Job seekers prefer government over private firms - Zhang Juwei

Zhang Juwei

While slowly the private companies are gaining strength, job seekers in China prefer the civil service over a corporate career, tells Zhang Juwei of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Population and Labor Economics at CNN. And that might not change very fast.

CNN:

When China's economy first opened up 30 years ago, going into private business or commerce was seen as the best way to get ahead. But the civil service first began attracting huge numbers of applicants a decade ago, said Zhang Juwei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Population and Labor Economics. "The private sector in China is not very well structured or developed like the U.S.," he said. "Most of the people in private companies in China, unless their positions are high, they usually don't pay well or have a clear career ladder to move up."

More at CNN.

Zhang Juwei is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

 China Weekly Hangout
The +China Weekly Hangout will have open office hours coming Thursday, where you can drop in to discuss any issue, but where we want to focus on technical problems you have or we have had with hangouts. The development of this Google tool is going pretty fast, offering every week more new bells and whistles, but also with regularly new challenges.
You can join us on Thursday 28 November 10pm Beijing time, 3pm CET (Europe) or 9am EST (US/Canada). You can read our announcement here, or join the event by watching, commenting or actively joining at our event page. 

A changing labor force
On May 24 the +China Weekly Hangout discussed China's changing labor force with +Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO +Inno Community Development Organisation in Guangzhou. He is running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions. Economist Heleen Mees, in New York, +Sam Xu and +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, ask him questions.

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• Corruption: everybody is guilty - Zhang Lijia

How China caused the financial crisis - Heleen Mees

+Heleen Mees 

Not Wall Street but China is the real cause of the financial crisis, explained economist Heleen Mees in November at TedXAmsterdam. Adding a billion workers to the global work force, changed that world. And what can we do to get out of the crisis?

Heleen Mees is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

On Monday 11 November shadow banking expert Sara Hsu will be discussing the latest developments in the +China Weekly Hangout and give her view in an upcoming hangout on what we can expect in the months to come, and hopefully has already some idea of what the Third Plenum will lead to. Broadcasting time will be 5pm CET, 11am EST and (unfortunately) midnight at Beijing time (but you can watch the session also later). Questions will be asked by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau. There will be no other guests in the hangout - unless you have some very good arguments. But questions can be asked during the event, from our event page here. 

+Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO +Inno Community Development Organisation in Guangzhou, is running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions. Economist Heleen Mees, in New York, +Sam Xu  and +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, asked on May25 him questions in the +China Weekly Hangout .

Corruption: everybody is guilty - Zhang Lijia

+Lijia Zhang 

One of the reasons corruption in China is hard to eradicate is because everybody is guilty. Author Zhang Lijia describes for CNN how her family ended up bribing corrupt officials in Nanjing.

Zhang Lijia:

Chinese public opinion surveys identify corruption as the most hated social problem, yet everyone is also guilty of it. 

Last year, when my father fell seriously ill, we took him to a decent hospital close by but were told the beds were fully occupied. As always, we turned to our guanxi — our network of connections — for help. 

Fortunately, a relative, a not so senior but well-connected official, managed to secure a private room at the hospital, which is reserved for ranking leaders. In return, the relative agreed to get the son of the hospital director into the most desirable school in Nanjing. 

I became aware the weight of guanxi shortly after I was thrust into adulthood: At 16 I was dragged out of the school to work at a military rocket factory. 

Two months later, when Spring Festival came, my mother requested that I visit my boss’ home with gifts she had prepared. Naive and embarrassed, I refused. Mother angrily predicted: "You’ll never go far in life if you don’t know how to la guanxi!" The verb la means to pull or to develop. Sure enough, I never got any promotion during my decade-long stint at the factory even though I acquired a degree in mechanical engineering.... 

And politically, China produces its top leaders more or less based on patron-client ties rather than meritocracy. Both President Xi [Jinping] and [jailed politician] Bo [Xilai] are "princelings" — the children of senior leaders, the most powerful and influential group in China. Nepotism, a form of corruption, has feudal roots. 

In fact, I believe the whole corrupt practice of guanxi is rooted in China’s long tradition of renzhi.

The full story is at Zhang Lijia's website.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

How successful can president Xi Jinping be in rooting out corruption, the +China Weekly Hangout is going to ask on Thursday 31 October. How committed is the Xi/Li team to real change? You can read our announcement here, or register for the event here. 

The +China Weekly Hangout discussed in May China's changing labor force with +Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO Inno in Guangzhou, running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions. Economist Heleen Mees, in New York, +Sam Xu and +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, ask him questions.

