This is China! BLOG

Can’t Bullshit a Bullshitter in China

I met a friend, George (not his real name), recently in a local bar here in Suzhou, just after work. He looked like he had had a long day, his face drawn, pinched, his shoulders slumped. He slouched into the chair beside mine. “Actually,” he said, “it’s been a long two days.”

Less than a year before his company had hired a Chinese sourcing engineer to be part of a team that manages the contracts and quality of parts that local Chinese companies manufacture. Lex (not his real name) seemed an affable guy and seemed to be doing a good job keeping manufacturing costs down and seeing that quality did not become an issue with Chinese suppliers.

Early in the week Lex came to George and showed him a text message Lex had received on his mobile phone. The message was from the boss of one of the Chinese suppliers. The message was intended for someone else, but the Boss had inadvertently sent it to Lex. The message damned Lex; the Boss said Lex was interfering with the Boss’s business and that the Boss wanted to know more about Lex: his work history, family life and more.

George called the Boss to George’s office the next day. He told the Boss directly that what the Boss had done was inappropriate; it was clear the Boss wanted to blackmail Lex. The Boss paled, according to George, but countered that Lex was actually running a business on the side and using the Boss’s company as a front for invoicing. Lex’s business interests were interfering with the Boss’s own business. George decided not to believe the Boss, and pushed for a written apology to George’s company.

The email that came to George, as George put it, was the sort that read, “Sorry … but…”. The Boss half-apologized for slandering Lex; he also added in the email that Lex had worked for a company that wasn’t on Lex’s resume and had been fired from the position. George checked Lex’s resume; the company was not on the cv. George called Lex into his office, asked Lex if he had ever worked at the company the Boss had named. Lex admitted that he had, and that he had been a Vice Director of Logistics. Lex was less clear about why he had been asked to leave.

George told Lex that in most Western countries he could be fired there on the spot for lying on his resume. But Lex had been doing a good job, and seemed a nice enough fellow, George figured; Lex had even confessed to falsifying his resume. He let Lex off with a warning.

Still, George, when I saw him at the pub, was unsettled. I said, “Many Chinese people have told me that when they are growing up their elders tell them that if they are honest they are stupid; people will take advantage of them. Add to that the fact that very few Chinese actually have more than a couple years real work experience – especially in Western companies – and you’re going to see manufactured work histories.”

The insight didn’t seem to cheer George, who simply nodded. I added, “One of the disturbing things about living and working in China is that it becomes difficult after a while to believe what Chinese are telling you; the cognitive dissonances add up and color your impression of all Chinese people, which is too bad. But at base it’s a human nature issue; the impressions reach down to the core of what you think about ALL people. So when you return to your home country to live and work, you’ll not be looking at your countrymen with the same level of trust and belief you had before you came to China. You’ll look at them a lot harder. You’ll trust them a lot less.”

We both nodded in silence, ordered another round of beers, and tried to let the laughter and smoke and conversation around us smudge out our disappointment.

Bill Dodson
SUZHOU, China