Chinese Rules: Five Timeless Lessons for Succeeding in China

Chinese Rules: Five Timeless Lessons for Succeeding in China
Tim Clissold

From the author of the acclaimed ‘Mr. China’ comes another rollicking adventure story – part memoir, part history, part business imbroglio – that offers valuable lessons to help Westerners win in China.In the twenty-first century, the world has tilted eastwards in its orbit; China grows confident while the West seems mired in doubt. Having lived and worked in China for more than two decades, Tim Clissold explains the secrets that Westerners can use to navigate through its cultural and political maze.Picking up where he left off in the international bestseller ‘Mr. China’, ‘Chinese Rules’ chronicles his most recent exploits, with assorted Chinese bureaucrats, factory owners, and local characters building a climate change business in China. Of course, all does not go as planned as he finds himself caught between the world’s largest carbon emitter and the world’s richest man. Clissold offers entertaining and enlightening anecdotes of the absurdities, gaffes, and mysteries he encountered along the way.Sprinkled amid surreal scenes of cultural confusion and near misses are smart myth-busting insights and practical lessons Westerns can use to succeed in China. Exploring key episodes in that nation’s long political, military, and cultural history, Clissold outlines five Chinese rules, which anyone can deploy in on-the-ground situations with modern Chinese counterparts. These Chinese rules will enable foreigners not only to co-operate with China but also to compete with it on its own terms.

CHINESE RULES

Five Timeless Lessons for Succeeding in China

Tim Clissold

Copyright (#ulink_7657c52d-2767-5bda-9f63-635a6d8aee0e)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://WilliamCollinsBooks.com)

This eBook edition first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2014

Copyright © Tim Clissold 2014

Cover images © Shutterstock

Tim Clissold asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007590285

Ebook Edition © August 2014 ISBN: 9780007590261

Version: 2016-03-02

Praise for Mr China (#ulink_37f013d8-0455-5f9e-8a32-f53efa786dcd)

‘An instant classic’ Time

‘A wonderful read … one might not expect such poetry from a banker’ New York Times

‘It’s got big money, charismatic capitalists, Communist apparatchiks, crime and mysterious disappearances … [but] it’s not just a novel – it’s true’ Telegraph

‘No business history can ever have been such an enjoyable read … any visiting businessman should be obliged to buy a copy’ Chris Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong

Dedication (#ulink_5e7cda12-9df0-5487-91da-0381fd887187)

‘harmony’

for Lorraine,

for my brothers Oliver and Max,

and for the memory of Lizzie Hicks

To fight and win a hundred battles is not supreme excellence; the greatest General avoids war and overcomes his adversary without fighting.

THIRD SECTION, SUN TZU’S THE ART OF WAR, c. SIXTH CENTURY BC

CONTENTS

Cover (#uc0d9324c-8ee0-5b14-a6fe-659d1748ae9f)

Title Page (#uefc8571b-9bd1-51af-ac1b-aaf2142cb159)

Copyright (#u60ac613b-b917-5f69-b2e9-90ee86b9db2d)

Praise for Mr China (#u8208f800-dbff-525a-9753-a7a019350afe)

Dedication (#ub5a2a2d2-79d1-5bab-8021-d90c060873f0)

A Chinese Chop (#u3ccfcfda-c59a-52fa-8705-27b35f8c03f9)

1. Even a Beast Like a Thousand-Pound Ox Must Lower Its Head to Drink (#ueecf6c24-dbba-503a-a512-21863220f358)

2. A Tree May Grow to a Thousand Feet, but the Leaves Still Return to Their Roots (#ub6da28db-81e5-58c5-9bad-34596fbeef0b)

3. When the Horse Has Reached the Edge of the Cliff, It’s Too Late to Draw on the Reins (#ua2291966-96a7-5253-ad25-918a0d58a1c0)

4. Up in the Sky There Is Paradise, but Down on the Earth We Have Hangzhou (#uc6d5ff78-f1a2-5d37-ad18-af0eb36f6044)

5. The First Chinese Rule: How Can We Go So Far as to Change the Regulations of the Celestial Empire – Which are Over a Hundred Years Old – at the Request of One Man – of You, O King!? (#uec788bc9-d999-5273-8228-7b50db881050)

6. Sacrifice the Plum Tree in Order to Save the Peach (#litres_trial_promo)

7. The Second Chinese Rule: The Long-Divided Shall Unite; The Long-United Shall Divide (#litres_trial_promo)

8. Learn from the Past; Seek Truth from Facts (#litres_trial_promo)

9. The Flowers on a Liverwort May be as Small as a Grain of Rice, but They Still Want to Blossom Like a Peony (#litres_trial_promo)

10. The Third Chinese Rule: The Art of War Is of Vital Importance for the State; It Is a Matter of Life and Death; the Road to Safety or Ruin That Should on No Account Be Neglected (#litres_trial_promo)

11. When Master Jiang Hangs Out His Hook, It’s the Willing Fish That Gets Caught (#litres_trial_promo)