Page 72 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

The same month, China opened another portal in the Great Wall by
entering the World Trade Organization, taking a gigantic leap into the global
economy and allowing foreign investors and overseas competition to come in.
Zhang quickly concluded that those events marked the beginning of a
Chinese century, with Beijing as the nerve center, as China sloughed off years
of communism and liberalized its economy.
Zhang felt he could not sit on the sidelines. He had to jump in and capi-
talize on the wide-open opportunities unfolding in China. Although he never
had run his own business before,
Zhang decided his time had come
“I realized that cars were the most important in the newly reforming Chinese
symbol of private ownership in China.” economy. But what kind of busi-
John Zhang, ness? He thought about it, but not
president and CEO, Chinacars for too long. What are the top
goods and services that China’s
long-deprived consumers want
now that the market is opening up?
He ticked them off: a car, a home, travel and education for the kids—an all-
American consumer wish list.
As he traveled around Beijing on streets increasingly jammed by traffic
where bikes were fewer and fewer, it was a no-brainer. It had to be cars. “I
realized that cars were the most important symbol of private ownership in
China and would be the strongest engine of growth in the economy,” Zhang
says. Striking a patriotic theme, he adds: “We carried a sense of history, a
sense of country. This was not just
a simple business but a part of our
“We carried a sense of history, a sense of lifestyle.”
country. This was not just a simple business,
but a part of our lifestyle.” Just four months later, on
November 15, 2001, Zhang formed
John Zhang, Chinacars Inc., an automotive
president and CEO, Chinacars service site for first-time car buyers
that so far has avoided major road
bumps. Chinacars is a tech-savvy,
full-service Chinese version of the American Automobile Association (AAA),
that longtime cultural icon founded in Chicago in 1902. Its Chinacars Club
(CCC) offers roadside assistance in a uniquely Chinese way: It relies on teams

46 SILICON DRAGON