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Chapter 2

The New China

History has shown that cultures generally change slowly, except when life-altering new technology is introduced. Such technology can cause cultures, no matter how hidebound, to change virtually overnight. This is now the case in China, a culture rapidly transforming in response to a wholesale introduction of new technology that is changing the way its people think and live.

The new China can be both startling and awe-inspiring to first-time visitors. Signs of affluence and modernization are every-where, particularly in the eastern cities. In that part of China one has to go to the countryside for more traditional sights.

Perhaps the only thing that has remained constant in China is its mass of people. If you haven’t had the experience of walking in lockstep to avoid treading on the heels of other pedestrians in shopping and entertainment areas you cannot begin to appreciate what being crowded can mean.

However, in the downtown areas of Shanghai, Beijing, and other Chinese cities it is easy to imagine that you could be in the most upscale shopping areas of Chicago, New York, London, or Paris. The people are well-dressed, many more fashionably so than their foreign counterparts. There are ritzy restaurants as well as familiar fast-food outlets, attractive cafés, and high-end boutiques.

In other words, the externals of much of Chinese civilization in the major urban areas have changed dramatically. (Except for Chinese food, which appears to be eternal.) But what has not changed that much for the vast majority of older Chinese, especially in rural areas, is their internal culture—their etiquette and ethics, the attitudes and behavior that make them Chinese. Despite the modern facade that is spreading throughout China it is this internal traditional culture that attracts—as well as confuses and stresses—many foreign visitors.

Then there are the post–Cultural Revolution urban generations, born after 1976. These generations have had upbringings so different from their parents’ that they qualify as “New Chinese.” They are more individualistic, independent-minded, and spontaneous in their behavior, all attributes that were taboo before the advent of New China and are very familiar to Americans and other Westerners.

This is particularly true of the new breed of entrepreneurs who have become rich and behave in nontraditional ways, either because they never learned traditional behaviors as children or because they have discarded them.

In spite of the cultural changes that have occurred and are still occurring in China, even the New Chinese still retain many characteristics that set them apart from their Western counterparts. For example the Chinese, like most Asians, are programmed to think of time and events as occurring in a circle, not in the straight line that is characteristic of the thought processes of Westerners. The Chinese cultural encoding to think in this holistic way is far too deep for it to disappear in one or two generations.

Another thing that continues to distinguish all Chinese, especially those who are in the mainstream, is a powerful sense of patriotism and nationalism that pervades virtually every thought and action.

Some perspectives have changed, though. The new breed of Chinese no longer believes the old idea that foreigners should not be allowed to learn anything about China—even as the Chinese made extraordinary efforts to learn everything possible about foreigners— or that foreigners who display an intimate knowledge of China are both dangerous and an embarrassment.

However, China’s government continues to control the spread of American-style pop culture into the country by prohibiting much of the vulgarity that is presented as entertainment in the West. In Chinese talent shows, for example, government guidelines allow no vulgar songs, no tears, no outlandish hairstyles or apparel—and no mocking or humiliating behavior by the judges. When these restrictions proved to be not strong enough, the Chinese government simply cancelled a slew of new talent shows that were soon to hit the airwaves, and ruled that the current shows could no longer be shown during prime time. How long these restrictions will be enforced is a matter of conjecture, as modern-day Chinese have a history of ignoring government controls they disagree with.

Like much of the rest of the world, China has undergone major social changes since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Revolutionary advances in technology, from television to the Internet, are only the beginning. For both visitors and businesspeople who hope to make the most of their time in the country it is important to understand the impact of the following cultural influences.

China’s Little Emperors to the Fore!

As important as China’s one-child-per-couple government policy has been since it was inaugurated by Mao Zedung, there has long been concern that the system would cause its own kind of serious social problems, including a breakdown in traditional Chinese etiquette.

This worry sprang from the tendency of parents with just one child to seriously spoil that child, especially if it was a boy. From the 1980s on, this symptom of the one-child law was clearly discernible among more affluent families, so much so that the children of such families were commonly referred to as little emperors.

This new generation of “un-Chinese-like” children is usually dated from 1978, when the country’s new Open Door policies began making it possible for well-off parents to indulge their children with the trappings of capitalism. Most of the children affected were in the educated upper class, and they began moving into positions of leadership early in the twenty-first century.

The fear that the one-child system would water down what remains of China’s traditional etiquette has become a reality. Most young people in China are more interested in getting ahead than in conforming to the old ways.

