China's New Leaders

2	Three distinguished links in the Chinese network

These women entrepreneurs, who represent a seed of enterprising and leading styles for the 21st century, were already quite established in China in January 2004. What could a mature Western woman entrepreneur know about Chinese women entrepreneurs? What could a Western woman who’d landed in Beijing, with only a Chinese acquaintance as a contact in Shanghai and a couple of contacts in Beijing via another Chinese acquaintance, understand about Chinese business? This was how I arrived in Beijing on a Sunday in January 2003 – and without speaking a word of Mandarin. It was dark; the hotel where I lodged was near a Mandarin school in Haidian, a completely unfamiliar environment for a Westerner, ...