Action needed for elderly parents - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Earlier this month China's government took the extraordinary step of forcing children to visits their parents regularly by law. Author Zhang Lijia looks in The Guardian back on how filial relations in China have been changing dramatically over the past two decades. Action is needed, she writes.

+Lijia Zhang:

When I called my mother and asked for her take on this mental need of elderly people, she said: "Old people often feel lonely and empty in their empty nests and sometimes feel abandoned if they hear nothing from their children." She added that if her children can visit her when they can, call a couple of times every month and send her postcards when they travel – anything that makes her feel that they care – then her emotional needs are fulfilled. 

My parents live alone in my hometown Nanjing. I myself have long migrated to the capital. Every year, I make the 1000km journey home (actually only four hours by the speed train) about half a dozen times, dutifully and slightly grudgingly (given half a chance, mother would nag me to find a husband and a proper job). Luckily, my sister and brother live nearby and pop over frequently. 

In the next 10 to 15 years, people reaching old age will have fewer children as the family planning policy bears its fruit. The demographic trends will cause increasing constraints to the family-centreed old age support system. The government will have to invest vigorously to improve its poor social provisions for the elderly, building affordable retirement homes, expanding the rural pension programme and offering subsidised, if not free, medical care for the old. To combat China's grave task of caring for the grey population, a joint effort by the government, society, family and individuals is needed. Otherwise, millions of old people will face a bleak future of poverty and loneliness.

More in The Guardian.

 Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout Chinese have traditionally kept a close relationship with their hometown and their relatives, even when they moved away. But China's labor force is changing very fast, as the +China Weekly Hangout discussed on May 24, making visiting parents harder and harder. In this installment +Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO Inno in Guangzhou, who is running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions, discusses those changes. Economist +Heleen Mees, in New York, entrepreneur +Sam Xu and +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, ask him questions.

The +China Weekly Hangout will hold on Thursday 18 July an open office where you can drop in to discuss upcoming subjects, panelists and current affairs in China. Here is our announcement, or you can register for participation right away on our event page. 

The future of online education in China - Wei Gu

Wei Gu

Is e-learning a good way to deal with China's shortage of qualified teachers? One of the questions in the debate on the future of online education, moderated by WSJ's Wei Gu, with +Yat Siu, chief executive of Outblaze, and her WSJ colleague Jake Lee.

Wei Gu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

Education has a profound effect on the changes of China's labor force. That was one of the recent debates, on May 24, at the +China Weekly Hangout , where economist Heleen Mees from New York, entrepreneur +Sam Xu from Zhuhai and China Speakers Bureau's +Fons Tuinstra from Lausanne asked +Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO Inno in Guangzhou questions. Dee Lee is running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions.

 The +China Weekly Hangout will hold on Thursday 18 July an open office where you can drop in to discuss upcoming subjects, panelists and current affairs in China. Here is our announcement, or you can register for participation right away on our event page. 

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• Who were those two killed Chinese girls? - Wei Gu
• Elite summer schools, latest trend for rich Chinese - Wei Gu
• Chinese tourists: looking for bargains and outlets - Wei Gu
• Volatile trends in China's real estate - Wei Gu
• What are Chinese tourists buying? - Wei Gu

A relaxed urbanization in Yichang - Paul French

Paul French

Fast urbanization often leads to stressful lives, of people living on the edge. But it can be different, author Paul French discovered at he visited Yichang, Hubei province. A relaxed urbanization in a city of 6.5 million, described in the China Economic Review. 

Paul French:

Yichang appears to me to have a nice mix of green and industry as well as old and new. Perhaps it’s not a perfect case study or about to get into Monocle’s infamous list of the world’s “most liveable” cities just yet, but it seems to be getting something right. 

I pondered this question of livability with some Chinese bankers while in Yichang. One of them raised the interesting idea that a big problem in Chinese cities is a lack of relaxation-related facilities for most people. He bemoaned that while leisure giants like Disney were actively courted by Chinese cities, everyday leisure facilities providers – private sports centers, smaller scale attractions, etc – could never get funding from the banking system as it is presently structured. Consequently they either don’t happen, or they get built and are underfunded, disappointing and go broke pretty fast. 

Another Yichang contact believed that the problem lay more with people not being sure what to do with leisure time, outside of going on full-blown holidays. There simply aren’t enough outlets to let people develop hobbies. 

