‘No Ski Shoes, Chocolate or Hairsprays’: The (Mis)Adventures of European Companies in China, 1978–88

TL;DR

This paper explores why European companies struggled to succeed in China during the late 1970s and 1980s despite the country's economic opening.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed analysis of Swiss companies' experiences in China, highlighting factors behind their failures.

Findings

European companies often failed due to cultural ignorance and lack of understanding of China's economic system.

Chinese industrial espionage and political control hindered European business efforts.

European governments and organizations had limited success in supporting companies in China.

Abstract

This article discusses the experiences of Western European companies during China's opening to Western trade and investment in the late 1970s and 1980s. While much has been written about the Chinese policies that led to the introduction of capitalist measures in China, the experiences of European companies have not been covered in detail so far. Using records from several Swiss company archives as well as additional Chinese and Swiss archives and oral history interviews with business representatives and diplomats who were in China during this period, the article analyzes the Swiss experiences in China to discuss how and why European companies tried – and often failed – to take advantage of China's opening, and how European governments and business organizations tried to assist companies in China. It shows how cultural ignorance, international competition, bilateral political and economic relations, the Chinese Communist Party's control over the economy, Chinese industrial espionage and China's lack of knowledge of capitalist terminology and processes affected European attempts to set up shop in China.

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