Bingfeng Teahouse

yes and no.

according to an article of china business review, shanghai is on top of a list for best places in mainland china to do business, certainly from a multi-national perspective.

but it might be a different story for entrepreneurs. one of my friend moved to beijing for new business expansion, as he commented in a MSN chat, "in shanghai, the people are not open and unreserved (通透), it's hard to build up trusting relationships and collaborations are hard to form and maintain"

received a letter (above in the pic) from the unicef, asking for donating for poor kids in china. it uses two chinese celebrities in its publicity campaigns and, i guess, buys database for its direct mailing.

the awareness level for charity business is higher and higher, thanks to the contributions from many organizaitons and individuals. magazine like fortune and forbes china launched top entrepreneur/firm list by how much money they donated before, and people like andrew yu (his blog is: here) took initiatives to start a charity program called "to carry one more kg", asking people who travel to rural areas in china to bring some used books with them for local kids.

via: sina news (in chinese), read the whole stroy: here (in chinese)

shanghai-based biz daily CBN says that Dell's sales person uses "don't support chinese government" as an excuse to persuade ex-IBM (now a part of lenovo, a chinese pc maker) customers to switch to Dell.

the original email sent by Dell salesman is as fellows:

04/28/2005 08:53 AM Subject: RE: PDA

　　Xxxxx，

　　I was going to try for tomorrow but I may have a conflict (Wife's doctors appt. for our expecting baby). Are you in the office tomorrow in case I can make it over to Belvoir?

　　Is there currently anything you are working on that we can provide some assistance with?

　　From a IBM perspective, and please do not think I'm throwing stones. As you know Lenovo is a Chinese government owned company that recently purchased IBM's desktop/notebook business. While the US government has given its stamp of approval (no US secrets are in jeopardy) to continue to purchase these units people must understand that every dollar they spend on these IBM systems is directly supporting/funding the Chinese government.

　　Just something to think about.

　　Chris  

more email exchanges between chris and his customer is here (scroll down)

chris should join the baidu task force, or baidu should teach dell a few more tricks to compete with lenovo.

related links:

market competition with chinese characteristics

  lenovo

dell  

update 1:

as a response, lenovo made a 3-point comment:

1. lenovo received reports in recent two months from its american sales team about similar unethical practices in the US market and, lenovo regrets for what has been reported in CBN 

2. as an internationally renowned firm, dell should respect for basic business ethics, foreign governments and competitors, compete in a fair manner

3. lenovo is confident to meet challenges in the coming international competition, stand by its own feet, follow the business norms and proves to its global customers that lenovo is an excellent company

update 2:

one comment was placed on top part of the special report dedicated to this incident, reminding chinese readers that a clarification as whether its a company policy or an individual malpractice should be made first

update 3:

reading all the comments from angry chinese readers, you won't hesitate for a second to predict that it will become a PR disaster for dell in china. hostility creates hostility and they sprawl like wild fire, killing both sides.