Given centuries of turmoil in China, today’s leaders will do everything in their power to preserve stability. Whenever I have doubts about a potential Chinese policy shift, I examine the options through the stability lens. It has worked like a charm.

Stephen S. Roach tells us this in an article published on Project Syndicate. The economic history of China tells us the same story. Each dynasty was concerned with maintaining the status quo of the Middle Kingdom, preventing popular uprising and ensuring everyone had food to eat. Today, this same model has been analyzed by the intercultural field as a root value that informs behavior. George Renwick’s stability model illustrates the origins of this deeply embedded Chinese norm.

To avoid scarcity of resources and starvation, stability becomes the most important value.

With survival of the family unit as the most important value, maintaining stability takes shape in a number of ways, and everyone has a supporting role. The cultivation of rice, China’s staple, has historically been an especially labor-intensive form of agriculture that required an entire family’s participation.

The most successful path to providing one’s family with stability evolved around a good education, obtaining a good position of employment alongside perpetual reinforcement of face or honor for one’s family. This leads to a greater network of influential connections, otherwise known as guanxi. Many people who have done business in China know the word guanxi and how important it is to have relationships with people who can help you or your family in times of challenge and need.

In light of China’s economic and developmental trajectory, the central party continues to focus on stability and the momentum of its “harmonious” rise.

…Those at the top no longer want to concede anything when it comes to stability. By addressing economic instability through pro-consumption rebalancing, and political instability by removing Bo [Xilai], stability has gone from a risk factor to an ironclad commitment.

Will this relentless approach towards stability continue to define the motivation behind China political and economic behavior in the 21st century? Will this sociocultural and political value change considering the growing appetite for consumerism and material wealth, which is connected to the all important Chinese notion of status? This also makes me wonder how to conflate the Chinese penchant for gambling with stability. I wonder how many people use credit cards in China in the way they are often used (excessively) in the US.

Please share your thoughts on this matter. How do you envision China’s path to stable economic growth vis-a-vis its modern cultural drivers?

Sean
RW3 CultureWizard

Asia Business Media, a blog that focuses on B2B media and business information in Asia, posted on an interesting talk by James McGregor earlier this week at the US Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. As a media professional and an American expatriate in China, he offered his thoughts on changing attitudes that the Chinese have never been known for in the past.

Beijing

According to the blog, “[McGregor] believes that the arrogance that was once a less-than-appealing feature of U.S. businesses abroad has been adopted by the Chinese at an alarming rate.” These attitudes represent a smaller, yet powerful portion of the country. Oftentimes, culture is influenced by entities of power, e.g. industry and media, so the implications of a more arrogant sphere of business may gradually prove to be an influential force in popular, mass Chinese culture.

Among other observations, McGregor added that Chinese officials are increasingly implementing policies to favor Chinese businesses over foreign businesses, and that the government is encouraging “indigenous innovation.” The competition for market share will be increasingly important for indigenous organizations in China, but are these observations a foreshadow of Chinese hegemony? How can cultural awareness help us understand Chinese attitudes towards the world, and towards globalization?

Click here to read more.

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