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Sinica Podcast

Virginia Kamsky: A life of business in China

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Currentaffairs, Business, News, China Politics, Shenzhen, Chinese, Chongqing, China News, Politics, China, Culture, Sichuan, Hangzhou, Beijing, International Relations, China Economy, Chengdu, Film, Shanghai, Guangzhou

4.7710 Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2017

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Virginia A. Kamsky, also known as Ginny, is one of the leading foreign businesspeople in China and a legend of the U.S.-China commercial relationship. She first went to China in 1978 with what was then the Chase Manhattan Bank, before the country began “reform and opening up” and when very few foreigners visited. Ginny founded Kamsky Associates, Inc., in 1980, one of the first U.S. companies to be granted a business license in China. As a strategic advisory firm, Kamsky works with a wide array of clients ranging from automobile, chemical, finance, media, and more. Unlike some foreign business people but like many of the most successful business leaders in China, she has a background in Chinese language and culture, having learned it since she was ten years old. On the podcast, she shares some of her experiences getting to know some of the more notable politicians, executives, and entrepreneurs working in China, and the opportunities and pitfalls of doing business there as a woman and as a foreigner. Ginny will also be featured next month — on May 18, 2017 — as a speaker on the CEO / Leaders panel of the SupChina Women and China Conference in New York. Recommendations: Jeremy: 5 Calls, a smartphone app designed for the American “resistance” to Donald Trump, which gives you the numbers of five elected representatives or government offices in the U.S. to contact every day based on your location. Ginny: A video of Chinese ballroom dancing from 1929, plus the new book of Brookings scholar Cheng Li, Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership. Kaiser: Crazy Aaron Thinking Putty, a fun toy his son discovered and that Kaiser has found quite useful as a sort of stress ball. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Cynica podcast, a week of discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SubChina.

0:14.7

SubChina is the best way to stay on top of the most important news from China in just a few minutes a day.

0:19.4

Please subscribe to our daily email newsletter or download our smartphone app for a daily feast of China news that will

0:25.5

keep you informed about the news you need to know from China in just a few minutes every day.

0:29.9

We also publish our news briefs and a range of originally reported articles on our website.

0:35.1

I'm Kaiser Guo, coming today from Manhattan, where I am joined, of course,

0:38.4

by the man whose unbalanced grants, I blame entirely for China's illiberal turn after 2009.

0:43.0

Mr. Jeremy Goldhorn, how are you, sir? I'm fine, thank you, Kaiser, although I'm a little bit more

0:47.0

worried about America's illiberal turn immediately after I moved here. And I'll find a way to blame you for that, too. I mean, is it a coincidence that you moved there and then, right?

0:57.3

Anyway, today on Seneca, we are delighted to be talking to one of the true legends of the U.S.

1:02.0

China business relationship.

1:03.2

Virginia Kamski is chairman and CEO of Kamski Associates, Inc.

1:07.8

A strategic advisory firm.

1:09.1

She first came to China with what was then the Chase Manhattan Bank, way back in 1978,

1:14.9

even before reform and opening actually began.

1:17.9

In 1980, she founded Kamski Associates Incorporated, which was one of the first U.S.

1:23.3

companies to be granted a business license in China.

1:25.6

Her company has worked with a very wide range

1:28.4

of industries from chemicals to finance, to automotive, to media. And she is widely admired for her

1:34.4

business acumen, as well as for her mentoring of many up-and-coming business people. We are very

1:39.7

fortunate to have her with us on Cynica to share some of her experiences and insights. Ginny,

1:45.0

welcome to Cynica.

...

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