Hello everyone, welcome to The China Business Network. My name's Christine and I hope you find this site a useful resource of relevant China business information so far. 

I began my own learning curve on doing business in China back in 1995 as an International Relations/East Asian Studies major from Boston University who signed up for an intensive Chinese studies program at Fudan University in Shanghai. Yes, a Chinese person studying Chinese. The result of immigrating to the U.S. from Taiwan when I was 2 years old and growing up in a predominantly Mexican-American suburb of Los Angeles where I spent years refusing to take Saturday Chinese school seriously because my parents forced me to go and I thought it was lame. I still hear the occasional "We told you so" to this day for that one.

Anyways, I remember Shanghai when the only tall building across in Pudong was the Pearl Tower. When the Portman Ritz Carlton was actually the Portman Shangri-la. Where Kathleen's and Malone's used to be the only place to get a real burger in Shanghai and Luke's DD's club and Mao Ming Road made up the nightlife in the city.

My parents paved the China business road for me when they arrived there in 1991 to set up a joint venture company that was China's first maternity clothing brand, manufacturer and retailer in China. I remember that it used to take 2 hours to get from the Hong Qiao airport to my parents' factory in Jing Qiao, Pudong the summer of 1996 while the Yang An freeway was still under construction. By the end of the summer I took that same freeway back to the airport in less than 45 minutes. Things happen fast in Shanghai. They're not kidding.

So in 1996, I convinced The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai that they needed the services of an unpaid Chinese-American intern and the rest is history. Fax, grab coffee, answer phones, file...I didn't care, I just wanted a foot in the door. That was back when it was a 3 person operation out of a small office supporting a total membership of 300 members and companies. Now it's more like 3,500+ and counting... 

Here's a summary of my work experience leading up to 2004 when I  moved back to the U.S...

Offering a strong blend of creativity and cross cultural insight since 1996, Christine’s entrepreneurial career in China has included designing 2 lines of women’s ready to wear clothing, co-founding a dot-com startup, training for 6 months at HSN (Home Shopping Network) International’s headquarters in the U.S., developing a catalog and internet business to compliment a TV shopping company’s multi-channel retail concept and through it all, remaining an active member in networking circles within The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

Following a successful 5 years leading to her promotion as Marketing Director for TVSN (TV Shopping Network) in China, Christine returned to the US in 2004 and is currently based in San Diego where she lives with her husband and son. In addition to her role as Founder of The China Business Network and Executive Producer and Host of The China Business Show, Christine remains true to her entrepreneurial retail spirit as the co-owner of an online kitchenware business that maintains an excellent Gold Powerseller status on eBay and is a featured merchant in Amazon.com’s Seller Central network.

This site is my latest passion. It's something I've been wanting to put together for a while now and is the result of my own frustration with trying to stay informed and in the loop with what's going on in China business since moving back to the U.S. -- Yes, there are endless publications and news articles on current events in China. Tons of press releases, white papers and $500 reports on every facet of the business landscape there. You can attend countless trade shows, conferences and executive MBA programs...and at the end of the day still feel like you don't quite have your finger on the pulse of what's going on...the result in part to fast paced growth while traditional media remains focused on the same recycled high level headlines and fragments of quality China information remaining scattered across the web.  The China Business Network is my answer to my own curiousity of who's doing what, where and how in China these days. Presented in a casual manner that's interesting, informative and relevant at the same time.

In summary, The China Business Network is a new project dedicated to building a much needed bridge of useful and relevant information between the international business community and those on the ground who know the business climate first hand in China. Stay tuned for more...

Thanks for dropping by,

Christine

Founder, The China Business Network

Executive Producer, The China Business Show 

If the gap in business culture and landscape between China and the West were a physical bridge, it might be immeasurably long, spanning two vast and vastly different terrains. It takes more than any one person to bridge the gap, or act as a guide on both shores. It takes a Network.

The two founders of The China Business Network are "China Hands" who worked together in Shanghai, then returned to the USA - Janet Carmosky after 18 years in China, 1985-2003, and Christine Lu after 5 years, 1999-2004. Their re-entry brought them to the realization that business people outside China faced a search, often with unsatisfactory results, for resources able to give them a useful understanding of China, and to execute in China. Meanwhile, professionals in China invariably struggle to work effectively in one culture during the day and another at night; to keep up with the challenge of staying informed and relevant in two divergent worlds. Both sides have things to teach and things to learn.

