The Challenge of Mission-Driven Business Education in China: A Response to Henri-Claude de Bettignies

To speak about the complex reality of China in meaningful terms is a very difficult task, and to reflect on business education and its mission in this context is an even bigger challenge. We are very fortunate to have Professor Henri-Claude de Bettignies sharing his experiences and thoughts with us. For a significant part of his life, Professor de Bettignies has been engaged in understanding business in East Asia and China and building bridges between the East and the West. He has showed a strong commitment to assist Chinese business people in raising their ethical awareness and to help steer them through a great deal of complex ethical situations. Thank you for being with us. Before discussing several more specific points, I would like to emphasize the importance of what Henri-Claude said in his introduction. In fact, China has been facing enormous challenges in her development over the last 30 years, and it is hard to overestimate the gravity of those multiple difficulties. Unfortunately, China watchers and critics from abroad too often do not grasp the complexity of China’s process of reform and opening-up and too easily slide into China bashing that deflects the attention from the real problems that exist. The Chinese are still mindful of the invasion of Western powers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus, when the West thinks i