Interpersonal relationship (guanxi) is one of the major dynamics of Chinese society. Guanxi has been a pervasive part of the Chinese business world for the last few centuries. It binds literally millions of Chinese firms into a social and business web. In China's new, fast-paced business environment, guanxi has become more entrenched than ever, heavily influencing Chinese political landscapes, social behavior, and business practice.This book delineates social and cultural principles and philosophies underlying guanxi dynamics, along with guanxi's social norms that have been long embedded in the Chinese society. Although guanxi is embedded in almost every part of social life in China, companies demonstrate different needs and capacity toward guanxi cultivation. Chinese firms develop guanxi as a strategic mechanism to overcome competitive and resource disadvantages by cooperating and exchanging favors with government authorities and other stakeholders. This book presents an integrative framework about guanxi development according to institutional, strategic, and organizational factors. It further articulates how foreign firms adaptively develop their own legitimate and effective guanxi in China's highly dynamic and complex environment.Guanxi is really dynamic that its practices have been constantly changing and its normative and cognitive legitimacy is shifting as the social and economic structures in the society are drastically transforming. For this reason, this third edition of the book has added numerous new and emergent issues such as moral degradation and guanxi, qualitative and quantitative review of guanxi studies, and guanxi ties between organizations.

In short, the 24 selected and representative articles written in English by the author over the past 30-odd years, mainly published in international leading journals and now collected and compiled in this monograph, could be deemed the products of international academic debates. They record, reflect and embody the author’s personal views on a number of contemporary basic issues in international economic law & the international economic order. These personal views with Chinese characteristics are deeply rooted in China’s specific national situation and the common position of the world-wide weak groups, and are significantly and substantially different and independent from some existing voices from strong western powers, which is why the book bears the title “The Voice from China”. On the basis of their specific themes and content, the 24 representative articles are divided into six parts: 1) Jurisprudence of Contemporary International Economic Law; 2) Great Debates on Contemporary Economic Sovereignty; 3) China’s Strategic Position on Contemporary International Economic Order Issues; 4) Divergences on Contemporary Bilateral Investment Treaty; 5) Contemporary China’s Legislation on Sino-Foreign Economic Issues; and 6) Contemporary Chinese Practices on International Economic Disputes (Case Analysis).