Fleishman Hillard senior strategist Dan Baxter recently completed his assignment in our Beijing office to return to Brussels. In a sort of valedictory, he offers very useful guidance in the online publication PublicAffairsAsia on how to be an effective public affairs advocate in China. While the Chinese government may seem opaque to Westerners, Dan shows us that the fundamentals of dealing with political leaders have some verities the world over:
It is also important to understand that, like all governments, Chinese officials need reliable information by which to inform the policy-making process. Much of this can come from an individual’s own views and those of recognised stakeholders, but decision-makers also rely increasingly on blogs and social networks to measure the public ‘temperature’. Major policy initiatives, such as food safety, can be subject to lengthy public consultations. As with any other market, the specific mix of tools will be different for each situation.
I recommend reading the entire piece as it is a truly useful brief tutorial from someone who has actually “walked the talk.”
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1 response so far ↓
1 Lowen Baumgarten // Feb 1, 2010 at 10:34 am
This is a great article, thanks for sharing it, Bill. I particularly appreciated how Dan explained that China’s sheer size more than anything else makes gathering reliable information a challenge, and that is a major role of guanxi: “A primary purpose of these relationships is to facilitate the free flow of information.”
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