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The holidays are a good time to share meals with friends and to find out what's going on in the world from people who are engaged with it.
A Chinese friend represents a good story of the exciting possibilities of international trade. He works for a U.S. high tech medical equipment company with sales operations in China. Last year, sales increased over 20 percent, five times more than sales for the entire rest of the world. And this was a down year. In 2014, China sales increased more than 60 percent--the kind of growth that sets hearts beating at a rate that may require some of the equipment the company sells.
This company is betting on China's future. So much so that it has acquired minority shares in several Chinese medical device firms, which are significantly lower tech. It was a surprise that the U.S. company didn't need a Chinese joint venture partner and that it could buy a chunk of Chinese-owned companies.
This is in contrast to press reports in the U.S. about foreign companies giving up on China because of slowing growth and increasing rules that make it more difficult than usual to operate there. One's prospects obviously depend on the industry you're in, tolerance for Chinese bureaucracy, and the amount of local and other foreign competition.
One policy change affecting everybody is the crackdown on official corruption. The Chinese appetite for bribery has been a boon for certain kinds of business. For example, entire restaurant empires have grown up near government office complexes. The reason: businesses need places to wine and dine government officials located conveniently near the places where business rules and government procurements are made.
But the boon has become a bane, and many of these swanky restaurants, honeycombed with private rooms for entertaining, have closed. Sales of expensive French wine and other luxury goods, especially expensive handbags and perfumes, have plummeted.
Kiss the junkets good-bye
Privately funded junkets, which could last a month or more for the pampered government officials, have been drastically cut back. Agents, presumably members of the anti corruption police, are quick to photograph government cars parked outside entertainment establishments, prior to an unwelcome visit to the driver of the car.
Arrests and harassment have had a chilling effect on gift-giving, with the private sector wondering how to influence a decision making process that has been notoriously opaque. The crackdown should be welcomed, if it is evenly implemented for Chinese and foreign firms. So far that seems to be the case, but some things change rapidly in China, others hardly at all. The anti corruption campaign seems to be working because while businesses know that the magnitude of corruption is beyond this or any government's ability to control, no one wants to be the exception that's caught.
My friend is fascinated by all that he sees, and gets great satisfaction selling devices that save lives, while adding to his company's bottom line. In return, he has chosen a life that requires him to live in China, apart from his family, traveling across the Pacific as many times as he can. His personal fortunes have improved as evidenced by his very large brand new house in the U.S., and the two car garage that protects two luxury cars, one of which is a Tesla.
For a person who spent his childhood in rural China, and whose parents were purged during the Cultural Revolution, today's world is one full of opportunity for the intercultural entrepreneur.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| CRV56XH/3AS NTN | 34.925 | 88.9 | 52.3 |
| CRV52XH/3AS NTN | 31.75 | 82.55 | 46 |