Quotes of the Day

If you want to understand what makes China tick, ask the businessmen who spend their days immersed in its primordial soup of capitalism and corruption. Their war stories have spawned a booming genre of non-fiction, in which the latest entrant is James McGregor's One Billion Customers. McGregor, who went to the mainland as a journalist but changed tracks in 1994 to become the China head of Dow Jones, dispenses his wisdom through case studies—mostly of how things can go wrong. The story of an investment bank created by Morgan Stanley and the China Construction Bank, for example, shows how a clash of cultures can reduce a joint venture to a dysfunctional set of fiefdoms. But McGregor really hits his stride with his own tale—an epic struggle between Dow Jones and China's Xinhua news agency over the right to dispense financial news. McGregor goes to war against what he calls Xinhua's "thugocracy," playing it off against progressive forces in the government and enlisting support in Washington. Xinhua eventually backs down, giving McGregor a rare victory over Chinese officialdom.

Besides being a useful primer on business, the book also sheds light on bigger questions about China. For example, can its corruption be controlled? "At its core," McGregor writes, "Chinese society is all about self-interest. It is very strong on competition but very weak on cooperation." Likewise, he characterizes Chinese corporations as hopelessly static entities stocked with fawning employees and dictatorial bosses. Such findings may be discouraging, but they might just save you some costly heartache.

• Ilya Garger
• A new book offers tips on doing business in China