'Infernal' documents

Nothing was simple back then: you had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get anything you needed, even just for normal office life. We take office equipment and furniture for granted today.

We probably wouldn't think twice about importing something from Hong Kong and having a customs agent or freight forwarder handle the procedures for us.

Ian J. Stones (right) featured in an ad for the Lido Hotel Business Center in 1986.

But 30 years ago it wasn't like this - it was very difficult, and we had to do everything ourselves.

The story of how we acquired a filing cabinet illustrates the difficulties of dealing with Customs. At the time we were involved in a joint venture with Smith Industries to represent their subsidiaries.

Their vice-president bought us a four-drawer filing cabinet in Hong Kong and shipped it by train to Beijing. This basic piece of office furniture couldn't be found anywhere in the Chinese capital, and we didn't want the nearest equivalent - all clumsy metal cupboards with flimsy brown paper envelopes piled up inside.

The cabinet took three weeks to arrive. A postcard notice to collect it from Beijing Railway Station came by mail and, late the next morning, after meetings, I took a taxi to pick it up.

With me I had around 300 yuan ($200 in those days) and our company checkbook, so I was ready to pay the customs duty. I thought I'd be in and out of there in a few minutes. Boy, was I in for some memorable lessons ...

'Infernal' documents

Lesson No 1: Never try to clear Customs just before lunch. After finding the unmarked freight office at Beijing Station, I was given the documents to take to Customs and found the Customs office. Nine or so people were sitting at desks.

Even though I was the only 'customer', no one stood up to attend to me. Eventually one young officer came to the counter. I asked how much the duty would be. He told me to come back after 2 pm. I took a taxi back to the hotel, and returned in the afternoon.

Lesson No 2: Customs duties were very high. The filing cabinet and freight charges came to the equivalent of $412, which at the prevailing exchange rate of 1.58 yuan to the dollar was 650 yuan. This was already twice what the cabinet would cost in Hong Kong.

After looking up the category in which it should be classed, I was eventually told that the duty would be 100 per cent, which meant that this simple cabinet would cost us the grand total of $824. For anything we would want to import, duties ranged from 80 per cent to 280 per cent, including other taxes - although the categories weren't clear and were subject to interpretation.

Lesson No 3: Foreigners are not allowed to see "internal documents". I was shocked by this amount and wanted to see how they'd calculated the duties. I asked to see the booklets they'd been referring to and was told, "Custom tables are internal documents, foreigners are not allowed to see them".

That term neibu wenjian, or "internal documents", would become one of the most irritating phrases I would hear. It would be used in all sorts of situations, and you'd never be sure if there really was a document or not.

Transparency is an issue raised by foreign business representatives today. In 1979, 'You can't see the internal documents' was the norm.

Lesson No 4: Carry lots of cash - Customs don't take checks. The duty came to 649.5 yuan.

Since I didn't have that amount of cash on me, I opened the checkbook. At that time, foreigners with accounts with the Bank of China were issued checkbooks that, surprisingly, you could use in taxis and hotels and even at souvenir stalls at the Great Wall.

They were different from the checks used by Chinese entities, and were generally accepted. The customs officer watched me write out the check, sign it and put the mandatory contact details on it. When I handed it to him he looked at it and, with a stony face, said, "We do not accept checks."

"Why not?"

"It's a regulation."

"Show me the regulation."

"You can't see it."

"Why not?"

"Because it concerns foreigners."

"Then I can see it."

"No, it's an internal document."

"If the taxi-drivers, the Friendship Stores, CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) and the Great Wall souvenir shops accept checks, why won't the Customs?"

"We are the Customs, we do it our way."

After 15 minutes I gave up. It was too late to go the Bank of China that day, so I went the next morning.

Change is gonna come

The bank's head office was the three-story building just south of the Great Hall of the People on Tian'anmen Square. The lady at the counter said there was no reason why Customs shouldn't accept a check.

As we talked about it, she half-jokingly suggested I pay the Customs duty in small notes so that they would have to take time to count it, and it would teach them a lesson.

I was given neat piles of 1, 2, 5 and 10 yuan notes (there were no 100 yuan notes then). My frustration had built up and, after telling my colleagues all about it, we eventually filled a paper shopping bag from the Friendship Store full of the small notes, screwing up each note individually, fluffing up the volume and randomly messing things up with coins.