In part because the wealthy have always been able to find a way around the one-child policy, and in part out of fears that China may be entering a demographic crisis with too many old people and not enough workers, in 2013 the Chinese government relaxed the one-child policy, allowing an urban couple to apply for permission to have a second child if either parent was an only child, and a rural couple to apply for permission if their first child was a female. Then, in 2015 the one-child policy was changed to a two-child policy. However, even with the end of the one-child policy, one-child families continue to be the norm.

China’s Female Etiquette Guru

Remarkably, one of the most powerful catalysts for cultural change in China since the 1980s has been one person—a woman named Yue-Sai Kan.

As profiled by the New Yorker magazine, Yue-Sai Kan, daughter of famous Chinese painter Wing-Lin Kan, was born in Guilin in 1946 and brought up in Hong Kong. As an aspiring concert pianist, she migrated to Hawaii and eventually went to New York where she found work in the fields of advertising and public relations.

From there she got into cable television, which was still very new to the viewing public, and began helping to produce a program called Looking East. The show’s popularity amazed everyone, and it ran for twelve years. She also produced the award-winning documentary China Walls and Bridges.

In 1984, PBS invited Kan to host a live broadcast from Beijing on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. It was so successful that the Chinese government asked her if she would do a television show in China. She accepted the invitation and began producing One World. This show made Kan a household name in China and the news media credited her with single-handedly introducing American culture to the Chinese people, as well as exposing the whole world to the complexity and variations of Asian culture.

In the early 1990s, Kan was invited by Chinese friends to become involved in business in China. She chose cosmetics because despite its modern development, she felt China had no color. “The drabness has to go!” she said. “Chinese women should look good and feel good about themselves!”

Kan introduced a cosmetic line in three department stores in 1992. She then wrote a book, Guide to Asian Beauty, which became an instant bestseller. Today her Yue-Sai Kan cosmetic line is sold nationwide, and young urban Chinese women are among the most appearance-conscious women in the world.

She then wrote two more books that became runaway bestsellers: Etiquette for the Modern Chinese and The Chinese Gentleman.

Kan’s Etiquette for the Modern Chinese was aimed at informing Chinese businesspeople, diplomats, and other readers about the ins and outs of Western etiquette, and how to behave toward Westerners and in Western settings. The government got behind the book, ordering copies for its overseas embassies and representatives at the United Nations.

The Chinese Gentleman, which Kan said was sorely needed, is written in Chinese with such English chapter headings as: “How Should a Gentleman Look?” “How Does a Gentleman Eat?” “Gentlemen in Daily Life,” and “Ladies and Gentlemen.” This last chapter addresses relationship issues from dating to marriage and sex—traditionally taboo subjects in Chinese etiquette.

The book is peppered, at times humorously, with illustrations of gentlemanly do’s and don’ts. According to Kan, the book came at a crucial moment in China’s development, when Chinese businessmen were coming into greater contact with foreigners without any prior education from parents or teachers about what Westerners considered cultured behavior.

The book, Kan added, was one that men needed and women loved. She added that in traditional Chinese culture, it was always emphasized that men should be well-mannered, well-educated, treat people with courtesy, and think of others. But that this was missing from the present generations.

Chinese Etiquette in the New Global Age

There have long been varying opinions of etiquette in China. China’s “perfect” etiquette is spoken of by writers who are not really familiar with the standard of etiquette that actually prevails there, or who are engaged in a kind of soft cover-up. Other sources insist that the Chinese have one of the world’s lowest standards of etiquette.

The truth is more complicated than either of these opinions would lead you to believe. There are three facets of etiquette in modern-day China. Firstly, China has traditionally had a very high formal standard of personal etiquette among family, friends, and business associates, and generally speaking this standard still exists. But it is now less ritualistic and rigid than it was in earlier times, and is still evolving, particularly among the internationally minded younger generations.

The second major facet of etiquette in China is the “non-standard” that applies to behavior in public and toward strangers.

This can be described as informal and without set rules. Because of the etiquette demands of the Confucian code of ethics the Chinese have traditionally avoided adding to their social, economic, and political obligations by limiting the requirement for a high standard of behavior until it applies only to family, relations, school friends, coworkers, and guests. This meant that outsiders and strangers in general were more or less nonentities who were ignored. This is the reason why bumping, pushing, and shoving in crowded public situations, without apologies or even acknowledging the presence of others, has long been common in China.

