Another reason why French companies in aggregate have not done so well in China, says Wang Jiann-Yuh, director-general of the France-China Committee, part of MEDEF, the French employer's union, is that French businesspeople can be impatient, sometimes arrogant, and overly focused on short-term results.

ECONOMIST: French companies in China

At a private dinner in Paris recently a group of French businesspeople listened politely to a politician moaning about his department having to reduce its costs by 5%, until one of the private-sector bosses pointed out that he had knocked out a fifth of his costs in a little over two years.

ECONOMIST: The gods that have failed��so far