The literally millions of people who have started building their own bridges to or from China face the continuing need to update information, improve skills, expand networks. There are benefits to each of the current methods: searching the Internet; joining organizations; reading books; attending conferences. Yet the sheer number of conferences, organizations, consultants and books makes it obvious: the space is so huge in scale, geography and subject matter that it's almost impossible to navigate. We need to source a gasket or structure a clean tech investment; improve the effectiveness of long term partnerships in China, or start from scratch to understand opportunities; to update our understanding of the regulatory environment or find a Chinese teacher; find a job, locate a collaborator to better service a client, or hire a specialist. We need to get all the information in one place.

The China Business Network's mission is to provide the open platform where everyone with something to offer -organizations and individuals - can profile themselves, index their skills, locate partners and customers, contribute to the conversation, learn, and reach the entire, targeted community of international business professionals active in China.

With the technology, the understanding of the sector, the vision, and - most of all - the network to bring the entire sector under one umbrella, The China Business Network will continue to bring services to support all China business people in their professional and business development.

Christine Lu, Chairman

Christine Lu is a social media addict who grew up in cyberspace (technically, in LA), received her BA in International Relations and studied Chinese at Boston University, then moved to Shanghai in 1998. After an internship at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, a stint as a clothing designer and marketing manager for her parents' clothing retail business, she started a dot com adventure with bricks-and-mortar China retailer Janet Carmosky. The comany was incubated then rolled into TV Shopping Network (TVSN), a joint venture funded by Duty Free Shoppers founder Robert Miller's private equity firm Search Group, Prudential Assets Management Asia and IAC's Home Shopping Network. Following the 2000 dot-com crash in China, Christine served for five years as Marketing Director for TV Shopping Network and oversaw the company's business developmement, internet, direct marketing and mail order strategies in China.

In March 2007 Christine created and served as the Executive Producer and Host of Entrepreneur Magazine's The China Business Show which has since evolved into The China Business Network.

Janet Carmosky, CEO

Janet is a career China business specialist who completed a BA Chinese Studies, (University of Pennsylvania 1985), then resided in China – Xi’an, Hong Kong, Shanghai – from 1985-2003, with sabbaticals in USA: Washington, D.C. 1988-1990, Berkeley, CA 1999. In her first decade working in and with China she managed import-export, sourcing, and buying agency programs. Since 1993, she has worked in senior management of consulting and operations, with posts including: Director of Burson-Marsteller PR (Shanghai 2001-2003): Director of Operations for Web Connection/chinadotcom, (Shanghai 2000-2001); General Manager, Richina Fashion Retail, (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong 1997-1999); Asst Vice President Richina Capital, (Shanghai, 1994-1997); Senior Manager, Coopers & Lybrand Strategy Consulting, (Shanghai 1993-1994); Senior Account Executive, William E. Connor & Associates, (Hong Kong and Xian 1990-1993); and Sales Manager, Beijing Trade Exchange, (Washington, DC and Beijing 1986-1990). Her past and current clients for China strategy and implementation include: Office Depot, Wella AG, Bacardi, Marriott, Continental Airlines, PR Newswire, Wal*Mart, Corning, Waste Management, Sony, Citroen, Alcatel, Ethicon Endosurgery, Briggs & Stratton, Unilever, Alpharma, Givenchy, Yue Sai Kan. She also works on USA commercial and communications strategy for the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC and other Chinese agencies.

Janet Carmosky’s publications include Alcatel in China: Business as an Adventure (2003) a case for MBA students at Switzerland's IMD, also published as an article in Harvard Business Review (Chinese edition) as well as numerous essays and chapters in various Economist publications, (1991-2003). As President of her consulting firm China Prospects (2005-2007) she performed strategy and training projects, and frequently speaks publicly in both English and Chinese. She was married to a native of Xi’an, China for 18 years. Janet speaks Mandarin and Cantonese fluently, and reads and writes Chinese.