And then there is the third facet of etiquette—or lack thereof—in present-day China that is generally used only by the class of men who spit, urinate, and do other things in public that are offensive to others. This is a phenomenon that has evolved since the decline and fall of the last Chinese dynasty, the many wars, and the breakdown of public order that was epitomized by the Cultural Revolution.

Among the factors that contributed to this situation were the enforced massive movements of millions of people throughout the huge country; inadequate transportation facilities; a lack of public toilets, especially in the countryside; the simple absence of any kind of tissue paper; and finally the growing level of air pollution that made nose and lung congestion endemic.

The downside to China’s surge of modernity, however, is the continued existence of industrial pollution in many cities. In Beijing this pollution is often also combined with wind-carried dust from the Gobi Desert. Having to live with this can be an ordeal for anyone. But there is light at the end of this polluted tunnel. Inspired by techniques used in Iceland, the Chinese government has initiated the first steps of a program to tap into the country’s extensive resources of geothermal heat. The first test of this project is in the ancient city of Xianyang, which by the year 2000 was one of the most polluted cities in the world. Another positive sign: geothermal pumps were used to heat and cool some of the venues of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

On many fronts, China’s government has come a long way since the days of encouraging rough manners. Since well before its emergence as an economic superpower, the Chinese government has been sponsoring public relations programs designed to curb crude, unsightly, and unsanitary behavior in public, especially spitting and urinating.

As in many other arenas, Shanghai was a leader in this effort. The city came up with what it called the Seven Don’ts—don’t spit, don’t litter, don’t destroy public property, don’t damage green areas, don’t disobey traffic rules, don’t smoke in public places, and don’t use impolite language—intending to put an end to behaviors that had long been the rule rather than the exception.

Some government officials have even advocated the elimination of the famous kaidangku (kay-dahng-koo), or “open crotch,” pants that many Chinese infants and babies are dressed in to simplify trips to the bathroom and potty training—and that foreign news media like to display to the world. (Chinese mothers have been quoted as saying this ancient custom has nothing to do with good manners, and that bureaucrats should mind their own business.)

Around China, urban areas are plastered with billboards calling on people to “act civilized,” and not surprisingly it is the younger generations of Chinese, especially the women, who are the most responsible in their public actions, using a style and standard of behavior that combines traditional Chinese elements with Western customs.

The challenge to raise the level of public manners in China remains enormous, however, particularly because of the number of men searching for jobs and on the move throughout the country. Many of them live in the streets and are more concerned about surviving than displaying good manners.

The eating and table manners of people in ordinary restaurants and at food stalls can also inspire serious criticism by both Chinese and foreigners. This has resulted in numerous public and private institutions teaching a common-sense approach to etiquette. Charm schools catering to all ages are now big business in China. Various media outlets even sponsor contests and offer prizes designed to encourage a higher level of public behavior.

Foreign companies operating in China, as well as a growing number of Chinese companies, are now sponsoring programs to teach their employees how to interface successfully with fellow workers, government officials, customers, and the public at large. They see it as an essential element in their corporate culture, with long-term implications for their survival and success.

The China Web

No one can talk about modern China without mentioning the Internet. In the year 2000, only 25 million Chinese people were online, compared to 95 million in the US. However, by 2015, the Chinese netizen population had reached 649 million—nearly double the entire population of the US. The nature of Internet usage has also changed over the years, from young men playing online games in a darkened wang ba (wang bah), or net bars, to people of all shapes and sizes accessing the Internet from personal computers in their homes or offices, or increasingly through cell phones via the mobile Internet, in order to make friends or shop.

In its infancy, the only part of the Chinese Internet that was really Chinese were the email addresses that netizens received from their Chinese Internet service provider, which was owned by the government. Chinese netizens generally used Internet Explorer to access the World Wide Web, because that was the default browser on the Windows operating system, and they used Western search engines to find content, because Chinese search engines had not yet been developed. However, since Western companies were slow on the mark in generating products suitable for the Chinese market, in the first decade of the 21st century a host of private Chinese companies began to crop up to meet market demand.

