All the recent online chatter about fake CEOs and executives being paraded out in cities and towns across China to impress investors and government officials has gotten me thinking about whether or not China is as developed as we sometimes think it is.

Most of the stories are about white male foreigners, who are hired at salaries that would make the average Chinese white-collar worker drool. Their "jobs" are to hobnob with investors and government officials while pretending to be high-level company executives.

Apparently after the despicable antics of Dick Fuld, Bernie Madoff, and Jerome Kerviel, we white guys still count for a lot in a country where face seems to be a prime determinant of just about everything.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I too once played a "CEO" for a public relations firm making a pitch to a joint venture company. The Chinese owner was a long-time friend who asked me to do him a favor.

I also go to various events, often as a VIP, knowing full well that I am invited not because I was a vice president of ABC Television or even because I worked in Jimmy Carter's White House or went to Harvard. I am invited because I am a white guy with a pulse, who has a few flashy bow ties and my Chinese-American friendship pin.

And this isn't only in the boondocks. It still occurs right here in the capital city of what is now one of the world's power centers.

Once in London I went to the Portobello Road antiques area. I didn't find any Wedg-wood jasperware to purchase that day but I overheard a priceless conversation that in a droll way applies to this column. Two dealers were talking and one asked the other what the secret to being a successful antique dealer was. The answer was "Know Yiddish. Sound British."

To put it another way: Think like a Jew but speak with a British accent. In other words, be clever and sound good. No knowledge or connoisseurship required. Form over substance can carry you a long way. China doesn't have a monopoly on this sort of behavior but for the moment it must have at least a healthy oligopoly.

Now that China is as powerful as it is, then why are these fake CEOs and face-giving non- VIP VIPs still seen as necessary?

I think it is from the remnants of an inferiority complex that began developing after Western powers humiliated the Chinese in the Opium Wars. While China has developed economically, it has not fully shed its psychological baggage.

Until Joseph Needham and his monumental compendium Science and Civilisation in China came along, we in the West thought so little of China that we took credit for thousands of inventions the Chinese created here such as printing. For example, the world's first printed book, the wood block Diamond Sutra found in the caves of Dunhuang, dates back to the 9th century. Gutenberg's Bible, however, made him a Johannes come lately six centuries later.

And the days of "no dogs and no Chinese" are not that old. In the US after Chinese did much of the backbreaking work building our railroads out West, their reward was the 1862 racist anti-Chinese immigration law.

Well people, wake up and smell the tea leaves. Those days are over, done and gone. China no longer has anything about which to feel inferior. I predict that these feelings will pass soon. Fake CEOs will have to look for employment elsewhere.

In a few years or decades could it be that we Americans might just have to hire fake Chinese CEOs to meet with our mayors and legislators, and invite non-VIP Chinese VIPs to various events?

China's $2 trillion in currency reserves and its $900 billion investment in American treasury bills signal a strong "maybe." My Chinese friends say that it will never happen. My reply is that "never" is quite a long time!

At the end of the day after all these theatrics, I am sure that not all of these face-enhancing measures work. I am completely confident in my conclusion because in my case anyway, the pitch that I made in my debut as a "CEO" was a complete and utter failure. I guess I shouldn't quit my day job just yet!

The author is former director and vice president at ABC Television. He spends most of his time in Beijing now working on media projects. hdzodin@hotmail.com

Go to Forum >>0 Comments