Google spat shows clash of cultures and values

Kai-Fu Lee, founding chief executive of Google China, gave an interesting presentation in 2008 about the weaknesses of some Western Internet companies that led to the failure of their China operations. Among the weaknesses he listed was: "They did not understand China and Chinese."

Ironically, a year after that speech, Lee chose to leave Google China; and, four months later, the world's top search engine put itself in an embarrassing spot by threatening to pull out of China.

Had Google really understood China and Chinese, this mistake would have been avoided.

Complex as it may seem, the Google dispute, in essence, lays bare the clash of cultures and values.

Though it is accepted business principle to do in Rome as Romans do, and in China, as the Chinese do, in reality, the practice does not come easy to multinationals. Every Western company eager to explore and make the most of the opportunities in China has found that adaptation is complicated. It goes beyond, for example, Google hiring Chinese executives like Kai-Fu Lee.

The inability to build cultural bridges and failure to adapt to the culture in which the market operates can lead to conflict and clashes.

Given China's cultural diversities and civilizational tradition, and the many-layered social landscape, Western companies have a lot to learn to not only enter, but also stay on top in the Chinese market.

The unique, innovative path taken by China in the past six decades, hailed by some as the "China model," has shown that should China and the West learn from each other as equals, there can be co-existence in the market.

Even in the case of media or Internet companies, despite being a concept imported from the West, free flow of information is a universal value recognized to be in the fundamental interests of Chinese people.

China, as seen in the past 60 years, will move forward at its own pace toward safeguarding the public's right to know and building an open and harmonious society.

Keeping that in mind, it should be realized that it is the nearly 700,000 Western companies operating in the country that have to adapt to the market and to the diversities of Chinese society. China cannot be a colony of Western values, and it would be unrealistic for Chinese culture to conform to the expectations of Western companies.

While there is enough evidence to show that the Western way of doing business may not work in China, there are numerous cases that can serve as good examples of Western companies building credibility and succeeding in China.

Western companies do not need 5,000-year patience to succeed in 5,000-year-old China, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt once observed.

Continuous adaptation is what will carry them forward.