The first of these companies to see large-scale success was Tencent, with its chat platform QQ Tencent (formally known as QQ). Within just a short time after Pony Ma opened his company in 1998, QQ Tencent became a must-have for Chinese Internet users, with many people spending hours a day on it, chatting and playing games. Though QQ Tencent has been surpassed in popularity by other Chinese Internet apps and portals, it is still one of the largest and most popular chat clients in the world. Indeed, it set a world record by having 210,212,085 simultaneous users online in July 2014.

China is an exceedingly large country, which can make it difficult for businesses to reach customers and vice versa. To overcome this obstacle, in 1999 entrepreneur Jack Ma set up Alibaba. In the beginning, Alibaba was just a B2B portal. However, within China there is not a very clear distinction B2B, B2C, and C2C, so when eBay entered the Chinese market by buying the Chinese e-commerce portal EachNet for $150 million in 2003, Jack Ma felt that he had to respond defensively to protect his company. As a result, he started Taobao (ta-oh ba-oh), initially as a C2C marketplace, but later expanding it to offer B2C services as well. Through his drive and his superior understanding of the Chinese market, Ma destroyed his competition, forcing eBay to all but withdraw from the Chinese market in 2006. Essentially, eBay wrote off its entire $150 million investment. Through Taobao and its other merchandising portals, for the fiscal year ending in March 2015, Alibaba had a total gross merchandise volume of $554 billion. Presently, Alibaba sells more goods than Amazon and eBay combined, and the vast majority of this business is solely within China.

It can be difficult for Western companies to compete with Chinese companies when it comes to Chinese-language web-navigation and content, which is why Baidu (by-doo) quickly became China’s number 1 search engine after it was established in the year 2000. It currently boasts over 1 billion visits a month.

The Chinese government sees control over the Internet within China as necessary for state security, at times blocking Western web-sites because it cannot control their content. This has proven to be a boon for some Chinese companies. Arguably, for example, Baidu has profited from Google’s problems with the Chinese government, though to be fair Baidu was already a successful company with a large share of the search market before Google’s troubles began.

In 2009, however, the Chinese government blocked Facebook and Twitter, because these had become vehicles for spreading news about anti-government riots and demonstrations. A Chinese company, Sina Corporation, jumped into the gap, creating Sina Weibo (sie-nah wayboh), a microblogging platform which combines many of the best attributes of Twitter and Facebook. Sina Weibo quickly became the most popular microblogging platform in China. By 2010, Sina Weibo had won 86.6% of the time China’s netizens spent online.

For a long time, the conversations on Sina Weibo were free-spirited and more often than not politically incorrect, and many Chinese netizens depended upon Sina Weibo for news and entertainment. However, under pressure from the government, Sina Weibo began to take steps to gain control over what was posted, and now up to 12% of its content is censored. Increasingly, as well, it began to run advertisements and paid content. The overall effect was to drive away many users, who have migrated to WeChat, which is called Weixin (way-sheen) in Chinese. WeChat is a phone app that was introduced in 2011 by Tencent. It provides chat, text messaging, the ability to broadcast (like Twitter), and the sharing of videos and photos with friends. As of May 2015, WeChat had 549 million active users worldwide (100 million outside of China), and the average Chinese person spent 40 minutes a day on WeChat.

The Chinese Internet is a rough and freewheeling world, full of arguments and discussions between strangers and friends, much like a typical Chinese teahouse must have been 100 years ago. To illustrate the freewheeling nature of the Chinese Internet, one term that has become common in discussion threads is shafa (shah-fah), which literally means “sofa”. In a typical discussion thread on the Chinese Internet, the first person to comment claims the “sofa”, as it is the best and most comfortable seat in the house from which to observe the verbal fracas that will inevitably occur.

Of course, not all of the Chinese Internet is happy-go-lucky. One disturbing trend are human flesh search engines, or renrou sousuo (ren-roh soh-suah). This is the Chinese Internet equivalent of a lynch mob. Human flesh search engines feed the need for justice in a country where so often the rich, the powerful, and the well connected can do anything they want without repercussions, even committing murder. The mob sets upon its victim with unmatched fury, putting the victim’s address, phone number, private photos, and intimate details on the Internet for all to see as a form of public humiliation. This phenomenon became so marked that famed Chinese director Chen Kaige even made a film about it (Caught in the Web). Fortunately, human search flesh engines have become less common in recent years.

