{"id":293272,"date":"2016-03-09T21:32:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T02:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/2016\/03\/disdain-greater-interests-china-rest-world\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T15:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:26:09","slug":"disdain-greater-interests-china-rest-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2016\/03\/disdain-greater-interests-china-rest-world\/","title":{"rendered":"From disdain to greater interests: China and the rest of the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 35 years, the world has showed strong interest in China due to its openness and economic transformation. Slowly China has catered for and gradually adjusted to foreign investors (multinational companies as well as individual entrepreneurs) seeking opportunities to set up businesses across various sectors of the Chinese economy. In the meantime, beyond the Chinese companies\u2019 and individual entrepreneurs\u2019 self-interest to venture abroad, policies fueled by China\u2019s overseas investments as well as global economic objectives were also elaborated to drive Chinese companies to overseas markets.<\/p>\n

China catering for the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

To establish foreign companies in China, policies (i.e. tax incentives until at least few years ago and collaboration with a Chinese business partner) were put in place to enable foreign investors and entrepreneurs to set up their businesses in China. In the banking sector for instance, services and facilities have been made available for foreign companies and entrepreneurs\u2019 international transactions.<\/p>\n

The growing business environment facilitated by a number of reforms in China\u2019s economic shift from the late 1970s saw a massive relocation of foreign businesses paving their way into the Chinese market. China has therefore catered for the rest of the world which showed interests in the Chinese economy. Big Asian, North American and European multinational corporations entered the Chinese market, dominated their sector of investments and even changed the way the Chinese consumers respond to advertisement and marketing campaigns. But even though a huge number of Chinese customers are fond of foreign labelled brands (though most of the European, American or Asian labelled products are made in China), most of the foreign companies which set up businesses in China ended up adjusting to the needs of the complex Chinese consumer culture and society due to the diversity of Chinese consumers and the Chinese consumer behavior across the country\u2019s provinces. Even though some observers might argue that foreign companies adjust to the needs of local markets, that is not always the case and in the Chinese business environment, the life expectancy of foreign companies strongly relies on their adjustment to local needs if one considers the complexity of doing business in China for foreign corporations.<\/p>\n

The interesting shift is: while China opened up to the world 35 years ago and put in place policies to facilitate foreign investments and trade, today the world opens up to China and the Chinese population.<\/p>\n

The world catering for China and the Chinese<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chinese state interests in investing and trading both regionally and globally come along with interests from the Chinese entrepreneurs to explore opportunities elsewhere through state as well as individual projects. More and more Chinese businesses are set up around the world and most of the time employees in those businesses are Chinese.<\/p>\n

As for education, more and more Chinese students, particularly from wealthy families aim at enrolling in renowned universities around the world. Therefore it is impossible to ignore the growing numbers and the presence of Chinese students on Australian and North American campuses which remain their favourite destinations for education. A few years ago, the US Embassy in Beijing pledged to increase the number of study visas for Chinese students going to American universities. Most of the renowned universities in Europe, North America and Australia have offices or representative agencies in China in order to market and sell their programmes (from language training, preparatory degrees to specific majors and degrees) to Chinese students who wish to study in those regions and some of these universities also established campuses in China.<\/p>\n

The services sector including banking and tourism is another sector where there is a shift to accommodate Chinese clients and tourists.<\/p>\n

As for the banking sector, services are offered to deal with Chinese clients with a wide range of facilities (i.e. to settle bank transactions in yuan, Union Pay services available in stores; etc.). In addition, Chinese banks mainly the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have set up offices in Australia, Europe, Africa, Canada, United States and contributed to assisting Chinese investments and citizens with business and personal banking solutions while overseas. Some of the local banks in those regions have also opened up a \u2018China Desk\u2019 to deal with Chinese private or state investments, private entrepreneurs and individual customers. More often, they hire people with abilities in China\u2019s financial system, investments sector, business environment and Mandarin. Moreover, foreign banks are training their staff on China\u2019s economy, business landscape, business culture and language. For those who might argue that any of this is China specific, I ask them why other languages (Spanish, Portuguese or Hindi for instance) are not used at foreign airports, hotels and banks to cater for Spanish, Portuguese or Indian populations. The reality is it is impossible to ignore a sizeable market like China for trade, business and investments.<\/p>\n

In Canada, there is a growing interest in all sectors of activities to learn more about China and Chinese as China heavily invests in Canada. Chinese private entrepreneurs have set up companies in Canada, as there are generations and generations of Chinese immigrants and a huge population of Chinese students who need services from those companies. Chinese students\u2019 enrollment to Canadian universities is part of the Canadian provincial as well as federal governments\u2019 strategic plans in their relationship with China.<\/p>\n

For the tourism sector, China\u2019s outbound tourism contributes much to foreign tourism industry including its sub-sectors: travel services, touring companies, hostelry and catering. Since there were facilities (issuance of passports and travel documents, visa services and policies regarding Approved Destination Status for official destinations for Chinese tourists) to enable Chinese to travel outside of China\u2019s borders, Chinese tourists are curious about discovering the world and constitute the world\u2019s largest outbound tourism market. According to China\u2019s National Tourism Administration, in 2013, 98.19 million Chinese traveled abroad. More and more, airport services, air companies, travel agencies, hotels cater for Chinese customers\u2019 needs during their overseas trips and stays. In airports in Canada, United States, Europe, Australia and of course Asia, announcements are made in Mandarin or Cantonese and some airlines have made Customs Declaration Cards\/Forms in Mandarin for Chinese passengers who don\u2019t understand other languages.<\/p>\n

Hotels also do the same with their services. They offer Mandarin services to their Chinese clients; at reception desk and for in-room services. Besides, there are Chinese investments in the hotel and tourism industries overseas. One of the recent cases in this regard is the investment by Fosun International to acquire 98 per cent of the French holiday group Club M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e commonly known as Club Med finalised in January 2015 after years of negotiations and a fierce competition with an Italian investor. According to the Financial Times (12 September 2014), Fosun International\u2019s officials already announced that they will keep Club Med\u2019s roots and headquarters in Paris and would seek to win market share in mature territories but also accelerate Club Med\u2019s growth in emerging economies such as China, Russia and Brazil. Such buyouts and takeovers of foreign owned businesses by Chinese investors occur in the leisure and tourism sector as well as in the wine industry in France, Australia, South Africa and Canada among other countries; of course not to forget the traditional sectors of interests to the Chinese entrepreneurs. Such strategies contribute to developing Chinese ownership in overseas markets.<\/p>\n

Does this quick and current shift to cater for China\u2019s and the Chinese needs and interests in various sectors mean: \u201cChina is buying up the world\u201d as highlighted on the front page of The Economist, 13-19 November 2010 or is it a myth as Peter Nolan pointed out in his 2012 book Is<\/em> China buying the world<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For 35 years, the world has showed strong interest in China due to its openness and economic transformation. Slowly China has catered for and gradually adjusted to foreign investors (multinational companies as well as individual entrepreneurs) seeking opportunities to set up businesses across various sectors of the Chinese economy. In the meantime, beyond the Chinese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":293270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-293272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom disdain to greater interests: China and the rest of the world<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2016\/03\/disdain-greater-interests-china-rest-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From disdain to greater interests: China and the rest of the world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For 35 years, the world has showed strong interest in China due to its openness and economic transformation. 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