INTERVIEW WITH A WHITE PHONY-CEO IN CHINA

Vice: First can you give your name, age, and where you’re from?
Don: 76 years old, United States.

How did you first hear about working as an actor for Chinese companies?
Most of the work I have found has been from “That’sBJ”, or “ The Beijinger”

What kinds of roles have you played in the past?
If you mean my personal experience, I had my own companies and am qualified to act as a consultant. The Chinese companies hire people as representatives of companies from outside. In my view it was to save the cost of transportation here to just evaluate a company looking for financing, or a partner. I have worked on several TV advertizing films where I was a Nobel prize winner one day, and a world renown surgeon the next.

Do you ever feel bad for pretending to be the head of a company you’ve never heard of?
No, because I could usually find the home company on the internet. The reports I wrote would go to the head office. You can’t pretend to own the company – only represent the company. If it was a good deal offered, then the directors would come.

Why do you think foreign investors feel more comfortable thinking a company is run by white people?
In my case, the foreigner was investing in a Chinese company. If the company has foreign management, it presents a better case, of course. It will also depend on the type of business, and what experience is necessary for a successful endeavor.

Have you had any strange experiences? Been close to getting caught by the investors pretending to be someone you’re not?
Most of the time it was a harmless endeavor, however one turned out to be a fictitious company. This is almost a book onto itself. If you are interested, I could tell you about it.

Yeah, that sounds interesting, let’s hear it.
Maybe fictitious is not quite correct – unscrupulous may be better. This Chinese company had a large secure office and hired several reps for their operation. They would call an hour or so in advance when they were to have a “meeting”. I was supplied with an interpreter, and could ask questions about the business being presented that day. It seemed strange I was not allowed to meet any of the other Reps – some of them female. They would pay at the end of the month, depending on how many hours of meetings.

Their clients were Chinese company owners looking for operating capital, or investment in large industries such as electronics, cement, etc. I learned later the company was charging a fee to come to these meetings and present their business plans and credentials to me as a representative of the parent loan company outside.

One day they scheduled a trip to Chongqing for one week. We met with two separate companies, one a real estate developer and another group of doctors trying to set up a cancer clinic. Both of these companies paid the airfare for four of us (the Boss, his assistant, myself and my translator) and two different hotels in advance – what the other fee was I had no way of knowing. My translator was a young girl just graduated from one of the Universities here.

These deals both represented many millions of Yuan. In my opinion they both had potential. Everything went OK until in the second meeting the Boss presented them with a contract (in Chinese,of course) which they signed, then to my amazement the agreement was passed to me. My translator said the Boss told her if I did not sign I would have to find my own way back to Beijing. She was stunned also – it was her first job, and sensed something was wrong. Now what to do? They had given me a business card with another name on it, so I scribbled some scratches on the paper. I knew that I could not legally sign any agreement in China, but had no way to return to Beijing if I did not.

The head secretary called me in a couple of days and said she was very pleased with the work I had done, and thought I was a good businessman. When I went to get my pay for the month I was refused – the reason was they did not get the deal in Chongqing. They also did not pay my translator. When I argued about that they said if I did not go away they would tell the authorities I had illegally signed an agreement. I picked up my hat and strode out the door singing, “so long, it was good to know you, but I’ve got to be moving along.”

Moral: There are some Chinese in the world one should not trust.

That’s really strange. Thanks for giving the story a moral.