound otherwise this poor creature will be cooked and dined. I was stunned to hear and asked my Security to silently remove the poor dog from compound during sleep hours.

Your Chinese colleagues may not like your vegetables. They prefer Chinese Vegetables. Don’t try to grow Chinese vegetables in your area, there are some Chinese growing these vegetables successfully in Pakistan, do make a contract with them.

Chinese are fond of boiled eggs. If they share it with you, this is a sign of friendship and gratefulness. Here are some of their food habits, which are very necessary for you to start adopting, if you are foreseeing CPEC as a visible future, atleast I do .. 

Chinese use chopsticks to pick up food, not knives and forks. Start to learn use of Chopstick

Wheat noodles are the main staple diet in northern China, while rice is the main staple in the south. Restaurants in southern China also offer noodles, but they are usually rice noodles.

Rice is served separately (in shared meals): in small bowls. Meat/ vegetable dishes are served on plates or in bigger bowls, placed in the middle for everyone to share. It's not one plate each, like in the West (unless eating fast food)!

Chinese cuisine varies across China. There are many regional cuisines with different flavors: spicy, sweet, sour, hearty, etc.

Restaurants usually provide a round table for more than four persons. There may be a tempered glass lazy Susan in the middle of the table, which swivels round enabling you to reach each dish easily.

Ingredients of Chinese food are various and sometimes shocking (frogs, chickens' feet, pigs' ears, intestines, dog meat, etc.). I was once invited to their New Year Party and the main dish they were having was later discovered as bull’s cock.

There are usually no salt or pepper shakers, or bottles of tomato sauce on the table. But in compensation you may find bottles of soy sauce, vinegar, and chili paste.

Their dining place can be quite noisy and smoky where people don't control their talking volume or smoking.

Tips are not expected in their restaurants. The service fee is included in the food prices.

If the Chinese friend you are eating with put food on your plate, it's to show closeness and friendliness, not because they don't want it, or think you can't do it yourself. This happens more often at family meals , where the young pass on food to their elders to show respect.

Chinese are used to eating meat off larger bones and, but for most people in China, bones are an essential ingredient for many a meal and can make eating it an ordeal. Chicken, duck, pork and other meats are often cut so the bones shatter, and it can be difficult for the tongue to navigate its way around the shrapnel that comes with that tasty mouthful of meat.

This can be frustrating until you realize why. First, the Chinese believe the meat nearest the bone to be the best, so the meager meat those bones offer is deemed to be of the highest quality. Second, and perhaps more important, by cutting the bones in this way the marrow is released to mix in with the sauce. In China, nothing that is nutritious goes to waste. It's fine to leave the shrapnel on the table by your bowl or on your side plate; that is the Chinese way.

It is unusual for Chinese people to eat vegetables raw, and even those we may associate with salads such as lettuce or cucumber are far more likely to come to you boiled or fried than fresh and crisp. Alongside many familiar items, there are several local vegetables to look out for.

Bamboo shoots are common. Look towards the base of the plant for a thick outgrowth with a green, leafy covering. Cooked, these are crisp and succulent. Bamboo stalks may also be eaten, but these make for somewhat drier fare.

Lotus root may also be new to you. White with a very firm texture unless cooked for a long period, lotus root can be identified, (if not too finely cut), but its shape; circular with a hole in the center, surrounded by eight to ten larger holes. As with bamboo shoots, the taste and texture are not remarkably different from the stalks of lettuce leaves and should present no problem for the culinary explorer.

The same may not be said of bitter, (or winter), melon. Growing as a light-green cucumber-like gourd, when cooked it lives up to its name. It is so strongly bitter it will dominate any mouthful of food which includes it. This may be one to avoid unless you manage to develop a taste for it.

China is famous for some meats many foreign visitors find problematic. The best known is dog. However, cats can join them on the menu, though these are more rarely eaten. Rarer still, (perhaps thankfully so), is rat meat. There is no need to worry you may eat such meat in error. These are considered specialty foods.

Still more specialized creatures for eating include such exotic delights as deep-fried scorpions, (to be eaten sting and all; the poison is destroyed in the frying process and the sting itself becomes crisp). If you like nuts – soft and squishy nuts, admittedly – then you may enjoy trying some species of insects, such as cicadas, which tend to have their taste. However, ants have a flavor very much their own. The acid in their bodies make them tangy, and the closest you may have come to their taste previously, unlikely as it may sound, is lime juice.

And There's More ..

Considerably more. Eating snake, drinking water buffalo milk, finding heads or feet,  pig's ear etc.

Chinese are chain smokers. They like hard tobacco. If you are a smoker, they will usually buy cigarettes in bulk from China during their vacations and will give you as gift on their return.

They drink warm water. They may mix some herbs or fruits or dry fruits in warm water bottle in morning and will drink this whenever they need.

And finally, a lighter note: Always keep an electronic fly killer on the table/ desk of each Chinese colleague. They are enemies of flies and flies are fond of them.

In next phase, I would like to emphasize on cultural differences. Chinese are fond of Beer and other alcoholic drinks. Although, Pakistan allows foreigners to use these drinks but it becomes very hard to buy from local underground market. So, better keep a stock of beer and other alcoholic drinks and try to buy from any 5 star hotel showing their Passports.

Another angle where everybody closes his/ her eyes and ears is their natural sexual needs. Chinese are human beings and they have these natural needs. Normally, they come for 3/6 months. During this long periods, they get frustrated and like any other person they seek company of opposite sex. Ultimately, results can be horrible. Once one of my Chinese General Manager was caught by local police on the back seat of his car with a Local Christian coworker. I had to make a struggle to get them released by any means. At an other event, a female Chinese colleague found a friend on Facebook and called him in the compound. My Security Head was very confused over the situation and the female Chinese Colleague was insisting to let him in whereas this was beyond Security Guidelines. I resolved the matter by teaching a lesson to boy and he promised not to be intouch with Chinese girl.

