Hello Dragon!

October 2000

Back to Awakening Dragon Index

I have decided to get a bit more personal, a bit dry, and a bit outrageous in this column, so that I can have more contents for the varied interests of more people.

Personal: I would include more stories of personal and interesting encounters in this land of myths.

Dry: To cater the appetite of some readers, I shall be presenting some of the latest dry stuff--the numbers, statistics and news, which are normally readily available through many other means.

Outrageous: I shall get out of the old images of being a humble, polite, uncontroversial column to present some of the more outrageous cases and encounters by foreigners doing business with this awakened dragon.

Naturally, all specific inquiries will be welcomed as I see no probability of covering subjects of every interest in any of the monthly columns.

Piset Wattanavitukul

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From Hello Dolly To Hello Dragon

In a way the world's welcome to China's opening up is not quite as warm as the welcome for Dolly in that well known movie. But China on its return to the world arena has stirred up the world in no less magnitude than Dolly did to her town. Like reunited ex-lovers, the world and China have whispered to each other, "Can we still love (and trust) each other?"

These reforming years have been well reflected in the area of telecommunication.

Call Me at 60889

60889 was my telephone number in Chongqing (Chungkin), a city of 15 million people, in 1993. It connected to both my office and my bedroom. I was living in a hotel in the Jiangbei district of Chongqing. My suite was on the second floor while we rented a wing from the hotel for our office during the construction of the factory. Jiangbei was a technology development zone just across the Jialingjiang River from downtown Chongqing. One of the biggest and tallest buildings in town belonged to the Telecommunication Company. Due to limited and restricted accesses to telephone lines we managed to get only two telephone numbers - one for the office and the other for the factory site 20 km away.

Fortunately, the office was on the third floor directly above my bedroom. Thus, in order to avoid making calls through the hotel operator to save costs, I created an extension line from the office to my bedroom. Hence, I saved some money on the telephone bills while also enabling my bosses and customers to call me directly in my bedroom any time, any day.

The Number Has Changed to 6765-1889 now

Four years ago, I checked the company's telephone number in directory services for the purpose of contacting some of my former colleagues. They not only have an 8 digit telephone number now, but also boast individual direct telephone numbers for each deparment manager as well as a mobile phone issued to each sales supervisor and above.

As of this month, China has 43 million mobile telephone subscribers. According to Mark Clifford of Business Week, this number is expected to increase by 50% to 64 million by the end of THIS year.

300 Million Internet Users by 2005

As of the end of 1999 China's estimated number of internet users was 8.9 million. At the end of June, 2000, that number has increased to 16.9 million, mainly due to lower costs and easier access to telephones and networks.

By 2001, 40 million mainland Chinese are expected to be on line - pushing toward 300 million by 2005. By that time, the number of internet users in China will be larger than the present population of the U.S.

$240 for a Fax!

No - not for a fax machine! $240 US (1,200 FEC) was the cost for transmitting a 20 page report from Chongqing, China to Thailand in September, 1991. Not only that, I had to take a 45 minute ride from my hotel to the Holiday Inn Yangzejiang Hotel where I found the only working fax machine in service at the time. Actually the hotel only charged 30 FEC per page. However, after the first try, I was told that the transmission was bad but I still had to pay for it because the Telecom Agency would charge the hotel even if the fax transmission failed. My options were either to have it retransmitted or to buy a plane ticket to Bangkok to deliver the budget by hand. I chose the first option, incurring another charge for another 10 pages. Returning to my office, I received a telephone call from C.P.'s head quarters in Bangkok telling me to sent my budget again, because the copy they received was so blurred that it was unreadable.

If you see a conspicuos dent on the wall of that hotel room in Chongqing today, it may well have been that caused by banging my head against the wall that night.

I should have chosen the second option.

I Embezzled $0.80 USD - Another Fax Story

At our corporate headquarters in Bangkok, Mr. Siri, my immediate superior confronted me with a 3-page fax from our joint venture counterpart in Ningbo.

"...Somebody must have really hated you. What have you done? They sent this 75 FEC ($15 USD) fax to us to report your improper reimbursement of 4 FEC!..." he told me.

It was a late Sunday morning when I decided to get a haircut in the hotel's barber shop. The service cost 4 FEC. I only had 100 FEC bills in my wallet, the barber had no change and I was about to return to my room upstairs to collect some small bills for him. "No need for that, we know you. Why don't you just sign the expense to your room and pay it at the month's end?", he said.

