OK, so the global economy has tanked and you’re considering going to work for a local company in one of the world’s only safe markets – China.

But the reality is that fewer than 50 percent of foreigners who make the jump to Chinese companies survive. So here’s a tiny primer of what to expect and do, according to the Beijing office of a global research firm, first cited in the Asian Wall Street Journal:

1) The office culture is really different. Expect to feel some isolation. Learn to endure the loneliness.
2) Don’t come in with a heaven-sent air of superiority. The Chinese won’t see you that way.
3) Ask to report to top management. That will leverage your authority.
4) Read your leader’s style, and don’t contradict him or her.
5) Use the phraseology common to the new company.
6) Start with small steps.
7) Learn to play office politics – but without taking sides.

According to the report by Russell Reynolds Associates, many foreigners (and Chinese who have experience working in foreign companies) fail on returning to Chinese companies.

“A majority of these executives leave within a year of their arrival. This rapid turnover inflicts financial loss, lowers company morale and impugns the image of managers who advocated their hire,” the report says.

Markets worldwide are rocky and generally sharply down in recent months. So why is the Shanghai A-share index up 17.4 percent so far this year?

The answer might seem obvious: China is holding up well amid global economic recession.

But some economists see a different answer. They say business owners receiving stimulus loans to revive flagging business are turning around and investing in the stock market, leading the turnaround.

Jing Ulrich of JPMorgan mentioned this hypothesis in a research report a few moments ago.

The A-share market's out-performance, combined with a surge in new brokerage account openings (484,510 added last week) has also fueled concerns that new bank loans are finding their way into the equity market. However, most of the new loans are likely to have gone into the real economy. Chinese corporates historically experience high cash requirements around the Chinese New Year period (Jan-Feb) due to salary, interest and tax obligations, which increases their need for short-term borrowing.

She said that despite the Shanghai market’s rise so far this year, shares on the Hong Kong market represent a better value.

Like many reporters, I rushed down to the Wangfujing pedestrian walkway in Beijing yesterday afternoon when word came out that three people had set their own car afire in what appeared to be self-immolation.

The event happened at about 2:50 p.m., according to the police.

I went with my assistant and got there at about 5:40 p.m. A knot of Japanese television reporters were on the scene, at the corner of Chang'an Boulevard, barely a few hundred meters from Tiananmen Square. I split with my assistant and we began asking people what they had seen. The scattering of bicycle lot attendants and other people with fixed jobs there virtually all said the same thing: “Saw nothing.” Clearly, they had been instructed not to speak.

The photos above and below are floating around the internet. They show the silver car with flags on top in which the three passengers rode before they set themselves afire. It looks like perhaps a body is lying behind the car. I can't tell for sure.

A police statement said that the three had come to Beijing as petitioners. That means that they had serious grievances and felt they could only get redress by coming to China’s capital.

It also made no mention of any death. It said two of the three were injured but neither was in life-threatening condition in the hospital.

A Hong Kong radio station said one of the people appears to be a Muslim Uyghur from the far west Xinjiang province. The ethnicity of the other two is not clear.

Self-immolation is a sign of fairly severe desperation. Frankly, I was a little surprised that the state Xinhua news agency would even carry a short item about this as sensitive as it is about China’s overseas image. Yet because of censorship, we may never know the full extent of the grievances of these three people.

I’m listening to Barack Obama’s speech to Congress and was just struck by his mention of China. It wasn’t about the trade deficit. Nor was it about environmental pollution. It was about energy efficiency.

Here’s the excerpt:

“We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century.  And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient.  We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it.  New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.”

So a lot of labels have been put on China in recent years: China Inc., Factory to the World, Polluted China, etc. Now we can add a new one: A China that is hurtling toward energy efficiency.

And it’s getting recognition for doing so.

Here’s a lesson on when to use Chinese proverbs and who to use them with.

Short answer: It’s probably best for Westerners not to try to out-proverb the Chinese, especially when speaking with Premier Wen Jiabao.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just passed through China, and she displayed a propensity to throw Chinese proverbs into her public statements, exclaiming at one point: “I love Chinese proverbs!”

She tossed out her first Chinese proverb before even departing on her weeklong trip, and in some ways it was apt.

In a speech on U.S.-China relations to the Asia Society on Feb. 13, Clinton used the aphorism, tongchuan gongji, which means roughly “when on a common boat, cross the river peacefully together.” The proverb was made famous in “The Art of War,” the book by the ancient philosopher and military strategist Sun Tzu. Most listeners probably got the gist of what Clinton was seeking to say: The United States and China have common problems and should work together.

Like most Chinese proverbs, this one contains four characters (and four syllables) but is loaded with historical and literal meaning.

It alludes to an episode when combatants from the warring states of Yue and Wu found themselves in the same boat on a river in a storm. Despite their hatred for each other, they agreed to lay down their weapons for the common passage.