What has not become less common are the activities of the 50-cent army, or the wumao dang (woo-ma-oh-dang). These are mostly university students working freelance for the government, posing as genuine commentators on Chinese social media, but with the purpose of promoting Communist propaganda, steering debate away from controversial topics, disparaging the US, and inculcating patriotism and love of the Communist Party. According to legend, they are paid wumao, or fifty Chinese cents, for every post they make. As it turns out, they are paid considerably less than this, but the name has stuck. No one knows for certain how many paid trolls are in this “army”, but it is thought to range in the hundreds of thousands. This is but one of several means that the government uses to try to control online discussion.

Given that there is a 50-cent army which praises the Chinese government, some people suspect that those who disparage the Chinese government are really paid trolls for the Americans. For this reason, people who seem unduly critical of China and worshipful of the US are often accused of being “US-pennies”, or mei-fen (may-fun), as this must be how much the US government pays them for each post.

Of course, Chinese companies get into the act as well. Many Chinese companies secretly hire people to praise their company on Internet forums, and to run down their competitors. Such people are called a “water army”, or shui jun (shoo-eh joon).

Jail, Censorship, and the Great Firewall

The Chinese government has made it a national priority to control the Internet within China. It has made anonymous postings on the Internet illegal under Chinese law. In order to set up a blog, join a microblogging platform, open an Internet account, or even access the Internet at a net bar, one has to provide a verified ID, and this ID must correspond to one’s identity on the Internet so that one’s online activity can be easily tracked. Web sites, portals, apps, and services within China essentially have to lift up their skirts to the government in order to operate legally. The government insists on having their encryption keys, and access to private information about their users upon demand.

While many Western observers supposed that government control over Internet content would become looser over the years, the opposite has proven to be very much the case. The most recent laws governing Internet usage in China mandate stiff penalties, including jail time, for posting content critical of the government or government officials, for disclosing state secrets, and for rumormongering. These categories are all so broadly defined that pretty much any online discussion of the government, government officials, or government policy could be problematic.

While people do go to jail for Internet posts, this usually happens only to those who have a high-public profile, to those who have uncovered some official malfeasance that the government wishes to hide, or to those who are attempting to organize some kind of political activity. People seldom get hauled away merely for venting or blowing off steam.

More typically, the government does its best to censor the content on the Internet. As the Internet is too vast for the government to accomplish this directly, it puts the onus on the various online companies to police the content themselves. The government gives the companies an updated list of topics that should not be discussed on their forums, and confirms that the companies have the proper policies and mechanisms in place to comply with their censorship demands, and reliable party members overseeing the process. If companies do not comply, they are closed down until satisfactory compliance measures are taken.

Many Westerners falsely assume that the government wants to censor negative comment on its policies. This is not quite the case. Rather than merely censoring negative comment, the government typically sets aside general subject areas wherein any content apart from that which has been officially approved by the government is forbidden. It is not that people are not allowed to say something negative about these topics on the Internet—they aren’t allowed to say anything at all. And if they try to discuss off-limit topics, the government holds the web platform responsible for shutting the discussion down, deleting the content, banning or suspending offenders, and reporting offenders to the police, if need be.

While many Chinese do not appear to notice or mind government censorship, others display various degrees of irritation with it. Online commentators who stray into dangerous territory are often warned by friends, “Check your water meter”, or cha shui biao (cha-shoo-eh bie-ah-oh). This phrase apparently came from a popular TV drama, where police gained access to an apartment by claiming to work for building maintenance. The warning means that the police may be at their door.

One common online meme within China is “grass mud horse”, or caonima (tsah-oh nee-mah). The word refers to an alpaca. However, it is also a pun on an obscene phrase which describes how many Chinese feel about censorship. Along with “grass mud horse”, one is also to find “river crab”, or hexie (huh-shee-eh). This is a pun on the Chinese word for “harmonious”—it is used to mock the government’s censorship efforts, which are ostensibly done to promote a “harmonious society”. Of course, all discussion of censorship is automatically censored, so while the Chinese words for “grass mud horse” and “river crab” can often be found on the Chinese Internet, many people just post fanciful pictures of “grass mud horses”, alpacas, or river crabs as a form of protest.

All e-companies, including Western companies which wish to operate within China, must abide by Chinese Internet laws. Of course, the Chinese government has no control over the Internet beyond its borders. For this reason, from the very beginning of the Internet in China, the government has tried to block overseas content from entering the country, if that content is viewed as harmful to the state. The result is the Golden Shield Project, which is informally known as “the Great Firewall of China”—the fanghuo changcheng (fang-wha chang-chung).

