Customer Reviews

China's Global Reach: Markets, Multinationals, Globalization

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is like China itself. As you read it you feel like you are bicycling (or driving) through the bustling streets of Shenzhen, Shanghai or Chongqing. It is far-reaching and fast-moving, raises innumerable day-to-day and basic issues, notes local and national developments, focuses on specific, hands-on problems and relationships, and then moves quickly on. The author, educated in China and holding a PhD from the University of Michigan, is an investment banker and business consultant in southern China who is up to his neck in current developments, which he writes on for the international media.

This book should be read by everyone. Author George Zhibin Gu is a high-profile Chinese commentator, whose impressive newspaper pieces are widely read. This book takes up numerous hot global issues such as job transfers, changing international trade and investment, relations between developed and developing nations, and opportunities and challenges under globalization. In particular, it offers very interesting studies on the mess behind Japan's economic slump, changing roles of multinationals, India's development, and globalization itself. Also very interesting insights on American and European economic history in relation to today's realities. Indeed, a rare and exciting book.

I particularly like his overviews on the history of globalization, analysis of both global and Chinese multinationals, and international relations. Also, it has very good ideas on numerous business issues such as management, finance and investment. Its style and presentation is also outstanding and very easy to read. In terms of quality and scope, arguably better than several well-read books on similar subject such as David Landes, William Easterly, Thomas Friedman, and even Amartya Sen.

In my opinion, it is one of the very best books on globalization and multinationals as well as China and current global affairs. I wouldn't had read this book if it hadn't been recommended to me, and that being said I highly pass this book on to you.

This is the book for everyone. Not to mention other things, it contains more than 30 case studies on global multinationals doing business in China, like Microsoft, GE, Intel, Cisco, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, and Wal-Mart.

It is also the place to learn about emerging Chinese multinationals. All the leading Chinese multinationals such as Haier, Huawei, TCL, Lenovo, China Oil, Sinopec,CNOOC, and Ping An are studied here. Furthermore, comparsions are made between the Chinese companies and their international counterparts, covering both strengths and weaknesses.

Its scope is rather wide and the author aims to identify key factors behind global development: causes, effects, and consequences. He gives convincing arguments on hot issues such as job and manufacturing transfers, emerging markets like China and India, the evolving trade and investment trends, and the relations between East and West. Above all, he pinpoints opportunities and challenges under globalization.

His experiences as a newspaper commentator/consultant add much color to his discussions. Based on first-hand experience and writing on the ground of China, he gives countless insider's stories. The book's style and presentation is so simple and straightforward, but its analysis is powerful.

"Empty talk destroys prosperity," so goes the current wisdom in author George Zhibin Gu's hometown Shenzhen in the booming Pearl River delta of Guangdong province, long China's export powerhouse. But empty talk you won't get from Gu's insightful and timely discussion of the Chinese economic resurgence and its implications for the world. "China's Global Reach: Markets Multinationals Globalization" is an at times urgent appeal against isolationism and protectionism. Critics of China's "peaceful rise" argument will find most surprising Gu's assertion that you cannot equate the business of China (export dominance, job outsourcing, etc.) with the government of China or China as a national entity. Indeed Gu emphasizes the essential importance of international involvement in the reform of China's state sector and in ultimately untangling the knot at the center of China's problems - the impasse between party-bureaucracy and private life and property at all levels.

Gu expertly dissects the reality behind the huge numbers of Chinese trade and economic performance and shows how hard it is to criticize China's trade surplus with the USA, for example, in light of its impact on Wal-Mart's (and numerous other American multinational corporations (MNCs) profits. There is a tremendous amount of information regarding MNCs in China throughout the book.

On one level, "China's Global Reach" is a celebration of how far China has come in such a brief period by a son of the first post Cultural Revolution generation. On another level it fits into the "peaceful rise" line that is predominant in China today, that is that Chinese economic ascendancy is not the emergence of a new hegemony but benefits the whole world. And Gu's book serves also as a good antidote to rising sinophobia, particularly in the USA, by contrasting the Chinese global reach with that of Japan.

It was not so long ago that the same criticisms leveled against China - trade deficits, job displacement and so forth - were directed at Japan. The bogeyman of the 1980s was "Japan, Inc." just as today many of the same voices (The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economist, just to name very few) claim China aims to take over the world. However, Gu gives numerous examples of just how different China's global reach is from that of Japan and how much more open the Chinese economy is compared to Japan where foreign involvement is still severely restricted. More significantly, Gu shows how global-minded the Chinese are themselves particularly with their embrace of foreign products.

The rise and success of consumerism in China is one of the main themes of "China's Global Reach" and the book goes a long way toward explaining to a foreign audience (the book is available in English and Portuguese so far) how the ruling Communist party equates its political authority with unfettered materialist determination.

Capping Gu's book off nicely is an Afterward by Andre Gunder Frank who died last year before finishing his sequel to the ground-breaking and influential "ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age." Frank's comments are a powerful encapsulation of China's global impact and a reminder to Americans specifically that the only thing to fear about a rising China is the USA's response to it.

A delightful read, full of useful information, and interesting anecdotes, "China's Global Reach" belongs on the desk and bookshelf of anyone with a serious interest in what's going on in China. Get your copy today!

No in-depth analysis. No new insights. Trite Generalities. No interesting anecdotes. No personal odyssey of accomplishing a business project in China. No interviews with people who have done so. I followed the advice of previous reviewers who gave it 4 and 5 stars and purchased this book. Big mistake! It was a waste of my time and money! It's simply not in the same league as "One Billion Customers" and "China Streetsmart".

This book does a decent job of outlining the current business environment in China, specifically the challenges facing a fast changing nation. As a matter of fact, this book is essentially geared toward understanding the way China currently conducts business based on its old communist style governmental controls. The author explains how choking government beauracracy is holding back development of western style business practices, including free-market corporate expansion of products and services and limiting corruption - which is the root cause of Chinese problems for the foreseeable future.

Although this book is good and I would recommend anyone interested in Chinese business culture to read it, I was left feeling a little disappointed in any sort of Globalization analysis. The author does give some good case studies of western companies attempts to penetrate the chinese consumer markets, both in sucesses and failures. I suppose I was expecting a little more forecasting and analysis on the actual globalization impact that China might have on the world economy in the decades to come.

On a side note, I did find the author's writing style to be a little odd and somewhat hard to follow. Its not that you cannot understand the message the author is trying to convey, its just that he sometimes arranges words and/or sentences in a style I'm not quite used to.

It offers numerous powerful lessons on China's new development under globalization and capitalism. But readers should read the revised edition, which offers most current info on China. (read my review there.)

Author Gu is a brave fellow. He offers straightfoward info and analysis on what is really inside Chinese business and political world. He is highly critical of the Communist ills that continue to cause hellish problems for China and foreign operations inside. Other than this abusive bureaucratic power, Chinese people are very diligent and creative. But the key is to get rid of the overextended bureaucratic power, as so claims by Gu.

This book is a must read. But people should read his new edition, which is sharply revised and expanded. (Five stars for his new edition)