GlobeSt.com: Is the Olympics spurring a lot of development in Beijing?

Tang: Beijing is like a patchwork of construction. You see the building cranes everywhere and, more so, the local developers are building residential and office projects in the CBD; that's the place earmarked for the commercial hub of Beijing. That's why I say Beijing is shedding a lot of its political image. It's getting commercialized. Before that it was Shanghai, which was a commercial center. It used to be one of the big four financial centers back in the 1920s and 1930s. Beijing is catching up and building a lot.

GlobeSt.com: Where is the interest coming from, Europe or the United States?

Tang: Both actually, and we're seeing an increasing amount of investment from Asian corporations. Total contracted foreign direct investment in 2003 was $115.7 billion while FDI was $53.5 billion. Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong, Shanghai and Zhejiang, in that order, were the leading recipients of FDI, garnering 65.14% of all inflows. In 2004, FDI reached $60.63 billion, which was a growth of 13%. China approved a total of 43,664 new foreign-investment companies in 2004, up 6% from 2003. So China's accumulative FDI totaled nearly $1.1 trillion by December 2004. Out of that, $562.1 billion has been materialized. The breakdown from other countries, based on the 2003 figures, is Hong Kong at $17.7 billion, British Virgin Islands at $5.8 billion, Japan at $5.1 billion, South Korea at $4.5 billion and the US at $4.2 billion.

GlobeSt.com: Why should other countries venture into China?

Tang: China is a huge domestic market. There are a lot of opportunities and money to be made. It tops most corporate agendas these days; no one ignores a country that's just become the third-largest exporter in the world. Using the PPP method of calculating GDP, China is already the world's second largest economy, accounting for 13% of global output.

GlobeSt.com: What roadblocks, if any, are there for doing business in China?

Tang: Rapidly changing market dynamics, lack of regulatory transparency and frequent policy shifts make China one of the most difficult markets in which to achieve commercial success. Besides the central government in Beijing, each province--or city--essentially has its own decision-making authority. Also, it is exhausting to catch up with the amount of changing legislation. And, of course, the particular thing the US has been yelling about, there is no international property rights protection.