The problem with the proverb is what historians say happened afterward: The king of Yue went on to destroy the Wu. They remained foes to the very end.

I don’t think Clinton meant to evoke the sense that the common cause between China and the United States was only temporary, and that one side would eventually vanquish the other.

On Saturday, she visited a power plant in Beijing and talked at great length about climate change and efficient energy usage. At the end of her talk, out popped another Chinese proverb: linke juejing, which means “before you are thirsty, dig a well.” She used it in the sense that China and the United States must act together to combat global warming.

An hour or so later, Clinton met with Premier Wen. According to the Xinhua news agency, Wen reminded her of the proverb she used in New York.

"As the world is faced with the grim impact of the financial crisis, I very much appreciate a proverb you quoted that all countries should cross the river peacefully as they are in a common boat," Wen said.

Then Wen popped a proverb back at her: xieshou gongjin, which is also taken from Sun Tzu.

"Another saying in the book goes 'progress hand in hand,'" Wen told Clinton.

On her first diplomatic foray abroad, Hillary Clinton is casting aside normal diplomatic caution. And for journalists, that’s newsy development.

In the last few hours, Clinton has waded into a public discussion about who will lead North Korea after ailing Kim Jong Il, known as the Dear Leader, leaves power. Normally, diplomats would shun such a discussion, fearing that it might rile Pyongyang.

But Clinton has gone at it with gusto, saying rumors about the reclusive Kim’s health have added to uncertainty that already swirls around nuclear-armed North Korea.

I’m in Seoul, South Korea, which is the third stop in Clinton’s four-nation Asia trip, and I’ve just come back from a news conference she held with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, seen in the photo, where the matter came up again. She broached it hours earlier on her plane flight from Indonesia yesterday (I wasn’t aboard).

Asked if she thought her candid discussion about the topic might provoke North Korea, Clinton said this morning:

“No I do not because I think that all one has to do is read the press, and the open press is filled with such conversations. This is not some kind of a classified matter that is not being discussed in many circles. But for me, as we look at planning and contingency planning, we are taking everything into account.”

Earlier in the press conference, Clinton said Washington will deal with the Kim regime still in power in Pyongyang, but that the future holds uncertainty over who will rule North Korea.

“It’s very clear that as Minister Yu said, when you are thinking about future dealings with a government that doesn’t have any clear succession – they don’t have a president, they don’t have a prime minister – that is something you have to think about,” she said.

According to news wire accounts here and here, Clinton brought up the succession issue earlier.

"Everybody is trying to sort of read the tea leaves as to what is happening and what is likely to occur, and there is a lot of guessing going on," Clinton said on her plane flight to Seoul, referring to talks between Chinese, South Korean, Japanese and U.S. officials about Pyongyang.

"But there is also an increasing amount of pressure because if there is a succession, even if it's a peaceful succession, that creates more uncertainty and it may also encourage behaviors that are even more provocative as a way to consolidate power within the society," she said.

She said the succession question is muddying the waters, as it were, in already tense diplomatic negotiations with the north.

"You add to the already difficult challenge of working with the North Koreans the uncertainties that come from questions about potential succession, this is a difficult undertaking," she said.

Kim Jong Il is believed to have at least three sons: Kim Jong Nam, in his late 30s; Kim Jong Chul, in his late 20s; and Kim Jong Un, a son in his mid-20s by another companion. A few weeks ago, Yonhap, the semi-official news agency in South Korea, said the youngest son was named as Kim’s heir apparent, and this week the son registered his candidacy for March 8 parliamentary elections, a sign he is on the way up.

Whether Clinton should be discussing all this in public is anybody’s guess. But for us journalists, it’s a welcome way to provide a little news.

Today is a snow day (I wish). About an inch of snow fell overnight in Beijing. And this morning, workers are out with their big brooms sweeping the sidewalks free.

It’s the first significant snowfall of the winter. Xinhua cites an official from the Beijing Weather Modification Command Center saying the snowfall was artificially induced: A total of 426 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide were seeded into clouds from 28 weather rocket launch bases in the city, said the official, Zhang Qiang, Xinhua said.

Workers were also out spreading salt and sand around the apartment complex where we live. Xinhua says 443 tons of the mix were spread around the city to keep the roads clear.

The nice thing about the snowfall is that it slows the entire city down and gives the urban landscape a new look, putting a smile on everyone’s face.

But schools stayed open. So for our daughters, it was a mixed blessing.

There are few places that I go as an American where I get an unmitigated welcome mat thrown out for me.

As often as not, the “unwelcome mat” is at the door. It seemed to reach an extreme following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. After I did a stint in Baghdad in late 2004, I remember passing through Amman, Jordan, and literally stammering when a bearded Jordanian asked me where I was. My mind raced. Should I say Canada, just for my own safety?
 