These sort of matters will arise in coming years when CPEC will flood Chinese into Pakistan. Crime will come in this flood. Let us have a look on Chinese Crime Mafias.

According to WikiPedia:

A triad is one of many branches of Chinese transnational organized crime syndicates based in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwanand in countries with significant Chinese populations, such as the United States, Canada, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain, South Africa, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand.

The Hong Kong triad is distinct from mainland Chinese criminal organizations.[2] In ancient China, the triad was one of three major secret societies.[3] It established branches in Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chinese communities overseas.[4] After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, all secret societies were destroyed in mainland China in a series of campaigns organized by Mao Zedong.[citation needed] Although organized-crime groups have returned to China after Mao, they are not triad societies.[citation needed]Known as "mainland Chinese criminal organizations", they are of two major types: dark forces (loosely-organized groups) and black societies (more-mature criminal organizations). Two features which distinguish a black society from a dark force are the ability to achieve illegal control over local markets, and receiving police protection.[5] The Hong Kong triad refers to traditional criminal organizations operating in (or originating from) Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and south-east Asian countries and regions, while organized-crime groups in mainland China are known as "mainland Chinese criminal groups".

Y. K. Chu's The Triads as Business (2002)[4] examines the rise of the Hong Kong triad and the role of triad societies in legal, illegal and international markets. Peng Wang's The Chinese Mafia (2017)[3] studies the origin of Chinese secret societies in ancient China, explores the rise of organized crime in post-Mao China, and investigates the ways in which local gangs offer quasi-law enforcement and private protection to local governments, corporations and individuals. Wang's book also explores how local gangs form mutually-beneficial networks with police officers and how the formation of a political-criminal nexus enables local gangs to control illegal markets and sell protection to citizens and businesses.

Criminal activities

Triads engage in a variety of crimes, from fraud, extortion and money laundering to trafficking and prostitution, and are involved in smuggling and counterfeiting goods such as music, video, software, clothes, watches and money.[13]

Drug trafficking

Since the first opium bans during the 19th century, Chinese criminal gangs have been involved in worldwide illegal drug trade. Many triads switched from opium to heroin, produced from opium plants in the Golden Triangle, refined into heroin in China and trafficked to North America and Europe, in the 1960s and 1970s. The most important triads active in the international heroin trade are the 14K and the Tai Huen Chai. Triads have begun smuggling chemicals from Chinese factories to North America (for the production of methamphetamine), and to Europe for the production of Ecstasy. Triads in the United States also traffic large quantities of Ketamine.

Counterfeiting

Triads have been engaging in counterfeiting since the 1880s. During the 1960s and 1970s, they were involved in counterfeiting currency (often the Hong Kong 50-cent piece). The gangs were also involved in counterfeiting expensive books for sale on the black market. With the advent of new technology and the improvement of the average standard of living, triads produce counterfeit goods such as watches, film VCDs and DVDs and designer apparel such as clothing and handbags.[14] Since the 1970s, triad turf control was weakened and some shifted their revenue streams to legitimate businesses.[15]

Health care fraud

In 2012, four triad members were arrested for health care fraud in Japan.[16]

Rituals and codes of conduct

Similar to the Indian thuggees or the Japanese yakuza, triad members participate in initiation ceremonies.[21] A typical ceremony takes place at an altar dedicated to Guan Yu, with incense and an animal sacrifice (usually a chicken, pig or goat). After drinking a mixture of wine and blood (from the animal or the candidate), the member passes beneath an arch of swords while reciting the triad's oaths. The paper on which t he oaths are written will be burnt on the altar to confirm the member's obligation to perform his duties to the gods. Three fingers of the left hand are raised as a binding gesture.[22] The triad initiate is required to adhere to 36 oaths.[23] .

Now have a look on a recent news published in Pakistani newspaper “Express Tribune” on 7th of May 2019:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday arrested a gang involved in trafficking of Christian girls to China on the false pretext of marriage.

According to sources, the FIA in an intelligence-based operation raided a wedding ceremony in Faisalabad and arrested the Chinese groom who has been identified as Chang, Express News reported.

Zahid, a Christian father; Kashif, a matchmaking agent; Mendes, a Chinese woman; and others were also taken into custody in the raid.

Insiders revealed that Christian women were subjected to sexual exploitation after being trafficked to the neighbouring country soon after their false marriage.

Recently, reports surfaced from Lahore and parts of Southern Punjab that Pakistani women were being illegally trafficked in the guise of false marriage and then their organs were sold in China.

Responding to the reports, Chinese Embassy in Islamabad issued a statement after a female lawmaker voiced her concerns over the issue in parliament.

“Both China and Pakistan adopt rule of law and firmly oppose human trafficking and sales of human organs,” the statement read.

Beijing termed the reports about the sale of organs “misleading and groundless”.

Are we prepared for this ?

____________________________________________________

Azhar Abbas is a Seasoned Corporate/ HR Manager & Motivational Writer based in Lahore - Pakistan.

He has been associated with Multinationals and Nationals like Nestle, Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited, Nishat Group, MTM and Challenge Pakistan, all across Pakistan. During the last few months he has been associated with LMS and FAC in a Leading Human Resources Roll.

CLICK here to go to his website www.azabbas.bravesites.com and Feel free to visit his blog: www.azabbas.blogspot.com