This does seem to be a problem. A friend who works for a major photography equipment brand tried to start up a camera club a while ago – to encourage people to take pictures, join communities of camera enthusiasts, take better pictures and buy more expensive kits. 

But trying to get such a club started proved impossible legally, and in the end he dropped the idea. China has legions of amateur photographers, desperate to enjoy their hobby and sometimes coming together online or in small informal groups, but rarely in organized clubs. 

All of these problems are going to become more acute. China’s aging population is a big theme now with China pontificators. In Yichang, the range of new providers of services for the old, from care homes to at-home help, was astonishing.

More in the China Economic Review.

Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

The upcoming cyber war is the subject of next week's +China Weekly Hangout . The revelations by Edward Snowden showed that the US is preparing a military shake-out, as both China, Russia and other countries are building up their cyber war capacities too. Joining us are former security consultant +Mathew Hoover and media en communication lecturer +Paul Fox of the Hong Kong University. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau. You can read our announcement here, or register right away for participation at our event page.

Last month the China Weekly Hangout discussed the fast changing labor force in China with +Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO Inno in Guangzhou, who is running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions. Heleen Mees, NYU professor in New York, +Sam Xu  and +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, ask him questions.  

Related articles

• How to pitch your China book to publishers - Paul French
• Volatile trends in China's real estate - Wei Gu
• Why spitting can be dealt with - Zhang Lijia
• Latest China bailout reveals risk of local govt's hidden debts
• Yichang Sanxia Airport to Add More Flights to Guangzhou, Shenzhen in Late June

Where Mary Meeker is wrong on China - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Cheers from VC Marc van der Chijs for Mary Meeker, who gave a lot of attention to China in her latest "The State of the Internet". She underestimates the size of China's internet companies by using under-reporting figures from Comscore, he writes on his weblog. 

+Marc van der Chijs:

Mary Meeker makes a mistake by saying that the top 8 of biggest Global Internet Properties are all US companies. The data they use (based on Comscore) suggest that #9 (Tencent) and #10 (Baidu) both have less than 300 million unique monthly visitors. This is far below their real user numbers, the Comscore figures for China are always way too low. It should have been clear from some of her other charts that her figures are too low, for example WeChat (a Tencent app that was launched 18 months ago) already has 400 million users. WeChat is just one of many of Tencent’s services. Later she mentions Sina Weibo with 530 million users, which did not even make it in the top 10. Not a big deal, but in my opinion Chinese companies should be ranked much higher in the Global Internet Properties list.

More on Marc van der Chijs' weblog.  

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

+China Weekly Hangout 

One of the reasons China's labor force is changing, is because people are better connected than ever. Workers can complain anonymous via chat rooms in QQ, explained +Dee Lee (Inno) of  Inno, a Guangzhou-based hotline, who joined the China Weekly Hangout last week.  Heleen Mees, NYU professor in New York, entrepreneur +Sam Xu and +Fons Tuinstra , of the China Speakers Bureau, ask him questions.

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What can you offer Chinese tourists? - China Weekly Hangout

English: Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA (Ref. 116660) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

'What do Chinese tourists want?' is the question we deal with at the +China Weekly Hangout coming Thursday 30 May. But we also want to turn around the question and ask participants from different countries what they can offer to Chinese tourists, apart from the standard feature of Chinese food, casino's and luxury good paradises.
So, I will ask participants on the China Weekly Hangout, what makes their country stand out from others, when it comes to service their Chinese visitors.
Roy Graff of China-Contact, one of our speakers on Chinese tourists, has promised to join from Singapore with the latest insights he is speaking about at the  travel distribution summit Asia.

Over the weekend - on the road to Milan - I had a stop at factory outlet Foxtown near Lugano in Southern Switzerland with a group of Shanghainese, and could first hand notice how fast also this market is changing. Foxtown is half an hour from Milan, offering 160 stores with luxury goods, largely clothes. Since I heard our speaker Wei Gu tell at WSJ that only three percent of the Chinese have a passport (and I checked, the figure is correct), I have started to look at those tourists with different eyes. This is not China's emerging middle class, these are China's rich, explaining why Chinese tourists spend much more per head on international trips, compared to tourists from other countries.
But it makes sense not to see those Chinese tourists as one group, but take a more differentiated approach. My Shanghainese friends in Lugano talked in a derogative about brands like Burberry and Rolex, who offered they luxury goods against heavy discounted prices. Those brands (and many others) developed into commodities. Which might still serve them well, if a lower margin means more value, but it is a slippery road.
Francis Gouten, a veteran in luxury goods, explained earlier this month again to WSJ's Wei Gu, that discounts should not be on the agenda of luxury goods. Perhaps he should have talked to my Shanghainese friends in Lugano: they want to have the exclusivity of a good brand, but haggling is in their genes. They would storm first into a shop to check the bargains. )But really special goods, like Eben watches, would do well too.)
It might explain why Chinese buy themselves silly on their international trips, but mostly travel in cheap travel groups, staying at discount hotels.

