Alex Mackinnon has extensive organizational experience 'East of Suez' – in the Middle East, India and Pakistan, in Japan, in Taiwan, Hongkong and China, in Malaysia, in New Zealand and Australia. He has written on the 1997 Asian crisis for The Scotsman, on Chinese strategy in Management Decision and regularly lectures at Jiaotong University in Shanghai. His management research on Chinese global expansion was awarded a PhD in 2005. His consultancy activities focus on China and its overseas adaptation, linking actual business practice with strategic thinking.

Barnaby Powell is a Chinese son-in-law and veteran of development banking in East and South-East Asia (with Singer & Friedlander and Private Investment Company for Asia.) He has also served as Secretary-General of the European Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, as initial Director of the Asia-Invest Programme for the European Commission and as a business consultant in East-West cultural intermediation.

China has broadcast its message. Calling on Africa, Australia and South America for resources, on the West for support, and on the world for understanding, its role in the global hierarchy is established yet pivotal. But that communist blink in the Imperial eye should not deceive you. China has a well shod foot in the global door of capitalism.

Western politicians, financiers and consumers have allowed opportunistic strategies to dominate global trade for the ultimate benefit of China. Yet the driving forces behind China’s border and expansionary controls are often misunderstood and not fully appreciated.

Mackinnon and Powell show how China is adapting its traditional values and practices to target strategic investments worldwide. Understanding China’s very different approaches to problem solving permits an effective engagement with modern China as it seeks competitive advantage globally. The authors contend that both China and the West must acknowledge reciprocal and mutually beneficial obligations – if confrontation is to be averted.