Chinese are business steroids!
Credit to Author: NEW WORLDS| Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2019 18:18:06 +0000
Manage them, benefit with them
First of two parts
The recent influx of a large number of new Chinese have raised again an age old question in the Philippines: how to deal with them? This has been asked by the Spaniards, the Americans and again today by many, including by our legislators, economists, including Solita Monsod and Sionil Jose.
What does the record show? How can we benefit while controlling the downside?
Business, not conquest.
History has shown that the primary interest of the Chinese culture has been to trade and do business, rather than conquest, (for those citing otherwise, please refer to our article of https://www.manilatimes.net/china-invasions-wrong-readings-of-history/). Nations and communities dealing with China through the centuries have grown far wealthier than those that did not. Along Southeast and East Asia, we see the correlation of greater growth rates in countries that had more interchange with the Chinese. In the Philippines, Sulu, whose Sultans visited China (1400s), was the wealthiest kingdom in the Philippines along with Butuan; and after them came the coastal communities where the Chinese visited, left goods on credit, and came back in boats to collect barter items months later.
A correlation is clear, as well, of economic development being greater along the Silk Road, where the Persian, Ottoman, and other empires or cities like Venice grew rich from dealing with China: leading to even Marco Polo, and later, the eight Western powers, seeking trading rights.
Spanish records show that the advancements in Philippine crafts of the time like carpentry, shipbuilding, statuary, bells, equipments, baked goods were introduced and supplied mostly by the Chinese, many of whom later intermarried and became Filipino. The Chinese also sourced the goods and financing for Spain’s vastly lucrative galleon trade — then the envy of the British.
Bishop Salazar, as cited by Ambeth Ocampo, described the Chinese in 1590: a “very industrious, and a most ingenious people…,” quickly building communities from marshlands. Several episodes of deportation of Chinese in the Spanish occupation period led to the Chinese being invited to come back again when goods and services were needed. This also happened in modern times in Indonesia after the 1998 riots and after the Vietnam protests a few years ago. In both cases, the governments found that the citizens of Chinese descent were vital to the running of the economy and, thus, were courted back. Today, they are the largest investors in these countries.
Americans and Europeans imported the hardworking Chinese to work at difficult jobs, in place of slaves, on their transcontinental railroad and in Africa, where thousands of Chinese died. After the rail was completed, the rest were deported and excluded from social and migration rights (including intermarriage!), for the unusual reason of their being too industrious for too little pay, which threatened American workers, and they were called the “Yellow Peril.” After the Chinese Exclusion Act was lifted, they came to be known in the US as the “model minority” because among the migrants, they posed the most economic contributions and gave the least trouble. Today, though, some questions are being raised for geopolitical reasons we all know about.
What makes their economic value so high, to have Chinese in an area?
Some of the characteristics of a Chinese entrepreneur are:
Enterprise services will be run at all hours as needed. You can reach them for a delivery problem at midnight or on New Year. You won’t hear them say “It’s family day” or
“I’m on vacation” when you have an urgent need, they will just work on it. This is a major advantage especially in a globalized economy, being able to respond to an equipment or logistic concerns before they cause stoppages or delays.
Honor and credit information system. Any broker, supplier or customer can tell you that once trusted by a reputable Chinese, the transactions come easily, repeatedly, and often. This allows an exponential growth in the volume of any business once a good relationship is established. Like any other group, there are those not to be trusted, but the reputations for reliability or ability can be accurately checked informally.
Problems are solved for you, not compartmentalized. Dealing with a Chinese supplier, he will give you a wider menu of services than normal — including giving you technical support, customer introductions, financial credit, etc.
International ecosystem of suppliers and services come together with them in clusters, not in isolation. These supply relationships have been built over decades of prosperity and difficulty, so decisions are quick. Consequently, the benefit to local communities are higher than that of isolated investments by factories or retail.
Exponential growth in an area. An area where the Chinese settle in, once there is critical mass, will grow beyond speeds of other normal developments. Real estate developments have seen this in specific communities and buildings. We have seen this in the Mall of Asia area, in Greenhills, in industrial areas in Bulacan or Caloocan. An area can be less beautiful or less developed, but in the case of Chinese, their entry brings development, rather than that a development has to happen first before people enter.
Simultaneously, the Chinese represent the supplier, buyer, market. That makes marketing and transactions very compact and efficient wherever they reside or conduct business.
What should be pointed out more often is that the Chinese become part of the community as they tend to adopt a new home, not in 5 years, but by the time their children grow up there. Unlike the Western or other multinationals where dividends are repatriated, Henry Sy of SM, George Ty, the Cojuangcos, the Ongpins, the family of Jose Rizal, and many others stay and become Filipinos — their fortunes are no longer counted as “investments” from China.
Solita Monsod complained that the Chinese and even Chinoys do not allow intermarriage. We don’t know if the statistical bases and method for arriving at such a conclusion are acceptable for other social or economic conclusions, but empirical data does not confirm this as a whole, apart from it being a poor basis for national decision making. While it is true that some Chinese families did not favor intermarriage, just as many Spanish and Filipino families looked down on and often ridiculed even Chinoys until just two generations ago, we note the many Chinese mestizos, prominent and otherwise, in our history and midst. Perhaps it’s just the type of issue that solves itself over time.
It is estimated that more than 70 percent of Filipinos today have some Chinese blood, including President Duterte, and former presidents Corazon Aquino and Sergio Osmeña. Today the business empires of Unilab, RCBC, Century Canning, various famous food, car, chemical empires, etc… including my own family, are intermarried with Filipinos.
What are the negatives often raised and how can we use them to our benefit? Read next week!
George Siy is a Wharton-educated industrialist, international trade practitioner and negotiator, serving as director of IDSI. He has been invited as a resource person on economic and development issues by various business organizations, media and the academe. He has advised the Philippines and various organizations in trade negotiations with Asean, Japan and the United States.
New Worlds by IDSI (Integrated Development Studies Institute) aims to present frameworks based on a balance of economic theory, historical realities, ground success in real business and communities and attempt for common good, culture and spirituality. We welcome logical feedback and possibly working together with compatible frameworks (idsicenter@gmail.com).