Much has been made of both the opportunity and complexity represented by the Chinese market. For an ambitious business looking to take its products or services global, the idea of expanding into the second-largest economy in the world is hard to resist. Not only does it represent a market of 1.4 billion potential consumers, but it is a rich source of skilled labour in manufacturing as well as high-tech and digital industries.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s unique history, culture and political system make it a different prospect to the Western markets that many companies will be more used to operating within. The relationship between government, business and military is sometimes blurred, and the UK government has raised serious concerns about how China makes use of emerging technologies to monitor its citizens, as well as other reported human rights violations.<\/p>\n
Organisations operating in China need to be particularly vigilant in the area of business ethics to avoid infringing UK or international law, not to mention the serious reputational damage that can occur if it is discovered that a company has been party to or benefitted from any abuses of human rights.<\/p>\n