Guangdong NCC in Tianjin was established by Guangdong provincials and townsmen in Tianjin in June 2007122, and evolved from its predecessor of Tianjin Guangdong Association of Fellow Provincials (Tianjin Guangdong tongxiang lianyihui), which was a bottom-up initiated voluntary fellow organization. Tianjin Guangdong NCC acts like a civil chamber of commerce, which pays attention to service provision to membership enterprises. It had more than one hundred member enterprises in 2012,123 ranging from real estate, construction and decoration materials, electromechanical equipment, automobile dealing, household supplies, food and beverage service, logistics, financial service, telecommunication and creative advertising. Their investment in Tianjin reached more than 10 billion RMB by 2012 (Ibid). Since its establishment, Guangdong NCC insisted on providing good service to Guangdong enterprises located in Tianjin, and endeavored to solve the practical problems of member enterprises. In 2007, Tianjin Guangdong NCC got the ISO9001 Great Wall quality management system certification,124 and became the first
122 Source from Tianjin Guangdong NCC’s establishing diary from WJS: “天津市广东商会在广东省驻京办
事处的指导下，于2006 年 4 月开始发起筹备工作，2007 年 6 月 6 日成功召开了天津市广东商会第一
届会员代表大会” (internal report).
123 广东商会在津投资数千亿, 天津日报, 2012-03-20
http://www.tjcoc.gov.cn/html/2012/shangwuyaowen_0320/645.html, last accessed on 27th July, 2016. 124 This is an international-standard certification in terms of the quality of management and services that
social organization that complied with the international standards to building and improving member service management systems in China.125 Thanks to hard work and great efforts, it was awarded “The Advanced Unit for Two-way Services” (shuangxiang fuwu xianjin danwei) in 2008 and 2009 respectively. In 2009, it initiated ‘the national committee of secretary-generals of Guangdong NCCs’ together with Shanghai Guangdong NCC, and held the first meeting in Shanghai, which indicated the start of a higher-level cooperation and communication among all the Guangdong NCCs nation-wide.
By June 2012, Tianjin Guangdong NCC had 4 full-time staff, including the Secretary- general.126 Unlike the Shanxi NCC, the Secretary-general, rather than the president, is the
key person in Tianjin Guangdong NCC’s development. WJS is the first Secretary-general of Tianjin Guangdong NCC and he is still in post. He used to work in a government-run enterprise and developed comprehensive skills to deal with public relations with governments. He was born in Guangdong province where his parents originally came from, but grew up in Tianjin. Therefore, his knowledge of and affection for both places motivated him to initiate the Tianjin Guangdong NCC together with other Guangdong entrepreneurs in Tianjin in 2006 and 2007. 127
Tianjin Guangdong NCC experienced 16 months’ preparatory time before its official establishment. The proposal to establish Tianjin Guangdong NCC was put forward in a Chinese New Year catch-up of Guangdong Fellow Association members, most of who were Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) business people. Due to lack of network resources with officialdom, they had to approach and cooperate with other important figures with Guangdong connections in Tianjin, so as to smooth out the process of administrative approval and registration. According to data I have collected from their annual report, they have approached around 35 people during the period from 25 February 2006 when the proposal was put forward, to 6th June 2007 when the first Tianjin Guangdong NCC general assembly of members was formed. 128
social organizations provide.
125 Jinyue Jiayuan Newsletter, the first issue 津粤家园.
126 Information from Tianjin Guangdong NCC’s official website: http://www.tgcoc.com/info/12-499.html.
Last entry 09/04/2015.
127 Ibid.
Guangdong NCC in Tianjin has kept a low profile in its daily operation and activities. Compared to other influential NCCs, it has kept its influence within the range of business circles rather than in the public affairs and local governance. “Keeping business within business” is its motto in its engagement with local affairs, which can be reflected on the following operational aspects: first, Guangdong NCC sets itself as a service provider or agent to membership enterprises and local governments and their departments. Therefore, it pursues a certain amount of profit in its business service. For example, it has a specific commission rate in coordinating business cooperation between membership enterprises or business between two localities in Tianjin and Guangdong. In this sense, it regards itself as equal market players as enterprises.
Second, it has a clear target within the interaction with local bureaucracies. In the context of local governments’ competition for GDP growth, local bureaucrats especially in the business departments have been designated specific investment tasks. In order to maximize their influence in business cooperation between local government and non-local enterprises, Guangdong NCC endeavored to get access to the business departments at the municipal and district levels respectively. By introducing potential business cooperation projects, not only did they meet the requirements of local bureaucracies, but they also enhanced their lobbying capacity for Guangdong business clients.
