I
was the basketball coach at the First Annual Chengdu MBA Student
Basketball Tournament last week. The four biggest universities in
the city (and Sichuan Province for that matter) all fielded teams:
Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Southwest Transportation
University, University of Electronics and Technology and Sichuan
University. I coached Sichuan University's team and we lost by 6
points.
There
was a DJ and banners, cheerleaders and dancers, gawking locals,
four dignitaries representing the four universities and more than
250 MBA students. Most of these students are already working in
companies or own their own little enterprise my most promising
student owns a prosperous hot pot restaurant.
At
the Fourth Annual MBA Forum in Shanghai last October, 76 different
MBA schools from all over the world were present to discuss the
future of the degree in China.
An
MBA degree holds great value in this Land of Merchants. University
degrees in China do not always prepare one for life's challenges,
being based almost solely on tests, but a degree from a large university,
such as Shanghai's Tongji, Beijing's Qinghua or even Chengdu's Sichuan
University can open doors that remain tightly shut for more able
students from less prestigious universities.
As
with most things in China, appearances are God. If one carries an
MBA into the interview, the job is virtually locked down. Another
informal survey of my students and those of the other universities
that I had time to speak with came up with "higher salary"
as the main impetus for enrolling in an MBA program.
Reforming
the banking system, realizing more efficient management techniques,
comprehending finance and the stock market were hardly mentioned.
The knowledge is less important than the degree. This is understandable.
I doubt many American MBA students deviate from this line of thinking.
Foreign
schools are making deep inroads in the MBA sector. Since the first
program in 1991 in Shanghai, universities have reached into the
hinterlands and set up programs in such "internationally acclaimed"
cities as Chongqing and Chengdu. The University of Electronic Science
and Technology has at least three different programs with three
different schools: Webster, University of Illinois and the Terry
College of Business. The Odette College of business is up in there
as well, but they don't have a program as of yet.
There
are currently more than 80,000 Chinese students studying for their
MBA and the number will grow. The Webster program costs $8,000 and
it ranks as one of the more expensive in the country! The Chinese
universities are considerably cheaper and offer (perhaps) a less
stimulating education, but an MBA is an MBA. Chinese white collars
working in the growing Chinese private sector have little need for
a foreign professor to teach them about finance. In fact, the views
of a foreigner who may or may not have spent time in China may be
quite useless in an economy such as China's, which resembles the
United States during the fat cat years at the turn of the century.
I
took a bus ride with Professor Tischler of the University of Scranton,
who just finished teaching Intro to Management at Beijing University.
He was taking his son down the Yangtze to see the Three Gorges and
he expressed admiration for his students, who seemed to have mastered
his course and then implemented certain aspects of it at their own
companies with great success.
"The
US doesn't know what's coming at them," he said.
A
MERCHANT EMPIRE
Maybe
they do, maybe they don't. Regardless, as recent developments in
Southeast Asia most notably Indonesia show, the US doesn't
regard the rise of a Merchant Empire in East Asia to be a threat
large enough to derail the single-minded policy of military alliances.
SE
Asia has been labeled a terrorist hotbed by officials and not a
few journalists, but other than Bali and the barefoot fellows hiding
in the jungles of the Philippines, there doesn't seem to be much
violence that can be directly or indirectly linked to an Al-Qaeda-led
Muslim uprising.
So,
in steps China carrying a briefcase of string-less economic incentives
and wearing that oh-so-comforting smile.
The
US doesn't seem to grasp that only tyrants like Saddam would rather
buy weapons than food for his people. (Funny how those East Bloc
countries are required to spend big money on arms deals with American
companies prior to entering NATO.) Maybe the Asians are tired of
war and strife and would rather emulate China's relatively peaceful
and stable rise from dogma-ridden pariah to economic power.
NOT
JUST ASIA
Aside
from boosting development in SE Asia, China has been and is continuing
to lug the briefcase around Latin America. For 50 years the US has
been slapping around Cuba, intervening on the side of the bad guys
in most every Latin American conflict, bringing the hated IMF in
to settle disputes over deregulation and privatization and waging
a "war" in Colombia.
NAFTA
did a great job of forcing more and more Mexicans to make a run
for the border, to a country that may or may not accept them as
the hard-working labor force they are.
In
steps China with contracts and plans to develop Havana's culinary
and tourism industry, Guyana's telecom infrastructure and Brazil's
electronic sector, to name a few. Incidentally, a Chinese company
also levies a toll on the Panama Canal.
