Best Books for Business Chinese
Professional Mandarin for the workplace
17 books
Chosen for Business Chinese
AI Superpowers
A leading technologist explains how China became a powerhouse in artificial intelligence alongside Silicon Valley. An accessible, forward-looking read on China's tech ambitions and their global impact.
Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built
The inside story of how Jack Ma built Alibaba into one of China's most influential tech giants. A clear, engaging guide to the rise of Chinese e-commerce and entrepreneurship.
Business Chinese for Success: Real Cases from Real Companies
Built from case studies of actual companies operating in China, so the vocabulary arrives inside a real commercial argument. Strong on the language of strategy, market entry and competition.
China CEO: A Case Guide for Business Leaders in China
Distilled advice from dozens of senior executives running companies in China — covering management, negotiation, and the cultural fault-lines that trip up newcomers. A practical playbook for doing business with China.
Chinese Business Etiquette
The classic guide to the manners, protocol, and unspoken rules of doing business in China — gift-giving, banquets, face, and guanxi. Indispensable for handling real professional encounters with confidence.
Dealing with China
Former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson shares decades of high-level dealings with China's leaders and economy. A thoughtful look at the relationships and forces shaping Chinese business and finance.
Doing Business in China
The academic reference on market entry: structures, law, regulation and partnership models, kept current across editions. Drier than the memoirs, and far more useful when you are actually deciding something.
Experiencing Chinese: Business Communication in China
A compact 60–80 hour course aimed at professionals already posted to China. Task-driven, focused on getting a specific thing done in Chinese rather than on covering a syllabus.
Mr. China: A Memoir
A gripping first-hand story of a Western investor sinking hundreds of millions into 1990s China and colliding with a business culture he barely understood. Hilarious, humbling, and genuinely instructive about trust and negotiation.
New Silk Road Business Chinese (Intermediate I)
Peking University’s business series, written for learners heading into trade and commerce. Practical, dialogue-heavy, and the closest thing to a mainland-standard business textbook.
One Billion Customers
A veteran journalist and businessman's vivid, story-driven guide to the realities of the Chinese market — full of cautionary tales and hard-won lessons. Essential reading before you pitch, partner, or sell in China.
Poorly Made in China
An insider's eye-opening account of manufacturing and quality games in China's export factories. A candid, story-driven look at the realities of sourcing and doing business with Chinese suppliers.
Startup Business Chinese, Level 1
A proper business-Chinese course rather than a phrasebook. Level 1 covers introductions, arrangements and office routine, with the etiquette notes that stop a correct sentence landing wrong.
Startup Business Chinese, Level 2
Level 2 moves from small talk to substance — meetings, proposals, disagreement, and the careful language of a deal that is not settled yet.
Startup Business Chinese, Level 3
The advanced volume: negotiation, contracts and formal written register. The point at which business Chinese stops being vocabulary and starts being judgement.
The Chinese Way in Business
The cultural logic behind Chinese commercial behaviour — guanxi, face, hierarchy and the long approach to trust. Explains why a deal that looks agreed may not be.
The End of Cheap China
Argues that the low-cost-factory China most Westerners still picture stopped existing some time ago, and reads the consumer market that replaced it. Written by a market researcher who sells to it.