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BW Online | June 28, 2004 | China Airs Some Very Dirty Laundry
Last night Ginger and I were talking about her friend who lives in China and is having a difficult time finding a job.
The difficulty her friend faces comes because China's business and government systems are intrinsically corrupt. Nepotism and favortism are standard and provide for incompetence and "very dirty laundry." The system of guanxi (doing favors for those you know) is common on some level in every culture, business environment, and government. In China this is not only very prevalent, but it is the norm. Everyone knows about it and people just accept it as a way of life. Ginger was telling me how it is normal to fire competent, experienced administrators or executives in order to install a recent college-grad with no experience or qualifications simply because they are related to higher officials. Getting into college requires greasing the palms of admissions counselors and professors. She's also told me of people "buying" jobs...that's right, you have to give money to owner of a shop or market before they will hire you. What's the point? Well, it's pretty much a guaranteed job for life. Which is another part of the problem. I'm not saying that these things don't happen here, but they seem to happen on a much smaller scale. I mean how many Ivy-leaguers do you know of that were denied admission to their school of choice and they were suddenly admitted after mom and dad provided a generous donation to some foundation? Yes, it does happen and it happens in America as well as every other place in the world.
Now as China becomes a major player in the world economy and decides to compete with other nations in business, they are finding that the rules are different to what they are used to and that the scrutiny of the regulatory commissions in far off places matter. I think it'll be interesting to see what happens as Chinese corporations and even the government itself tries to propel themselves into world-powerhood. I know that they can't erase 5,000 years of ingrained nepotism, but it'll be interesting to see how things adapt. In the mean time, Ginger's friend is going to have to try to make her way in the current state of Chinese society.
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