The View | Chinese companies can survive in the US, even if the odds seem stacked against them. Just look to Japan
- Amiad Kushner and Andrew Frank say Chinese companies planning to go to the US need to anticipate public perceptions and media narratives around their actions. They could study Japan Inc, which has undertaken a successful image makeover
But this does not mean Chinese companies can no longer do business in the US.
In the 1980s, anti-Japanese sentiment spread through the US, where workers resented losing jobs to Japanese auto manufacturers. In response, Japanese companies opened plants in American cities and hired American workers. They partnered with American companies and shared manufacturing techniques, and they invested in local communities through grants and charitable donations.
Indeed, improving American communities is a tradition that Japanese companies continue today through a range of conservation, education and safety programmes. More than half of America’s top 20 bestselling cars are now Japanese, illustrating the success of this integrated business and public relations approach. Chinese companies can similarly prepare for a new legal and political paradigm in the US, even as agencies throughout the US government tweak their approaches to China.
