The Chinese Training Junket: How Dumb Can You Be?
March 8th, 2008 | by This is China! |The Financial Times published an article a couple days ago about the United States government getting tough on “training junkets” American corporations sponsor for Chinese government officials and business managers.
“The transgressions have allegedly come in two forms. In one, trips have been offered to government officials to curry favour, as in the Lucent case (see below). In the other, the trips have been for employees of client companies, as an inducement to get more business but as part of a contractual agreement in which training and travel costs are included – giving such trips an element of legitimacy. Furthermore, the host company is sometimes instrumental in helping Chinese employees to defraud their own company, since the Chinese companies pick up the bill for the training.”
It seems the War on Terrorism has been an ally of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA):
“Meanwhile, says Mr Clayton, American executives should also assume that their activities are now under closer monitoring from US authorities. Last year, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation created a four-person team dedicated specifically to FCPA cases.”
Surprisingly, companies, though put on notice years ago, and willfully knowing what they are doing is blatantly illegal, not to mention unethical, find inventive ways to court Chinese business interests:
“…Mr Norton says he knows of one case at another company where Chinese trainees asked their US host on arrival to reimburse them almost all the training money paid up-front by their company, since they had no intention of spending their time in America improving their skills. “There was probably two hours of legitimate business over a two-week-long trip to places such as LA and Las Vegas,’’ he says. “And the trip certainly involved many more people than would have been necessary.”
And then there was one of America’s brightest companies:
“Lucent also gave some Chinese officials a daily cash allowance of $500 to $1,000, even though it had paid all lodging, transport, food and entertainment expenses.”
Clearly I’m in the wrong business. Any Chinese government officials in need of a baggage handler for foreign junkets? Speaks excellent English… 