It was all agreed, but at the end of the month, while separating personal expense bills from the company expenses I must have missed the little piece of paper thereby resulting in 4 FEC being charged to the joint venture.

Being a person trying to control the costs of personnel recruitment and selection in those days I must have stepped on somebody's toes unknowingly. Writing accusatory letters and making allegations of improprietary was probably among the best used skills for those who lived through the 60's and 70's in China.

Black Face - White Face Tactics

After 8 months on my first assignment in China, I received a fax informing me that I was to be replaced by a new General Manager arriving the next day. Absolutely puzzled, I contacted my superior to ask for the reason. "Black Face - White Face Tactics" he replied. I was assured that they had been more than satisfied with my performance, but it was a C.P. Group strategy to transfer the General Manager, who had antagonized many people in the his previous area, in order to please the joint venture counterpart. I was assured that after a couple of months rest in Bangkok, I would be posted at another joint venture site in China.

"Black Face" means a very strict, mean and difficult to get along with character. White Face means an easy going, friendly, nice guy. The site general manager is expected to act both with Black Face and White Face according to the occasion. When too much of the Black Face appeared, and the Bangkok headquarters was swamped with complaining faxes and telephone calls, it was time for the White Face from headquarters to appear and the Black Face GM removed. Then the new GM starting anew, but with all the rules and practices of the former GM.

A GM can be changed as many times as needed, but local relationships cannot be ruined. There is nothing more costly and tiring than to try to fight guerilla warfare with local people. Thus, with each revamping of a Darkened Face by a new White Face, the joint venture got a fresh start with the locals.

Lightning Moves

I arrived home in Bangkok to tell my thrilled awaiting children that Daddy would be home for two months before leaving again. The next day, I received a telephone from C.P. headquarters informing me that a plane ticket had already been bought for my departure to Chongqing to become the GM of another brand new joint venture within a week. I couldn't really decide which face to put on at headquarters the next day!

At headquarters, my happy bosses told me slightly apologetically that they expected the negotiation in Chongqing to drag on for a few more months. However, unexpectedly, the local side turned easy and the joint venture agreement was concluded ahead of time - and that was the reason that I had to fly into that city within a week to start up the project.

I was told that in another city in China, - Lanzhou - they not only concluded the JV agreement but also got all the commercial licenses issued within four days, They also had several million in bank loans already approved and ready to be utilised. So some other General Manager also was going to receive another lightning order to fly out to the post there. By 1997, the group had over 100 feedmill investment projects in China, including the Dajiang Company in Shanghai - a publicaly listed company with approximately 90 subsidiary companies. The group's animal feed production accounted for approximately 5% of China's animal feed total production.

At C.P. sometimes you couldn't help wondering whether the bosses had become to familiar with live stock farming, particularly the broilers (chicken). There were times that you felt as if they looked upon those executives as part of those easily disposable live stocks.

Dealing with the Native Kings

"Tu wang di" means literally "the local emperor", referring to those all-authoritative village heads during the Cultural Revolution. One of them was "planted" inside our joint venture at the insistence of the local partner. Needless to say, I found that our vision and minds were as far apart as the Pacific Ocean. The man would stop at nothing to for push his way of thinking. He was a very heavy eater and very heavy drinker.

"What do you live and work for if you do not eat?", he once said, questionning my small appetite and preferred choices of simple food. You began to feel that he was ready to chop you into halves each time he raised his voice to a thunderous volume and displayed his red face. What could I do with this man? I pondered many nights until a solution was found.

I appointed the tu wang di as the Assistant Manager of Market Relations. His job was to visit all of the agricultural villages and to "gan bei" (drink) with the local village heads until the local headmen "advised" his villagers to opt for C.P.'s animal feeds. In those days, that was one of the more powerful sales methods. He was quite proud of his achievement and we became very good friends.

My "Senior" Chauffeur

As a courtesy gesture, the bureau chief of our joint venture counterpart immediately assigned a Toyota Corona with his own driver to me as soon as I arrived in Chonqing. It was a nice arrangement while awaiting for my imported automobile to be delivered in another 4 months. Although the car was somewhat undermaintained, there were no problems.

The problem was the seniority of my driver.

He was the chief of the traffic safety group among the drivers in the city. With 30 years driving experience, he was one of the most senior among the drivers. That was probably part of the reason that he got the job driving for the Bureau chief.