The Great Firewall of China works in several basic ways. If, for example, you are using a search engine and you enter a query that contains any of a number of banned words, the browser page will automatically reset, effectively giving you a time out from using that search engine. This can also occur if you try to access some webpages with banned content, even though the other webpages on a website might still be available. However, in many cases, whole Internet domains and web services are blocked, and you cannot access any of the content they have, even if it is merely to look at cat pictures.

Oddly, it is not illegal to view these webpages or use these web services—no one in China has gone to jail yet for merely using Facebook or Twitter, for example. Nor it is illegal—yet—to try to circumvent the Great Firewall. Thus, from the beginning, people have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the government as they sought ways around the Great Firewall. The government has responded by strengthening the Great Firewall and plugging up whatever holes it can find. However, this has up to now just proven to be a big nuisance for Internet users rather than an actual barrier.

Of course, the vast majority of Chinese people do not have a strong enough English ability to really manage the Internet in English, and do not have enough of a knowledge of the West or connection with Westerners to really get much benefit from jumping over the Great Firewall. It is true that they would gain access to Facebook, Twitter, and a whole host of other web services. However, there are plenty of good Chinese alternatives for them to choose from. For these reasons, few Chinese really think of the Great Firewall as much of an intrusion into their lives.

There are two things that by and large up until now the Chinese government seems to care little about stopping through censorship or the Great Firewall—pirating and pornography. It is true that every once and awhile some distributor of Internet porn or pirated material gets a little bit too big, and the government takes action. However, for the typical netizen, there seems to be no limitation to finding these things on the Internet within China.

Westerners in the Chinese Digital World

The digital world offers some unique challenges for Western e-companies wanting to operate within China. Western web platforms and services must abide by the same laws as their Chinese competitors. A handful of Western companies have reconciled with this and have at times offered products within China which comply with Chinese law, allowing the Chinese government access to their encryption keys and user data. Other Western companies, notably Yahoo and Google, have for the moment pulled out of the Chinese market altogether rather than comply with Chinese government demands.

China is a huge potential market, so all of the large e-companies would like to enter in. However, in the past Western e-companies have faced strong international repercussions whenever they attempted to comply with Chinese government demands, while at the same time making little headway in reaching Chinese customers. Given the risks, many Western e-companies appear to be taking a wait and see attitude toward the Chinese market.

But what of other foreign companies and foreigners living and working in China? For the individual foreigner living in China, it can be fairly easy to get over the Great Firewall. Meanwhile, it appears that so long as the foreigner is not a reporter, and so long as his activity on the Internet is not in the Chinese language or does not involve heavy interaction with Chinese people, more often than not the Chinese government could care less what he does. However, only a fool would press his luck. Chinese government policy can change without warning, and sometimes the government feels a need to make an example of someone, and foreigners make easy targets.

Foreign companies and businessmen face a very different problem in China, however. For years the US State Department has warned businessmen travelling to China that they should take elaborate steps to protect their digital devices and records from the prying eyes of the Chinese government. While some people scoff at such warnings, knowledgeable insiders suggest that if you have important trade secrets on your work laptop, you should not take it on a trip to China, but bring a fresh, clean laptop that contains only the necessary information for the trip. Laptops, cell phones, and U-disks should always be closely accounted for while you are in China, and you should assume that your Internet activity will be closely monitored. Any company operating within China has to assume that the Chinese government either already has access to all of their digital property, or can gain it quite easily, and so should take suitable countermeasures to keep its data secret if this proprietary information is deemed valuable.

Many international companies have reported problems accessing their overseas servers or the overseas clouds where they keep all of their data and communications. In the past, the way around this was to set up a VPN. However, the Chinese government is cracking down on VPNs, as they are currently the primary way of getting over the Great Firewall. While thus far corporate VPNs have been largely spared, it is by no means certain that this will be true in the future. Any company or businessman wanting to do business in China should consult a reliable tech person to ensure that communications with home can be adequately maintained, and that digital devices, data, and communications can be safeguarded.

At the same time, it appears that the Chinese government may soon be requiring foreign companies to be in complete compliance with their new cybersecurity laws. If this is the case, international companies doing business within China may find using overseas clouds or servers out of the question entirely, and they may have to hand the government access to the encryption keys to their systems as the price of doing business in China. Everyone is now holding their breaths to see how the new cybersecurity laws will be implemented.