We even threw in some US cents and Japanese yen coins for fun. I wrote "649.50 yuan" with a felt pen on the bag in big characters and went back to the Customs office.

The officer again went through the process to calculate the duty and told me the amount. I asked; "Will you accept a check?"

"No."

"Will you accept cash?"

"Yes."

"Here is the cash."

He saw the big bag full of notes and coins, and said, "You must count the cash."

"I've already counted it."

"You must count it in front of me."

"Why?"

"It's a regulation."

"Show me the regulation."

"You can't see it."

"Why not?"

"It's an internal document."

"Then it's nothing to do with foreigners."

"It is."

"Show it to me then."

"No, it's an internal regulation."

"Then it doesn't apply to me."

"It's a regulation."

"Regulations are wangba pigu (a kind of rhyming slang that meant 'turtle's ass')."

He was stony-faced, but others laughed to hear the slang. I left the bag of cash on the counter, sat down and got out a book.

After several minutes, another customs officer, a young man, quietly walked over and said he would handle it. The young guy took ten minutes to sort out the notes, putting them in neat piles, and then three others each counted the money in turn.

After half an hour they had finished the procedures, but they still took their time. When they finally handed me the paperwork, the officer said, "You foreigners are really bad."

"Why?"

"Another foreigner did the same last week, but he did it with one fen coins."

I burst out laughing and said, "Accept checks then." I left, and started to think how to get the filing cabinet to the hotel and - more difficult - how to get it past the front desk.

Lesson No 5: Be careful who you upset - word of your deeds travels. Months later, this episode would come back to haunt me.

'Bad attitude'

At Zhanjiang, Guangdong province in 1984, attempting to find a solution to a tricky technological problem.

When later I wanted to bring in a copy machine, I was told that my name and the story of my "bad attitude" had spread all over Beijing Customs. The lady who told me advised I shouldn't upset anyone if I needed to get help from Customs in future. It was good advice. But nevertheless we were on our way to equipping the office.

We got tired of the run to the telex office, so next my boss said we had to find a way to get a telex machine of our own - even though no companies then had their own machines and the Beijing Hotel refused to let any of us have office equipment in our rooms.

So I went to see an influential lady I knew who I figured would have the right connections; she said it would cost us $500 and a couple of Win brand cigarette lighters (the top brand at the time).

I agreed, and the next thing we knew, a very senior retired general from Hunan province turned up at our office. He was around 75 and spoke with a loud voice; he spent most of the time telling us stories of the Long March and civil war.

Eventually, he said getting the telex would be no problem, he'd go to see the manager of the hotel. In the end it actually took four trips to the manager.

After a few days, the general came back waving chopped approval documents and a handwritten guarantee that we had to sign.

He said the manager had agreed, but if any other foreigner found out we had a telex machine, we'd lose it. We had to guarantee that no one would find out and complain that they wanted one too.

We had a soundproof box with sponge lining specially built to hide the machine in the office, which was still a hotel suite. And for all the help he gave us, the general got just the two cigarette lighters: the lady got the $500.

One evening, when it was our turn to host a "happy hour", a number of friends were sitting in our suite.

I noticed slight vibrations coming from the box, indicating that a telex was coming in, but luckily no one else noticed it. I could hardly contain myself when Dick Glover, the first US China Business Council rep in Beijing said, "Not even Deng Xiaoping could get a telex in the Beijing Hotel," We couldn't risk Dick or anyone else knowing we had it, in case we lost it.

Editor's Note: After 1978 when China threw its door open to the outside world, some brave foreigners came and built pioneering, thriving businesses. Their memories and insights give a glimpse into the extraordinary changes that have happened in China during the past thirty years.

China Business Weekly is authorized by ACA Publishing Ltd to publish excerpts from its latest book My Thirty Years in China: 1978-2008 True-Life Stories of a Changing China.

In this issue, we present an excerpt written by Ian J.Stones. Stones came to China as an exchange student in 1978 and from 1979 onwards he played a pioneering role in a number of different industries, including the oil and gas, aviation, automotive, financial and pharmaceutical sectors.

In fact, Stones had much difficulty in starting his career in 1979 when most of the business procedures were not transparent and 'You can't see the internal documents' was the norm.

But his harsh memories perfectly underscore the dramatic changes brought to the country's business environment by the reform and opening-up policy, although now there is still some room for improvement.

Some minor changes have been made to this excerpt.

(China Daily 11/03/2008 page2)