Some, like Shen, benefit personally. His decade of employment at Coca-Cola has given him a tenfold increase in his living standard and many trappings of an American company man's life -- new apartment, 45-minute commute through traffic-choked streets, a shot at advancement without having to bribe a cadre.
"I've got the home," he says. "Now I'm working on getting the car."
If China is looking for an American frame of reference, there's plenty to choose from. The names on Chinese signs, buildings and mouths these days are familiar ones -- Motorola, Honeywell, McDonald's, FedEx. The wildly popular KFC now has more than 600 Chinese locations. Microsoft is poised to expand its China operations. According to the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily, more than 300 of the top 500 US companies have done business in China.
The changes American companies are bringing to China seem palpable. But could it transcend business? Many believe so.
"American concepts of management ... are based on such things as the worth and importance of the individual, flexibility, and creativity," says Bill Bodde, a former director of the APEC forum."These values, in turn, will promote democracy and freedom."
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