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China Now
Book

China Now

Doing Business in the World’s Most Dynamic Market

N. Mark Lam and John L. Graham
McGraw-Hill, 2006
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

N. Mark Lam and John L. Graham offer an interesting, informed overview of doing business in China. The authors did some of their research on Wikipedia (a source they honestly credit), and some in popular business magazines and books, but the source that comes through is their experience. They do a good job of pulling all their material together. They begin with a summary of history, followed by advice on negotiating with background material on American and Chinese attitudes. This guidance is useful, though much of it has become familiar elsewhere. Other sections cover intellectual-property protection (or the lack thereof) and the intriguing nature of competitive factions in “Greater China.” Some of the opinions here may be chancy (i.e. the notion that if the US imposed trade sanctions, China would sell its US Treasury holdings), however, getAbstract sees the factual material as a useful background for doing business in China.

Summary

People, Events and Themes

China has a long and complex history. This sample of pivotal, important people, events and themes are touchstones you must know. These personalities shaped China’s identity:

  • Confucius – A philosopher (circa 550 B.C.) whose ideas are cultural basics.
  • Qin Shi Huangdi – China’s first emperor, he unified China, organized it, built the Great Wall, and standardized weights measures and writing.
  • Wang An-Shih – A counselor to the Song emperor, he established reforms, set up a system of government credit to stimulate the economy and reorganized the military.
  • Genghis Khan – After conquering the Great Wall, he founded the Mongol Dynasty.
  • Sun Yat-sen – A revolutionary who helped overthrow the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the 20th century, he founded and led the Republic of China.
  • Mao Zedong – Revolutionary and dictator, he created Communist China amid great trauma and chaos.
  • Deng Xiaoping – As president of China, he instigated and enabled modern reforms. He was rehabilitated by Mao’s right arm, Zhou Enlai, and then rose to power.

Several...

About the Authors

N. Mark Lam is an attorney and business adviser specializing in East-West negotiations. John L. Graham teaches international business at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California in Irvine.

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