Cheng said Guangdong province, where Amway China is based, helped the company identify the right Beijing officials to appeal to, and eventually the company negotiated a compromise, under which it is allowed to keep using its door-to-door sales force as long as it also opens stores.
Other foreign executives said Guangzhou and Shanghai could both prosper if they develop distinct niches. Guangdong will probably remain a base for production of consumer electronics and desktop computers, they said, while Shanghai will dominate in semiconductors and notebook computers.
"I think people are underestimating Guangzhou," said Steven Carroll, Motorola's representative in China. He said his company had larger investments in the country than any other American firm, mostly around Beijing, but was considering opening a research and development center here. Carroll said Guangdong was Motorola's biggest cellular telephone market in China.
Guangzhou's location close to the financial center and bustling port of Hong Kong would seem to be enduring advantages, but puzzlingly, almost no mention of Hong Kong was made at this week's conference, either by Guangzhou officials or by visiting executives.
"The synergies between them could be enormous," said Dong Tao, an economist at Credit Suisse First Boston. "But Hong Kong's integration into the Pearl River delta actually seems to have slowed down" since China resumed sovereignty over it in 1997.
Some foreign executives chalk up the omission to the chauvinism of people here, who believe -- after two decades of torrid economic growth -- that they will always be the trail-blazers on China's road to capitalism.
"They are not scared," said Patrick Bourrier, the director of international affairs at Alcatel, which recently consolidated its Asian headquarters in Shanghai.
"Maybe they are still too proud," he added, "because they think they are the leaders in everything."
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