In Latin America, even friends would refer to us Americans as “los gringos.” There was always a slight edge to it. They’d deny it was pejorative. But it didn’t always go down like honey tea.

East Asia is different. The reception is usually friendly. Here in China, people on the street often ask where I’m from. I ask them to guess. When I tell them that, yes, they guessed right, I am from “meiguo,” literally “beautiful country,” they often give a thumbs up. When I ask their impression of the U.S., it’s often “strong” or “rich,” at least before the current financial meltdown.

But I can report one area where the reception is uniformly friendly, and it has little to do with envy of power and wealth.

Whenever I have traveled in ethnic Tibetan areas of China and locals find out I am American, they are always -- and I mean always -- friendly. They treat me as if I come from a place of benevolence. It certainly has something to do with Washington’s expressions of concern about Tibet. Sometimes I wish my Han Chinese friends could experience the same sensation of “welcome” in the Tibetan areas of their own country that I feel there.

I was just in eastern Qinghai province late last week and took these pictures of Tibetans on the street. Everywhere, people treated an American colleague and I as if we were esteemed friends.

I miss that feeling. I’m glad to find it from time to time.

One of the tragedies of China’s economic model is that many children are left behind in villages when their parents go off as migrants to look for jobs.

Often, the children are left with grandparents. But sometimes they are left with more distant relatives. One press report last summer said as many as one out six children – or 58 million – had been left to relatives.

The eight-minute video above is about some “left behind” children in southern China.

Harper’s Magazine has recently put its famous Index on line. A compendium of curious and interesting statistics, the Index is one of Harper’s hallmarks.

Here are statistics related to China in recent years. The month and year are before each statistic. The source for each one is in parentheses.

9/06 -- Number of Chinese illegals who have been caught by the United States but China has so far refused to take back: 39,000
  (U.S. Department of Homeland Security)
  
9/06 -- Number of troops that China has contributed to current U.N. peacekeeping missions: 1,408
  (U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations)
 Number from the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council combined: 822
  (U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations)
  
9/06 -- Minimum number of Chinese censors who monitor Internet activity: 100,000
  (Xiao Qiang, China Internet Project, Berkeley, Calif.)

12/07 -- Number of the world’s five most valuable companies last year that were Chinese: 0
  (Bloomberg News, NYC)  
 Number this year: 3
  (Bloomberg News)
  
12/07 -- Percentage change since 2000 in the value of China’s private security and surveillance industry: +265
  (China Public Security Association, Shenzhen)
  
12/07 -- Estimated percentage of the world’s male smokers who live in the United States and China, respectively: 3, 31
  (American Cancer Society, Atlanta)
 Estimated percentage of the world’s female smokers: 8, 7
  (American Cancer Society)
  
4/07 -- Rank of the People’s Bank of China among the world’s most profitable banks last year: 1
  (Stephen Green, Standard Chartered, Shanghai)
  
4/07 -- Maximum body-mass index that China now allows for any foreigner adopting a Chinese infant: 39
  (China Center of Adoption Affairs, Beijing)
  Maximum number of divorces that prospective parents can have between them: 2
  (China Center of Adoption Affairs)
  
9/07 -- Earliest year, in a 2004 estimate, that China was projected to surpass the United States in CO2 production: 2024
  (International Energy Agency, Paris)
 Year that China is now expected to pass the U.S.: 2007
  (International Energy Agency) 
 
11/08 -- Average number of hours per week that an American and a Chinese person, respectively, spend shopping: 4, 10
  (McKinsey & Company, NYC)  

11/08 -- Number of the 77 applications to protest during the Beijing Olympics this summer that were denied: 1
  (Xinhua News Agency)
 Number that were withdrawn by the petitioners or suspended for incorrect paperwork: 76
  (Xinhua News Agency)  

12/08 -- Amount a Chinese investor paid in June to have lunch with Warren Buffett: $2,110,000
  (Glide Foundation, San Francisco)  

3/08 -- Portion of U.S. GDP that is accounted for by consumer spending: 7/10
  (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)
  
Portion of China’s GDP: 1/3
  (United Nations Statistics Division,  N.Y.C.)  

4/08 -- Chance that a Silicon Valley technology company started since 1995 was founded by Indian or Chinese immigrants: 1 in 3
  (AnnaLee Saxenian, University of California, Berkeley)
  
5/08 -- Portion of all Chinese cancer deaths that are pollution-related, according to the government: 7/10
  (State Environmental Protection Administration)
  
5/08 -- Length, in miles, of Beijing’s newest airport terminal: 2
  (Foster + Partners, London)
  
6/08 -- Average number of inches by which entrepreneurs in China are taller than normal for their demographic: 0.3
    (Gerard Roland, University of California, Berkeley)