Normally, he tried to be very polite and courteous toward me, but while driving, he would open the window to scold at the traffic police whom he felt were causing him to stop for too long at the traffic light. He would weave the traffic lanes, assuring me along the way that it was all right because no traffic police would touch him. His privileged driving habit got me into many close calls with other cars, houses, rocks, mountains and, worst of all, the cliffs. I made many failed diplomatic moves to return him to his former boss in lieu of the recruitment of a new driver.

Realizing the need to control the use of the company cars, I required all cars to be parked at the company assigned parking lot and the keys locked in at the office each evening. One Sunday morning, I found my newly arrived new car disappeared. Thinking fast, I took a taxi to the chauffeur's home. He told me that the car was parked in a hotel parking lot near his home. He drove my car home because, as he explained, it was raining. I had to tell him that the car was for me and not for him. As one of the company's employees he had to commute to and from work the way everyone else did, thus, raining was not an acceptable excuse for driving a company car home. I fined him 20 yuan RMB and made him pay for my taxi fare. He resigned in response. I was so glad to get rid of him before falling off one of those Sichuan cliffs.

Market Calls

A vice president was assigned from headquarters to overlook a region included my Chongqing territory. The VP was quite experienced in the swine business, speaking quite good Mandarin due to his years working in Taiwan, but had seldom been in China. Arriving with another supposedly very senior executive in the areas of Sales and Marketing for live stocks, they immediately asked to undertake a field visit to the local markets. Using a map, I explained where we had made market penetrations. He pointed to a number of spots and told me to show him those markets. "It will take a week or two to cover those areas.", I said. He thought that with efficiency he could out perform my estimation.

What my VP did not see on the map was the three dimensional factor - the mountains, rivers and streams that once stopped the advancing Japanese imperial army. A trip to another city 60 km away as the crow flew took a 6 hours drive through twisting unpaved mountain routes. There seemed to be mountains growing on top of another, then another, endlessly. "Don't we have a better road somewhere?" he asked. "This is the best road!" answered the driver (a new one by now!).

Then - a second question, "Do the hotels there have any air conditioned rooms?" "No, Sir. They only get the electricity and running water according to the specified hours.", came the reply. I tried to explain that rural Sichuan was probably among the most remote in China due to the difficult terrains and wide spread geography. We were about an hour from our first destination of the day. "Can we drive back to Chongqing Holiday Inn after visiting the customer?", he asked. I told him that it would be very difficult even if we did not get any rain downpour on our way back. "Well, turn back, head back now. I will go there at some other time." So we made it back to Holiday Inn Yangzejiang Hotel, in Chongqing at around 2 a.m. I never received a request for a field visit from that VP ever since!

The Live Piggy Banks

Lecturing on the subject of modern swine and chicken feeds and how they could help farmers generate more turnover and income, I was told that the local farmers would be lucky if they made 80 yuan RMB raising a pig for one year. Most of the time they only got even or might even lose some! There were over 70 million pigs in Sichuan.

Why would they raise those swine then?

"Yang tou ju, fei mou tian, sha ju lai guo nian." (Raise a pig, fertilise a plot of farm, then slaughter the pig to get the new year money.)

That's how pigs were being used as live piggy banks in the rural farming China. They fed the animals with left overs from their own food and extra corn and vegetables from their field, used the animal's "waste" to fertilize their land, then sold the animal at new year to get their money from that piggy banks. Profit or loss did not matter, as long as they get enough money to celebrate the festivity and leave enough to buy a new baby pig after new year.

How We Are "Over the Hill"

Surfing the local Chinese websites, I found the following response to a Position Vacant message on its community web board: Certifications Passed:

• Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE)
• Microsoft Certified Data Base Specialist (MCCBA)
• Microsoft Certified Internet Specialist (MCP+I)
• Microsoft Certified Office Software Expert
• Shanghai City C Language Certification
• Shanghai City Middle Level Networking Certification
• University English 4th Level Certificate
• Cambridge Business English 2nd Level Certificate
• Japanese Language 3rd Level Certificate

• National Certification of High Level Programmer
• Shanghai City Middle and High Level Vergal Interpreter Certification

Piset Wattanavitukul
Shanghai, China

Piset Wattanavitukul is Managing Director of P. W. Consultants specializing in Investment, Management and Trade in and with China and Human Resource Development in Shanghai and Ningbo.