Third, as a harbor of business information and policy orientation from both Tianjin and Guangdong, Tianjin Guangdong NCC developed the resources to become an important “broker” in promoting regional business cooperation. Guangdong Province, as the pioneer of reform and opening up, has the most flourishing private business in China, and their investment beyond Guangdong Province and nation-wide is ranked top in 2015.129 Relying on the strong economic strength of Guangdong Province, most Guangdong NCCs in China have become the objects of cooperation for local business departments, which gave them prestigious status in business lobbying (Interview with WW, Official in Guangdong ICF). However, rather than expanding influence in a wide range of local governance, Tianjin Guangdong NCCs’ local engagement has not exceeded beyond business and the economic arena. They show preferences to staying in a more controllable range of policy stages and sphere, and abiding by the principle of “Keeping business within business” (Ibid.).
129 Data from the “Chinese Corporate Globalization Report 2015” 中国企业全球化报告(2015) , issued by
Tianjin Guangdong NCC developed in two main stages and in 2012 it reached a milestone. From 2007 to 2012, it focused on inner capacity building. For example, on 16th May 2007, even before the official launch of Tianjin Guangdong NCC, the secretariat started the certification-training program of ISO 9000 international quality standard, which indicated the level of their professional service for membership enterprises.130 Another example was all the staff working in Tianjin Guangdong NCC had to get the training and pass the examination of social worker for civil organizations by 2013. The second stage ran from 2012 until present, when Guangdong NCC tried to develop its outreach activities and expand its influence to a wider range, though its efforts were hampered by reality. Guangdong NCC’s influence kept decreasing with less and less public engagement. Since my fieldwork was completed in 2012, I did not collect information about Guangdong NCC after 2012. However, through secondary material and information online, it is evident that Guangdong NCC’s development was far from satisfactory. One of the reasons may be that along with the increase of individual enterprises’ lobbying capacity, they did not need Tianjin Guangdong NCC as the platform anymore. At the same time, due to Guangdong NCC’s profit driven activity, its reputation was greatly affected. It seemed impossible for Guangdong NCC to maintain its independent status in the interaction with local state and business society.
In the summer of 2012, I spent two weeks in Tianjin Guangdong NCC to conduct participant observation. Therefore, I reviewed the process of Tianjin Guangdong NCC’s operation and its interaction with local state and membership enterprises. Guangdong NCC’s business orientation was very obvious, which was not just reflected on its business network building with membership enterprises and Guangdong private enterprises, but also reflected on its position in state-business relations. As the Secretary-general WJS said, the NCC would like to achieve the targets of “managing government” and “managing enterprises”. This could be interpreted as follows - when cooperating with local states, it would help the state to attract more investments, and tackle the administration problems of local business; but when cooperating with enterprises, it would help the business to negotiate with local states for preferential policy or policy exception. Whatever position it was in, it sought to maintain the independence and liberty to prioritize its own interests. Unlike other NCCs, it took local governments as its clients rather than patrons, which to
some degree broke the traditional relationship between grass-root NGOs and local state, and also explained the decline of Tianjin Guangdong NCC after 2012.
Tianjin Guangdong NCCs’ organizational structure was simple but functional, as shown in Figure 5.1. The president (part-time) was the Chairman of the board of a famous private real estate company in 2012. Due to the limited number of full-time working staff, Guangdong NCC just kept the essential departments, like Department of Administration, Department of Service and Rights Protection, Department of Cooperation and Communication, which were all accounting to the Secretariat. Guangdong NCC’s membership size and industry coverage were relatively small scale, but it was starting to attract more big enterprises with strong economic strength to join it. For example, in 2010, it had successfully preached China Guangfa Bank, China Minsheng Bank, and Shenzhen Development Bank as its vice-presidential membership unit, which were all state-owned or state holding companies, different from Guangdong NCC’s other member enterprises. In addition, it had opened the membership qualification to Tianjin local small and medium enterprises (SME) in order to promote more business cooperation within membership enterprises and boost its influence in business service, like providing platform for business information, introducing local governments’ preferential policy on investment, etc.
Member Congress ↓
Advisory Committee Council Party Organization (Youth League, Trade Union) ↓
supervisory committee Standing Council Presidents’ meeting ↓
Secretariat ↓
Department of Administration Department of service and rights protection Department of Cooperation and communication
Figure 5.1 The Organizational Structure of Tianjin Guangdong NCC
To sum up, Tianjin Guangdong NCC is a very young NCC in Tianjin, but has achieved substantial influence, especially in attracting investment and bridging the economic communication between Tianjin and Guangdong. This will be illustrated in the following case analysis. Among all the activities Guangdong NCC has engaged in and promoted, coordinating the relations between local government departments and entrepreneurs has been always their focus, but have never endeavored to engage into the wide local policy process.131