American here. I own two different companies in China.
“In order to do business in China, non-Chinese companies must Partner with a Chinese company.”
These days, what you’ve asserted here, is only true in a very limited set of circumstances.
For example, one of my companies is an engineering/supply chain consulting firm and the other is a fully licensed CM factory. With our factory, I have the China government paying me VAT tax rebates on export. I don’t have a Chinese partner, for either of these companies.
That said, it is very difficult to get setup here, without a Chinese partner. It is a difficult convoluted process. And, the locals have no incentive to see a foreigner succeed.
But if Americans want to own a private factory here, and more fully control their own IP and what they allow Chinese nationals to see. From my view as an American that owns a factory in China. They can do it!
Get on a plane, come over here, stay a couple years getting it done, and voila, you own your own factory in China, without a Chinese partner.
My Chinese is still pretty basic. Yes, learning some conversational Chinese and a few hundred Chinese characters pretty quickly, is required, if only to keep sane. But, my Chinese communication skill wasn’t/isn’t/hasn’t been a critical key success factor for business success. More important has been, utilizing employees well and having the sense to recognize and call “bullshit” when needed. Like, if a process seems illogical from a good business practices or efficiency point of view. And someone is telling you something that seems wrong. It’s probably wrong, and they don’t know what they are talking about. And, learning quick, most of what you see here in China, is not as it appears on the surface. Underneath, it’s probably a rats nest. Being a good detective is required to survive.
Not very easy. The best structure seems to be, to setup a parent company in Hong Kong. Then, setup a wholly owned subsidiary in China. Then, just send enough money every month to keep the China operations going. It is easy to get your money in and out of Hong Kong.
I went to Hong Kong earlier this year, and I was amused by how there were luxury watch shops seemingly everywhere. My first assumption was that they were for laundering money out of the mainland.
Yup. Flying with hard currency or equivalents is difficult. Just don't bring the receipts or boxes for your new watch, bracelet, ear rings, and neck chain.
To think about going to China, you're going to have to think about how to LEAVE china first
"once the news goes out that you will be leaving China, alleged creditors will come out of the woodwork. The tax authorities will come up with taxes that you owe. Your landlord will explain why you owe it way more than you thought you did. Your suppliers will send you bills for items they never actually gave you. Your employees will demand all sorts of severance."
When it comes to nation state affairs. Generally, entrepreneurs can only observe, predict, and act.
In 2009, the USA economy was tanking. As a new MBA who had studied options and derivatives, for example, I had a job offer on Wall Street with Bear Stearns, it made me angry. When I got the chance to come to China on a management consulting project, I noticed, China was booming. It was a great time to start a company here, and that’s what I did.
I don’t agree with all the social issues here in China. I also don’t agree with the USA financial system still being privatized after the greatest global robbery scheme ever invented.
Every nation has their problems, buddy. At this point, as an entrepreneur, I’m just in position to think about how to make money, given the political environment. I don’t think that makes me a bad American. That’s the American way.
It’s definitely the American way, for those of us Americans who don’t want to take a paycheck from somebody else. And that somebody else, whomever is behind paying your wages, is definitely navigating the global environment the best they can, to make money.
You can run your own business while taking into account other factors beyond what would purely be most profitable. Those aren’t at all mutually exclusive. I would actually say that one of the greatest joys of running your own company is that you’re free to try to do something good beyond making money.
As an entrepreneur, you are certainly free to try to do something good beyond making money. But, if you don’t make money, you won’t be free to do it very long.
Sometimes, you just got to make selfie-sticks, because that’s the opportunity you’ve identified, and in China, because consumers are not going to pay a premium for that product to be made in USA.
Sure, you need to make money, but it's a false dichotomy to say you can either make money or try to do something good. No one "just has to make selfie sticks".
There is nothing sociopathic about rationally navigating the global environment. Further, placing bets with your time and money, based on your observations, is what an entrepreneur does.
> There is nothing sociopathic about rationally navigating the global environment.
There is something sociopathic about a definition of "rational" that only encompasses financial profit. Maybe you're a good person, maybe you're making products that make people's lives better, but none of that's apparent when you brush off a comment about genocide with "yeah, but there's lots of money to be made". If there's such a thing as "the American way" there's more to it than Gordon Gekko. Don't try to rationalize pure materialism as patriotism.
No, unfortunately, the products I’ve made have probably not made the world a much better place. For example, I made, about 1 million selfie-sticks, for the GoPro camera. Sold in Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and frys electronics. Anytime you see one of irritating sticks with a camera on it. You can think of me.
Now, it would be great, if I could help stop genocide. It would be great, if I could change China. But, that’s out of my span of control. And no matter how much you preach at me, it is also, outside your own span of control.
Yeah, he should set up in the good ol' US of A, where kids are never separated from their parents when their parents are seized for dubious reasons and ethnic groups are never targeted for placement in `extraordinary rendition` camps.
The world is shades of grey. nothing and nobody is black or white. the context and magnitude of illegal immigrant separation/war criminals and
muslim concentration camps are completely different.
“In order to do business in China, non-Chinese companies must Partner with a Chinese company.”
These days, what you’ve asserted here, is only true in a very limited set of circumstances.
For example, one of my companies is an engineering/supply chain consulting firm and the other is a fully licensed CM factory. With our factory, I have the China government paying me VAT tax rebates on export. I don’t have a Chinese partner, for either of these companies.
That said, it is very difficult to get setup here, without a Chinese partner. It is a difficult convoluted process. And, the locals have no incentive to see a foreigner succeed.
But if Americans want to own a private factory here, and more fully control their own IP and what they allow Chinese nationals to see. From my view as an American that owns a factory in China. They can do it!
Get on a plane, come over here, stay a couple years getting it done, and voila, you own your own factory in China, without a Chinese partner.