Glad to see this up here. There's a ton of carefully crafted, targeted pro-China propaganda directed at the United States. Great effort should be exerted to identify this propaganda and remind ourselves and everyone else that China is: a repressive regime in which citizens lack basic freedoms that people in the free world take for granted on a daily basis.

I suspect your post and the GP are kneejerk reactions to the headline. It really isn't relevant, and is likely only upvoted because of popular anti-China sentiments. I don't disagree with your points but would rather not see any article mentioning China devolve into this kind of ranting.

Hey I didn't mean to rant. But yes you called it right, I couldn't read beyond the snippet since I am not a WJS subscriber. I will refrain in the future.

You have made some tangentially valid points, but those comments have nothing to do with entrepreneurship in China, which is the context of the article. The title is in response to criticisms that US companies find it hard to setup shop in CHina. Jack claims that Chinese companies find it hard to be successful in the US market too. Anyway, I'm hoping you'll read the article :)

Also, just a suggestion, but if you're a US citizen, don't be so quick to point fingers at other countries. If you want to divorce yourself from the actions of your government, you personally can claim to be on some sort of moral high ground, but when generalizing the morality of countries' domestic/foreign policy, nobody is a winner here.

Except that it exceptionally difficult to start a company in China for foreign firms; and that difficulty - spanning decades - has provided China advantages it used for purposes well beyond leaving developing nation status. If you thought American hegemony was bad, stay tuned.

Yeah, it probably is very hard to start a company in China. I think his point is 'complaining won't get you anywhere'. Either you can ignore China, or simply deal with the reality of the current situation and figure out a solution.

>has provided China advantages it used for purposes well beyond leaving developing nation status.

Sounds like -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_industry_argument

> If you thought American hegemony was bad, stay tuned.

Sorry man, we don't suffer from stockholm syndrome. It's still time to change America but the current one isn't hegemonic anymore.

I've gone through the process of starting a WFOE and I'm currently in the process of setting up a JV with a local partner in China. Yes, it takes longer than starting a company in Canada: about 6 months in China vs. about 2 business days in Canada. I would describe the process as more "tedious" than "difficult". But what is important is that it's not much more difficult than for a local to start a business in China. Any difficulties are due to China's large and annoying bureaucracy than anything nefarious. If you're doing business in China you will have to deal with bureaucracy. It's annoying and it sucks, but it also hits everyone, local and foreign, more or less equally these days (that wasn't so much the case 10 years ago).

Many of my points are directly related, and the others colour in how China treats capitalism: As a tool to use when it is in their interests, not as a level playing field. Entrepreneurs in China get somewhere if they're Chinese.

If your goal is to get China to change, join the politicking line, and wave your banner as hard as you can. If your goal is to start a business, then you simply have to deal with the current reality, and figure out a way. The article is for the latter group. There are US companies all over the globe, in varying kinds of markets, and political climates, and China is no different.

The guy says in his comment he is Canadian so no anti-US moral high ground argument here.

> The China that tries to have trade both ways by forcing Hollywood to portray China positively just to get 50% of what they should at the Chinese box office?

What's this one about?

Super layman's take:

- China has a "ministry of culture" which decides what foreign media can enter the domestic market, especially to play on the big screen

- Chinese domestic films enjoy what effectively is media protectionism

- Hollywood obviously wants a piece of that giant market

- What movies get approved/denied and for what reasons can get very arbitrary. So it comes down to a matter of trying to win favors of people deciding the approval process.

- Often this means shooting big scenes in locations in China, or portraying China in a positive light, or starring Chinese characters, etc. This effectively translates to "you can help us look good globally and we allow you to make money in our market".

I have no idea where the "get 50% what they should" came from, and I'm too lazy to look. But dealing with the Chinese government regulations is really just a quagmire of conflicts of interest.

*Edit: formatting

The Chinese government controls access to their lucrative movie market. There is no freedom of speech; people who displease them are punished with loss of access.

Hollywood complies by making films that please the Chinese government censors. A quick search will find a NY Times article about the head of Disney going to China to apologize about a film about Tibet, and promising that such a thing would never happen again. IIRC, there are stories that Hollywood gives Chinese government censors prior review of films before they are finalized, and edits them as instructed/requested.

When was the last time you saw a film critical of China? Showing China doing something bad? Complementary of the Dalai Lama?

For example, the remake of Red Dawn a few years ago was supposed to feature China invading the US. They changed in to North Korea under pressure.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2237717/Red-Dawn-rem...

Chinese soft power. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-23/china-quest-for-soft-p...

This kind of thing:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/did-you-catch-t...

that probably refers to the large amount of capital from China instilled into Hollywood over recent years.

You forgot vast environmental rape and slave “wages”

I think you're falling into the common western trap of misunderstanding Chinese culture by projecting our cultural proclivities onto their civilization.

The Chinese educated and wealthy, for the most part, already believe they have the truth. (I'm not faulting them, in the west our wealthy and educated believe we have the truth as well. That's just how things work.)

And they don't come too much more wealthy or educated than Jack Ma.

For the wealth, you're right, but Jack Ma's education is not that impressive, he struggled in college and he has a bachelor in English.

So you can find a lot of people more educated than he is.

> I think you're falling into the common western trap of misunderstanding Chinese culture by projecting our cultural proclivities onto their civilization.

This claim is becoming cliche and wasn't a strong argument to begin with. It's an easy escape, claiming that it's a subjective thing that others can't understand and shouldn't dare criticize, out of respect. It's also a way of diverting discussion with a counter-attack.

In this case, I'm not even sure what it refers to. What parts of the GP are "Chinese culture" and what in the GP, specifically, is a 'projection' of "cultural proclivities".

Culture isn't a fixed thing; it evolves and changes all the time. Otherwise, we could say that communism, capitalism and international trade are certainly not part of Chinese culture (they are imports from the West after the end of 2,000 years of imperial China in 1911); or that democracy and freedom are (Taiwan and Hong Kong).

> The China that's building artificial islands to get access to the South China Sea / East Sea?

This claim would make more sense if first a marketing campaign removed "China" from the name of these seas from history.

edit: some people are complaining that only the name is not enough for a country to build infraestructure around it. What is it different than for example US fourth fleet stationed close to Brazil and Argentine or any other american fleets? This fleet is enough to wage war against any or even all latin america countries.

In face of current developments, I fully support China construction in that vital area for their economy. My country should answer the same way if you ask me.

I'm sorry, are you saying that India should control the whole Indian ocean and the West Indies for good measure? Maybe some reservations in Arizona as well?

The following are all potentially valid names for that body of water.

South China Sea, West Philippine Sea, North Natuna Sea. There are more if you start to go outside of English such as "East sea" in Vietnamese.

Proposals for new names include Indochina Sea and Asean Sea. South Sea might be viable.

It'd be nice to see the name settle as "The sea that can not be named".

You know, people would get upset if California started building artificial islands to claim the Gulf of California, despite the name.