Welcome to Dr. Siegel's International Business Web Site
GBU 201-001 International Business
Copyright ©2005 C.Siegel
MKT309 • MKT401 • GBU201

China Notes

Please read the following questions before you view the film China: Emerging Power. The questions are designed to help you focus on key points made in the film. Do NOT turn in the answers to these questions. However, you may see them (or questions like them) on the next quiz and exam. Note: The links are designed to help answer the questions and add some background information. Take this link for the questions in a Word doc.

01. Identify some of the contradictions that mark modern China. Select any two contradictions and explain why they may/may not impede international firms trying to do business in China.
02. Explain how it can be that China is both Communist and free market. Please read this excellent BBC article. It places the Chinese economic miracle in perspective.
03. Who were the Red Guards and what did they do?
04. What was the Cultural Revolution? What effect did it have on the country and its people?
05. Who were the Old Three Classes? What is their role in China today?
06. Why are Chinese cities a good match for door-to-door selling of consumer products like the ones being promoted from this site? Are you surprised by the faces shown with the products? Why/why not?
07. Is gambling popular in China? How does this affect the individual savings rate?
08. What does it mean to cross the river by stones?
09. What is a(n) SOE - State Owned Enterprise - in China?
10. Why is it important for China's business future that it divest (privatize) SOEs and encourage private business? Why is China's economic change called an ideological shift?
11. What does it mean to jump into the sea?
12. Approximately what percent of China's population lives in the countryside? Visit the CIA World Factbook section on China. What is China's (estimated) 2004 population? What is its GDP composition per sector (agriculture/industry and construction/services)? What is the distribution of its labor force by occupation (agriculture/industry/services)?
13. What are some of the costs of China's modernization?
14. How large is China's floating population of laborers? What are stick soldiers (also called porters, stick-stick soldiers, or Bang-Bang Jun)? How much do they earn in a typical day?
15. What effect is technology having on the government's control over the people?
16. What happened at Tianamen Square in June 1989?

Note: Dr. Siegel is not responsible for the content of external sites.