Surfing the web in China can be a real pain, even if you are not particularly looking for sites with questionable content or forbidden keywords, as described by China’s internet regulator. This is because of the heavy monitoring and censorship. As The Atlantic reports, this is how the Great Firewall of China works. The government bodies in charge of censoring the Internet have told [tech organizations in China] to get ready to unblock access from a list of specific Internet Protocol (IP) addresses—certain Internet cafés, access jacks in hotel rooms and conference centers where foreigners are expected to work or stay during the Olympic Games. ...

Nice post by Richard Brubaker on All Roads Lead To China regarding Competitive Intelligence and how companies obtain insider information in China. In China though, because so little is consistent in any industry and because everything here moves so fast, BI is very different here. It relies less on traditional tools (internet, news surfing, speaking to sales people, etc) and takes on a much more guerrilla approach. In many ways, it requires a deeper knowledge of the industry while at the same time having a real sense of where the hidden data lies, and being willing to go out and get that information. ...

Seems like a long, long way to go… I start this blog with a few thoughts on the Chinese approach to risk management and the implications for the big consultancies that have entered China thinking it will be a new El Dorado… and for me! I came across a post by Paul Denlinger on China Vortex that points out why it is hard to be a risk professional in China and why it is still far from easy to sell risk consulting services to Chinese companies. ...