In short, enough to discuss coming Thursday.

You can still register here. Do note our slightly adjusted broadcasting times to facilitate Australia and New Zealand: 4pm Beijing time, 10am CEST and 10pm in Sydney.
If there is enough interest, we might host a second session for the US time zones.

Participants in the hangout will get an invite. Otherwise, you can leave questions and remarks here or at our event page until the event starts. During the event you are welcome to send your questions and remarks over twitter, Google+ (add hashtag #CWHCWH) or at our YouTube channel. You can watch the hangout here or at our event page.

Last week the China Weekly Hangout discussed the changing labor force, with +Dee Lee (Inno), running a workers' hotline, NYU-professor +Heleen Mees and China entrepreneur +Sam Xu . Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the +China Speakers Bureau.

Related articles

• How to deal with a slow down in the luxury industry - Wei Gu
• What are Chinese tourists buying? - Wei Gu
• New: second homes for Chinese - Wei Gu
• Why Macau needs a rebrand - Ben Cavender
• Chinese rich invest more conservative - Wei Gu
• How to pitch your China book to a publisher - Paul French

Hershey joins chocolate war in China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

US chocolate maker Hershey currently has two percent of the China market, and is small compared to bigger players like Mars and Nestle. Business analyst Shaun Rein explains at the Wall Street Journal the China premium chocolate market is growing 20% per year,  but domestic competition is making life tough. But Hershey wants a market share of 27% by 2017.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

+China Weekly Hangout
 Many foreign firms in China fail, and the China Weekly Hangout discussed some prominent failures in January with +Richard Brubaker of Collective Responsibility and +Andrew Hupert, expert on conflict management in China. Moderation: +Fons Tuinstra of the +China Speakers Bureau. Including references to Apple, Mediamarkt, Foxconn and many others.  A full overview of all our hangouts, you can have here.

Coming Thursday the China Weekly Hangout will discuss the changes in China's labor force, especially the blue collar workers with +Dee Lee (Inno), running since 2007 a workers' hotline at Inno in Guangzhou. Expected is also economist Heleen Mees from New York. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau. Our first announcement is here,and you can register for the hangout here.

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• Doubling Apple stores is just not enough - Shaun Rein
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• How personal is a PC in China? - Tricia Wang
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• What is China doing right? - Jeremy Goldkorn

How personal is a PC in China? - Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang

Personal space is scarce in China, reason why many Chinese see their PC and mobile devices as their most personal space, writes sociologist Tricia Wang in 88-bar.com. While other academics argue the PC is a shared object, Tricia Wang points at the many advertisements  selling PC's as a personal object.

Tricia Wang:

 I’ve seen people more attached to their computers and mobile phones because that is the ONLY space that they can claim is entirely theirs. Apartments are small, space is crowded, sometimes rooms have to be shared, in-laws come over any time – everyone is nosy – but the digital tool is their object. 

Even migrants who buys a PC are very attached to it and have strict rules around sharing it because it is considered a personal space. Take a walk in any electronics mall or on Taobao and you’ll see ads that sell computers as a personal object. It just isn’t true that a computer won’t sell if isn’t advertised as a shared object.

Advertisement selling PC's

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.  

China Weekly Hangout

Once a week the China Weekly Hangout discusses current affairs in China with international participants on different continents. Moderator Fons Tuinstra, also president of the China Speakers Bureau, explains the idea in a new introduction. An overview of earlier hangouts, you can find here. 

Coming Thursday the China Weekly Hangout will discuss the changes in China's labor force, especially the blue collar workers with +Dee Lee (Inno), running since 2007 a workers' hotline at Inno in Guangzhou. Expected is also economist Heleen Mees from New York. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau. Our first announcement is here,and you can register for the hangout here.

Related articles

• Debate on contemporary identity of the Chinese - Tricia Wang
• Why WeChat works better in China - Tricia Wang
• Why spitting can be dealt with - Zhang Lijia
• The marginalization of labor - Heleen Mees
• What is China doing right? - Jeremy Goldkorn