Beijing Jeep (Signed by Author)

James Mann’s Beijing Jeep (published 1989)

Blurbs:

“The story of how AMC’s 1979 joint venture to produce Jeeps in Beijing ended in tears is perhaps the closest thing to a classic work on doing business in post-Mao China. It’s required reading for anyone venturing to the world’s most populous nation.”
—Fortune

“The best ‘business’ book previously written about China is probably Jim Mann’s Beijing Jeep, an account of the ill-fated auto joint venture in China’s early days of experimenting with capitalism.”
—Time

“I greatly enjoyed the first edition of Beijing Jeep, which I found to be fast-paced, informative, and sadly funny. I am confident this update will tug new readers into the arcane world of doing business in China.”
—Jonathan Spence

“If you think the Soviet bloc’s upheavals will create instant riches for Western investors, Beijing Jeep will sober you up.”
—Newsweek

About the author:

James Mann is a Washington-based journalist and author. Early in his career, he worked for the Washington Post and was involved in reporting the Watergate scandal. He has written a series of nonfiction books, including three about China, focusing on America’s relationship with the country. Beijing Jeep was the first, followed by About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship With China From Nixon to Clinton (1999), and The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression (2007). He has also written extensively on American foreign policy. Most of his newspaper career has been with the Los Angeles Times, including his stint as the paper’s Beijing correspondent.

The book in 150 words:

Mann’s classic story is about one of the earliest and most spectacular Sino-U.S. joint ventures: AMC’s 1979 JV to produce Jeeps in Beijing. The heady, hopeful early days of economic engagement. Detroit feeling bullish on China; China rushing to open up. In a country of restricted infrastructure and rather bumpy roads, the Beijing Jeep seemed like the answer to everyone’s auto-related prayers. But AMC’s saga — from exported kits to Chinese assembly lines, the logistical infrastructure for parts and repairs, the management snafus — is no straightforward “them against us” battle. Both sides made major errors and major concessions; both sides spent time with their heads in the sand and stuck in the mud of fixed thinking. But then the amazing thing about Beijing Jeep is that then, in 1979 and into the early ’80s, there was no “road map,” no case studies for JVs in China. It was virgin — and quite expensive — territory.