Communication is always the starting point and WeChat plays an essential role. If you do not have WeChat on your phone, it is almost pointless to go to China for business. You can get by without it if you are doing business with China from your home country. Still, even so, you miss so many opportunities to develop and deepen the business relationship.
In recent weeks, I have been working with some South African clients who are interested in the Chinese market, either as exporters or as domestic business partners. It has been a useful reminder of how China is mythologised: “It is a vast single market”; misunderstood: “Everything is state-controlled”; and misinformed: “Doing business in China is much the same as doing business in the West”.
This lack of knowledge is not unique. It distorts and hinders many business engagements with China, so it is difficult to know where to start to get people up to speed on the basics of engaging with China.
