I am from Europe, Finland, and always will be. Still it strikes me how much I feel good to be in China. The flexibility of the society, the colour, the pace, the dynamism… It’s simply a once-in-a-lifetime experience to choose to visit, or stay in China. As the country is developing at a rapid pace, it’s even more interesting to be part of that wave, part of the biggest transformation in the human history.

China is so much more a well-functioning society, than people in Europe or the U.S. understand. The country is run by a central government that divides between its provinces and independent regions. To make it overly simplified, China has a billion people country, with 10 provincial regions of 100 million people (like Henan, or Zhejiang), with 10 cities, each 10 million people, with 10 districts of 1 million people each. So called “China experts” often say: China is run by government, you have to try to connect as high as possible and then everything works downwards fast like an army machine. Yes, that’s true that you often have to get the ‘blessing’ from upwards, sort of a green light to have a permission to do things. But in the end – the leaders’ blessings won’t help you long. What you need to have is often the LOCAL governments full support, in order to land the program.

That of course always depend. If you need a permission for a 5G network cooperation for a company like Nokia or Ericsson, you might want to connect the PROVINCIAL government for green lights. But if you need a 1,5 million dollars support by the Chinese government for your innovation center, you definitely want to most importantly talk to the DISTRICT government, to get the thing done. Even if you reach the president, or minister to support you in her bilateral talks with Chinese central government officials, you still need the local government to settle the deal – and actually give the money to you.

With several banking and legal issues, you need a local channel, and often a local partner, or advisor to support you – unless you have a good enough understanding of the culture and the language.

Most of the world’s countries are less than 10 million people countries. Which is more or less same as the population of a medium-sized regional capital in China. Like Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xian or Tianjin.

The opportunity for us foreigners in China cooperation comes, when using smart tactics in reaching government support. The green light, and gates of government can be often reached through direct bilateral connections through LOCAL cooperation, cities or provinces. Such as one of the top 5 cities in Finland, the city of Oulu, has done. A 220k accelerator of 5G, world class HealthTech and education, has created a direct city-to-city gateway with 10 M people Hangzhou, of Alibaba and G20. Oulu, and its local partners in the Nordics, can now utilize that channel and get as many as wished local projects on-going – as long as the local district governments, or private players find the need for their international or local challenges.

For me and us it’s been fantastically interesting to follow how China’s local government works. For the last 4 years we’ve been pushing with Slush and then with the local Hangzhou cooperation Finns and foreigners forward in China. Along the way you can gain a lot of experience and knowledge on how China really works. And as often said, the more you gain knowledge, the more you realize what you don’t know. This is also the fascinating enigma of China. An everlasting treasure box, that keeps amazing and surprising you daily. For those who seek a life of no surprises, no changes and full predictability of your tomorrow, I won’t recommend China. But for those who get excitement on the dynamism of world’s largest population and growing global opportunities, China is a super place to be right now.

Having said that, China does have major challenges. Yes, and the trade war is impacting China. Many of our friends’ companies have lost 20% of their people due to layoffs this year. But in the scale of a almost 1,5 bn people, how much does it influence? A lot? Yes indeed. Decisively? Not necessary. “A crisis” is also always an opportunity. China has started to speed up its own development and strength of its own ecosystem. Which again is an opportunity.

I’ll be visiting Finland this week from Tuesday to Thursday. Tuesday going to Oulu for a day. Wednesday preparing with professor Matti Nojonen and our exciting partner S Bank (and S Group) their visit to China later in September. Thursday checking up with really professional tech expert team, Bilot.fi, their last checks before their China and Hangzhou visit next week.

It’s super interesting and a big privilege to meet people of this caliber and experience and to help them reaching a better understanding on China, and to meet as much as possible the right people here. We’re giving all our networks, all our understanding and insights for these groups to get the best possible out of their visit. And to help them to have as hassle-free trip as possible.

From small streams come the big river. It is crossed stone by stone.

A few more stones to be walked through soon. Get back to you soon. As always, feel free to connect or ask questions anytime.