Go East!

Overcoming prejudices to seize business opportunities with China

Many entrepreneurs get stuck in front of prejudices about the Chinese market, missing important opportunities. A method for assessing Chinese partners with honesty and concrete data, inviting people to suspend hasty judgements and approach this complex but rich in potential reality with curiosity and open-mindedness

by Arnaud Goullin*

7 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The Go East column in Il Sole 24 Ore offers a lot of very sound advice on doing business in China or Asia. I encourage those who are still perplexed by the Chinese opportunity to treasure them, and especially to use them to crystallise their learnings as they begin their journey.

In sport, as in management and many other fields, the correlation between mindset and success is well known and accepted. It allows us to link instincts with technical knowledge, and not to give in to the inevitable obstacles that come our way. It is also true that we often, under various kinds of pressure, allow ourselves to be carried away by our moods, our emotions or even our prejudices, and leave the effort required to put ourselves in the right mindset at the door.

And so games are lost... and business opportunities.

I was recently helping a start-up in its search for financial support for the next stage of its promising development. Naturally, I offered to share my contacts, including Chinese ones, among which are companies whose strategy is to invest in Western brands. My proposal was received rather coldly. "But you know, with the Chinese...".

The sentence stopped there, heavy with subtext.

"But you know what?" I replied.

A barrage of prejudices ensued, unfortunately predictable by those with no experience of doing business with China, but all easily disproved by my direct experience.

It is absolutely respectable to conduct one's business in the light of one's own value references. With one condition, however: make sure that we use the facts, and that we ourselves can make use of the values we claim to promote.

With this article, I would like to propose a rational approach to separate facts from prejudices that could preclude business opportunities. It should take less time than disproving them all one by one!

1 - In order to ensure that our ethical choices are real, i.e. honest and sustainable, we apply the same criteria to our partners today and to ourselves, as well as to other potential partners that we still see as 'exotic'. The current state of the world reminds us that even the political criteria for which China is often criticised - sometimes for good reasons - are not exclusive to that country. It is therefore worth keeping a broad perspective before letting prejudices become final judgements.

2 - We construct our opinions on specific facts, cases and persons.

Business and contracts, concluded with individuals or private entities, are often an opportunity to build bridges between communities and to enrich each other, personally, culturally and even in terms of values. In certain cases, doing business may indeed mean supporting a condemnable political system, but this assessment must be made on real cases, not as an excuse not to deal with an unknown reality. Among the very numerous critics of Trump, I have yet to meet anyone who links his criticism to the power of doing business with the United States, or who makes a generalisation about American values.

3 - Let us take advantage of the wonderful opportunity that international affairs offer us to unleash our curiosity, and suspend, at least in the discovery stages, our judgements.

For those who are confronted with the Chinese ecosystem for the first time, I understand that it can make an impression. The language, history, religion, aesthetic codes, cuisine and many other things make it a culture far removed from our own. It is true that the human brain is biologically programmed to consider any novelty as a threat. However, the noble part of business is precisely based on overcoming our primary instincts.

To those who still discount the Chinese opportunity, Confucius would say, "Thinking without studying is dangerous." And perhaps he would also say, "read Go East!"

*Beauty & luxury business executive, board member Babe Invest