Your Questions About Doing Business Online China

Jere answers:

MNC managers need to learn how to do business successfully in China without compromising their own codes of ethical conduct and social responsibility. Yahoo was recently in the news because it controversially revealed the identity of a Chinese Yahoo user to the Chinese government, and that user was subsequently arrested and jailed for expressing views online that the government didn’t like. Yahoo’s CEO (who is of Taiwanese decent) was in the hot seat at a congressional hearing taking heat from US congressmen and the family of the jailed “dissident”. He apologized, but the guy is still in the gulag.

Google, which is supposed to “do no evil” is also struggling with the censorship issue in China. It is easy for these companies to argue that they have to “play by China’s rules” when they cooperate with the Chinese government in ways that would be completely illegal and cause a media frenzy here in the US. There are no such things, by US standards, as privacy rights and free speech in China, so internet companies are bound to struggle with these issues as they try to make money in China.

But even business and industry in the broad sense is clearly profiting from China’s lower standards, especially where the environment is concerned. Most environmentally destructive manufacturing has moved to China. Despite the howling from US politicians, nobody really wants that manufacturing to come back and poison OUR environment, and corporations wouldn’t be competitive if they had to build in the costs of environmentally-friendly manufacturing into their products.

MNC managers alone cannot change China’s “unethical practices”. There has to be a combination of factors, from governmental pressure to the work of NGOs to MNC activity, but ultimately the most important factor will be the Chinese people themselves. As their standards of living rise and their basic necessities are provided for, they will begin to demand things like a cleaner environment and better labor rights and protections. These will cause the cost of China-made goods to rise even more, and manufacturing will move to the next cheap labor, low environmental/ethical standard nation (Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Sudan, North Korea – there are plenty of options for the future).

MNCs will hopefully be able to take their lessons learned in China with them when they make the inevitable move.

Jere answers:

Of course Guangzhou is best for clothing ,Shenzhen ,Guangzhou are all good for electrical ,i have ever done business online and have bought clothing in guangzhou,and also know where to buy best and cheapest clothing .these days online shopping is very popular in china,there are many people from all over the country to buy clothing in guangzhou,then selling them online.Shenzhen is adjacent to Guangzhou ,and they are all located in south china, if you have any problems you can contact me through email, and i will spare no effort to help you ,my email address is shaojinm@yahoo.com.cn.

Jere answers:

You can buy them online, china have so many such stores , i know one online shop
http://www.nike2nike.com/Brand-Shoes-c-1624.html

Jere answers:

It’s actually quite pointless to bother with blogs – mostly because any url with the word ‘blog’ in it is blocked by the chinese firewall.

You need to also consider how you will be selling the product and in what currency. Chinese typically do not ever use credit cards. Online purchases are done through online banking.

In terms of currency, a product offered at a price considered cheap in american dollars will likely be out of the range of most in China, who in general only make about 400-500 USD a month at a good job.

Depending on what you are selling, and the impact you want to make here, Be sure also to research the business stylings of the chinese. As a rule, the best way to get ahead is to build a better portfolio of people you know. THe chinese strive for harmony in all dealings and will prefer to do business with a person/company that brings something to the table in social relations. If your company is out to make money to benefit itself only you might have a hard time breaking into the market here, where a family owned business that knows everyone who is anyone would beat you out.

Consider starting out on www.taobao.com the chinese ebay, but be warned, you will likely need to pad your feedback for anyone to even remotely take you seriously. I’ve seen many coworkers immediately dismiss anyone without a 100% positive feedback and thousands of customers to back up the numbers.

Jere answers:

The link to the Australian Customs website below lists your obligations when importing goods over the internet. Scroll down to the section “Imported goods with a value over $1000”.

To comply with Australian Taxation Department requirements, you should register for an ABN number – see the second link below.

Good luck with your new business venture.