China is the most populous country in the world. Following rapid economic growth and impressive improvement in people's living standards in recent years, China is now widely accepted as a market with enormous potential. The Chinese market is still limited in per capita terms, but it is precisely this low income per capita that enables China to enjoy a pronounced advantage in cheap labour. Attracted by the huge market potential and the low-cost labour force, investors from all over the world are currently pouring into China to do business.

Doing business in China is not an easy task, however. For some years China has been in the process of transitioning gradually from a command economy to a market economy. This gradual transition has resulted in a complicated and uncertain business regime, which puzzles even the most knowledgeable experts on China. In addition, Chinese culture is different from those in other parts of the world, which can often frustrate foreign investors. For foreign investors, therefore, the main challenge is to learn how to manage business in the uncertain, unfamiliar and complicated Chinese environment. Unfortunately, there is no textbook that comprehensively addresses the managerial issues faced by foreign investors in the Chinese business environment. The aim of this book is to fill this vacuum.

The idea of writing the book occurred to me when I was a research fellow at the Centre for International Business at the University of Leeds in 2003, working on a project on transnational corporations in China.