1. Brief History and Introduction
China is the second largest country after Russia, having over 1.3 billion as her population. Its history that will be discussed goes back to the 20th century, with one of her forefather figures, Sun Yat-Sen. His Kuomingtang (KMT) party managed to build up China’s culture and important areas of growth, e.g. economic and political ideology. Probably the most recent major incident experienced by the country was the Tiannanmen Square Protests of 1989, which saw violent student protests and massacres, after which it served as a reminder for the Chinese to uphold social harmony. Having successfully hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China is considered to be a fast growing country with an increasing authority in international relations.
2. National Culture
China is a group-oriented society, i.e. members, especially families, work together to achieve common goals. There are 10 social groups, with her government being the first, and farmers for the last. As she lightens her social mobility, a person’s merit will be considered when preparing for employment. For religion, she has 59% of her population being non-religious, and some include Confucianism and Buddhism. More than 400 dialects make up the Chinese language, with Mandarin as the main one. The education structure focuses on moral teachings, and covers 10 years of compulsory education. China’s economic philosophy basically entails expansion of private sectors, while her political agenda has shifted to more liberalism instead of her historical communism ideas.
3. Business Culture
Under Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, China scores 74 for power distance, 18 for uncertainty avoidance, 22 as collectivist, 48 for masculinity, and has long-term orientation of 118. Under Trompenaar’s cultural theory, China is considered to have a particularistic affective, diffuse and an ascription culture with past orientation. The Chinese use high-context communication style and her non-communication areas include a wide personal space for proxemics, direct eye contact, haptics, such as physical friendship, and traditional gestures for kinetics. Flexibility and patience are essential characteristics for negotiations, and developing detailed understanding of Chinese corporate partners is significant. They seek good entertainment, such as drinking tea to build rapport before the start of any dealings. When giving gifts, clocks and tips must be avoided, as they imply undesirable meanings for the Chinese. In short, self-discipline should be the main essence.
4. General Business Environment
Female and youth employment have grown over the years via policies like ‘Safeguarding Women’s Rights’. Her youths comprise mainly of university graduates, and as the young population increases, labor force participation rate also rises rapidly. Child labor remains a problem, but recently became better, as more local companies try to abide to labor laws strictly. Government intervention has also improved the average’s lifestyle, but corruption stays rampant and has been continuously dealt with through media disclosure and harsher penalties. Minimum wages go for S$109/month for full time workers and about SGD$1.36/hour for part timers. U.S. has minimum wages exceeding 10 times that of China, due to economic differences.
