Beware of the Deluge: The Development and Prospects of Foreign Investment in China's Retail Industry

Author: Chu Baotai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: With the growing effective demand of 1.3 billion Chinese people, the retail industry is presented with unlimited business opportunities. This is not only an industry that can drive the rapid development of the domestic economy but also an engine for revitalizing the international economy. In the competition that has already unfolded in China's modern retail market, how can one achieve self-awareness and understand the opponent? What strategies should be adopted to achieve victory over the strong with the weak? This is what retail industry peers want to know, and it is the question this book aims to address.
The nature of capital is not always gentle. Especially when it has already gathered momentum and is about to engage in market competition with rivals, it refuses to give up without a successful outcome. Capital has the instinct to devour weaker competitors. International commercial capital possesses an even more fierce capacity for devouring than industrial capital. With the vast amount of monetary capital at its disposal, it can establish procurement centers and retail outlets everywhere, controlling the critical passageways through which goods flow from factories to consumers, and dominating the intermediate links of the social economy. Once it deems necessary, it can stir up trouble, devastating weaker competitors like a gale sweeping leaves, sweeping across the entire market. Without preparation, the majority of traditional national businesses may face a tragic fate: either being subsumed by it or forced to close down.
Facing the overwhelming tide of international commercial capital, what policies should China adopt—whether to "block" or to "guide"? This the story of the two ancient Chinese water control heroes, "Yu" and "Zhuge Liang," whose eight-generation saga is well-known. The current situation is this: In the face of the fierce international commercial capital, the Chinese government's policy first builds high dams to block the flood outside, but then suddenly opens the, allowing the accumulated flood to rush. In the face of such a massive shockwave, if measures are not effective, what will be the outcome for national commercial capital?