AN
ARMY OF MANAGERS
The
US might not really know what is going to hit them, all the textbooks,
theories and faculty that the US has to offer in the field of business
is being eagerly swallowed up by a generation of young Chinese very
determined to be rich. While these young men and women spend their
days and nights studying and dreaming about money, the US offers
grants and scholarships for those young Americans who want to be
part of the national security bureaucracy.
Sascha
Matuszak
comments
on this article?
|
|
Please
Support Antiwar.com
Send
contributions to
Antiwar.com
1200 Hamilton Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
or
Contribute Via our Secure Server
Credit Card Donation Form
Your
contributions are now tax-deductible
|
Sascha Matuszak
is a teacher living and working in China. His articles have appeared
in the South China Morning Post, the Minnesota Daily,
and elsewhere. His exclusive Antiwar.com column (usually) appears
Fridays.
Archived
columns
China's
MBA Craze
11/15/03
Anti-Fools
of the World Unite!
11/8/03
To
'Patriotic Fervor and National Cohesion'
10/25/03
Chinese
Big Bosses Rule with the Backing of Beijing
10/11/03
Mao
Exonerated by Chinese Capitalism
9/20/03
Let's
Hope Nobody Calls the US's Bluff
9/6/03
The
Best Possible Course for North Korea
8/30/03
Crouching
China, Paper Tiger
8/16/03
Adjust
or Fall
8/2/03
Americans
Are Crazy
7/12/03
Democracy
with Chinese Characteristics
6/28/03
Safe
Sex in China
6/13/03
Summertime
Plotting
6/6/03
A
Sino-Russian Bloc?
5/30/03
Lessons
of SARS
5/23/03
Powers
Behind the Thrones
5/16/03
Know
When to Lie, Know When to Shoot Straight
5/3/03
Rumors
and Leavetakings
4/18/03
'Americans
Like War, Huh?'
4/11/03
A
Beautiful Morning for a War
3/21/03
Soft
Power Moves Abroad
3/15/03
The
Safest Place in the World
3/1/03
A
Curious Absence
2/22/03
Sliding
off the Fence
2/14/03
Villages
in Transition
2/7/03
Smiles
and Nods and Handouts
1/31/03
China:
Straddling the Fence Just Right
1/17/03
Don't
Count on China
1/10/03
Merry
Christmas from China
12/27/02
Don't
Believe the Hype
12/20/02
Crackdown!
12/6/02
The
Incoming Hu Era
11/22/02
Jiang's
Theory Is a Smokescreen
11/15/02
The
Last Emperor
11/8/02
'We
Make You Play Bad Card'
10/25/02
The
Future of East-West Rapprochement
10/16/02
Lamenting
Funk Street
10/4/02
Tiananmen's
Legacy: The Forgotten Rebellion
9/21/02
Deciphering
the Chinese Smile
9/13/02
Why
China Can Disregard US Anger
9/7/02
Arming
the World: What the US Fears
8/30/02
What
Taiwanese Fear
8/23/02
What
Military Might?
7/26/02
Protection
7/10/02
Ties
That Bind
6/21/02
Tight
Spot
6/6/02
Fake
Friendships
3/28/02
1.3
Billion Problems For China
3/8/02
China's
New Post-9/11 Status
2/21/02
Soybeans
2/1/02
Patriotism
1/25/02
Room for Growth
1/19/02
No Peacemaker
1/11/02
Back in the USA
1/4/02
Missing the Boat?
12/14/01
Sweep 'Em Off the Streets
12/7/01
Chinese Embrace Progress
11/30/01
Risk
and Promise
11/9/01
Standing
Aloof?
11/5/01
China's
Afghan Agenda
10/26/01
New
War May Reveal New Superpower, Part II
10/9/01
New
War May Reveal New Superpower
10/3/01
A
Chance for a New Friendship?
9/25/01
Watching
the Disaster
9/18/01
Cheating
as a Way of Life
9/11/01
China's
Internet Generation
9/4/01
China's
Expansionism
8/28/01
Free
Markets or Supermarkets
8/14/01
Trailblazing
8/7/01
Too
Much Face
7/27/01
Olympic
Pie
7/19/01
Culture
of Pollution
7/10/01
Sailing
Towards World Significance
7/3/01
China's
Youth Revolution
6/19/01
China
on the Road to Capitalism
6/5/01
An
American in China
5/15/01
On
the Street in China: A Report
4/13/01
|