Guanxi

The word Guanxi in Chinese means relationship business connections or social networks. You can have guanxi with many people for example your colleagues, your friends, government officials or business relationships.

The better your guanxi the easier your life can be. Guanxi can be used for yourself or as influence for others. Without good guanxi it is difficult to do
business in China. Good jobs are gotten through guanxi as are placements in
good schools.

For example this week-end the marketing director of a well know spa invited us to come and stay for the week-end. We only paid for the rooms and all the meals and spa treatment was on the house. The unspoken expectation of course is that sometime in future I bring people or introduce people to the spa through my social and business connections.

Before taking of for the week-end, we joined a four hour midnight bicycle ride of Shanghai. Because I have introduced many people to Cycle China, the ride was free for Tom and I. Although we initially said no to the offer, the owner said she had to do this. Of course the protest is also a part of the ritual. When someone offers you something you never out right accept it.

Last week I read a very strange story in the Shanghai Daily. A man entered a police station and stabbed ten policemen. Yes ten policemen six of them died.
This is a real head scratcher isn’t? One has to wonder how one person with a kitchen knife could stab 10 people some fatally.

You can imagine that this was a topic of conversation everywhere. Even though a person knows exactly how to stab someone to death in one stab, they still have to pull out the knife and stick it in the next person. And where were the rest of the policemen. How come nobody was able to stop him?

The reason this man stabbed these policemen is that they falsely accused him of stealing a bike. He was later found innocent. He asked for compensation for the false arrest. 30,000 RMB about $4,000. They only gave him half and I guess he was angry.

Over dinner with our Chinese friend Eric, of course the conversation came up again. Eric explained that these policemen were probably hired through guanxi.
Perhaps they were not really qualified but their Guanxi got them on the force and kept them on the force. They appeared ill equipped to even defend themselves.

In theory Guanxi is a good thing but in this case you wonder if this is guanxi
gone wrong.