Wang Shi’s stress on the importance of having a ‘red hat’ Haier’s tussles with the Qingdao government; Huawei’s cosying up to the political establishment; and the cultivation of the Party by big firms in Wenzhou all have much in common. The bigger you get, the more important good ties with the Party are and the greater the benefits that flow from a good political relationship. The contrasting fortunes of two entrepreneurs who tried to crack open state-dominated industrial sectors in the early years of this century provide textbook examples of how to manage government relations to develop one’s
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