The Trouble with China
Shenzhen, China, October 16, 2011
Salaroche

Many things that we take as the norm in the West can be the exception in some Asian countries. In some regions of Japan, for example, you cannot withdraw cash from ATM machines after office hours or on weekends because ATMs only work while the banks are open. (Doesn't this defeat a very important purpose of ATMs?)

South Korea also has its curious business rules, as well as Vietnam, but perhaps never as peculiar as those in China.

The trouble with China seems to be excessive control. And when I say "control" I'm not talking about every domestic business transaction, or about local anti-corruption measures, but about cross-border bank-to-bank money transfers, getting Credit or Debit Cards at the consumer level, trying to buy foreign currency, and even opening PayPal accounts.

Opening Ali Pay accounts is one of the typical "parochial" ideas that I'm talking about, as it seems to be a privilege of the Chinese people only. In case you didn't know, you're required to have a Chinese ID number to get one. A foreign passport number, for example, is unacceptable as an ID number.

Duh?! How does Ali Pay expect to compete with PayPal worldwide if its service is only available to the Chinese? Go figure.

Because of the limitations mentioned above, and then some, the trouble with China is often the inability of foreigners to pay for things over the Internet at the international level. I, for one, was unable for two weeks to renew my Domain names and my Hosting services for salaroche.com because my Bank Account here in China is with ABC Bank, and ABC Bank doesn't have the mechanisms to do any payments or transactions at the International level.

Why do I have an account with such inconvenient bank? Because the company that I work for requires it. Why do they require it? The answer to that question is yet to be revealed, so I'll just say, go figure.

In the long run, however, all is well that ends well, and I'm glad to see that salaroche.com is back on line.

Salaroche