Comments on: How China is Shaping North Carolina’s Future: A Shotgun Romance

By: China Healthcare Blog | How China is Shaping North Carolina’s Future, Part II: Learning From Our Neighbors

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:44:08 +0000

[...] How China is Shaping North Carolina’s Future, Part II: Learning From Our Neighbors By Damjan Denoble ⋅ November 19, 2009 ⋅ Email This Post ⋅ Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment Filed Under academic institutions, business culture, business interests, business players, carolinians, China and North Carolin, China and North Carolina, china business, chinese businesses, chinese goods, chinese immigrants, Chinese North Carolina, chinese partners, cream of the crop, doing business with china, inevitability, nccba, new territory, North Carolina China, North Carolina China Business Association, political machinations, profit models, social networking organization, technocrats, tenney Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Seventeen years ago, my parents and I came to North Carolina as immigrants. Then, like now, North Carolina’s reality was on the verge of a big change. The NAFTA accords would be signed in 1994, and by the end of the millennium tens of thousands of jobs and entire industries would be wiped off the table. But, the state has kept going. It has kept changing. And, today is no exception. The following is part two of a two part series that presents my take on how China has changed, is changing, and will change North Carolina in the days to come. Part I, A Shotgun Romance, can be found here. [...]

By: Damjan

Damjan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:35:30 +0000

My common sense instincts have me agreeing with Stuart…just ask the IBM staffers losing their jobs…

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:29:47 +0000

"Will Lenovo continue to hire local talent or will more Chinese be sponsored and recruited as we've seen in other countries?"

Aimee – I'm prepared to state for the record that It's only a question of time before Lenovo begin importing their own workers from China. And they won't all be on American soil with benign intentions.

Great article, btw.

By: How China is Shaping North Carolina’s Future: Learning From Our Neighbors «Asia Healthcare Blog

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:45:19 +0000

[...] my take on how China has changed, is changing, and will change North Carolina in the days to come. Part I, A Shotgun Romance, can be found [...]

By: Will

Will — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:51:56 +0000

Great post Damjan. During my summer internship at the NC China Center, I was amazed to see the complicated feelings that NC business leaders had towards Chinese business interests in NC (ranging from aloof to inspired), and also a general sense of optimism from Government representatives about the partnership between RTP and areas like Jiangsu, who both command huge respect in the Global Biotech industry. I am also interested to see how the NC China Center's involvement in areas like the Suzhou Development Zone and some branch offices they've opened up else where (Beijing) turn out to directly affect North Carolinian's interested in working for NC interests in China instead of only for Chinese interests in NC. (Hint hint)

By: Damjan_D

Damjan_D — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:35:36 +0000

@Amee
Regarding political risk:

There are, of course, possible sales ramifications if US based consumers learn of Lenovo's mismanagement of American workers. But, if it is the case that Lenovo's business strategy is China based, then its understanding of consumers could be as well. A less than thorough understanding of American consumers would make it quite possible that the company is not even thinking about the possible sales ramifications of a North Carolina move.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:07:17 +0000

You should get paid for this post.

One question that jumped out at me in terms of job creation via Lenovo is, "how long will it last?" Will Lenovo continue to hire local talent or will more Chinese be sponsored and recruited as we've seen in other countries? That might be something worth looking into/forecasting based on current Chinese management and investment strategies in the US and lessons from history (I don't have any answers on this one yet either- could go either way).
As the majority of my family now lives in N.C., I am pretty familiar with the state; there is a certain amount of racism (let's just say it) and protectionism over industry that we don't necessarily see in the East or West Coast. Coupled with that, preservation of the land is key to N.C.'s success as a popular retirement and tourist destination- how will encouragement of Chinese investment affect that? The track record on environmental preservation isn't so good thus far.

Does China really have no political risk with using American taxpayer dollars?

Looking very forward to part 2 of this series. Excellent read.

By: Hao Hao Report

Hao Hao Report — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:34:23 +0000

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