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“Who Will Get the Deer?” (Zhang Ciyun,1996)

The culture reflects the knowledge accumulated over 5 thousands years, whereas western business attemppting to enter the chinese market is founded on the cultutre of change and immediate returns. The challenge is capture in the Chinese cultural idiom Lu Si Shui Shou- or “Whose hand will the deer die?”; is a very famous saying used for example in sports, when it is difficult to tell which team will be victorious (Zhang Ciyun,1996). Just like it is difficult to tell who from the Chinese (the East) and the so called “western countries” (the West) will lead the 21st century. The Chinese outstanding economical development tends to put the East in position of the favourite. Nevertheless, the West, as a challenger represented by the developed countries, has still got all the chances to win the contest.The main objective of this paper is to understand the leadership strategy the Chinese government is likely to be playing in promoting the development of its market and its national industries. Since opening its doors to foreign investment in the late 1970s, China has undergone tremendous changes. Over the past two decades Chinese leaders have achieved a miracle: they have been able to gradually convert the central planned economy into a market system (Feng Li and Jing Li, 1999). What is the Chinese way? What is the formula that enables China in only 20 years to become the second largest recipient of FDI in the world since the early 1990s? How the foreign companies can adapte their business development sratgeies to remain a main actor of the Chinese miracle?

The purpose of this paper is o undertand how people who think fundamentally differently even if they could communicate with common language operate successfully in the emerging Chinese business landscape.A aim is to develop a framework that describes the comparative strategies used by the FDI and the CPC to control the rise of the more than one billion of people Chinese market. To this end, we will critically review the literature and theories on the interactions between FDI modes of development and government support of national industry.

Stream: Clients, Customisation, Markets

Paper: East West: Comparative Strategies

Gregoire is an international student from ESC Dijon in France. He has worked in China with a counsulting and investment company for the past 3 years. his research interest cover strategy, culture and business practice with the view to facilitating foreign investment and business in China.