A while back Pierre and Kyle posted on the topic of cheap cars in India and the market for them. Click HERE to refer back to their posts.

Periodic Cal Poly MBA Trip blog follower Sin Yaw Wang then jumped into the discussion and raised the following point:

The car is way too expensive for India that, by the way, does not have the road system for more cars. What India should have developed is an electric bicycle industry like China. At US $300 each for high-end model, they are (more) affordable and easier to manufacture. They also pollute much less.

Of course, they also make less money for companies like Tata. Hmm, what’s good for the company is not for the country. Maybe that’s why there should be a stronger government. Oh, never mind, that will be China.

Today’s WSJ contains a nice article on his point, Riding Two-Wheelers in India: Honda Bets the Middle Class Will Chose Its Motorcycles Over Rivals’ Cheap Cars.

The article points out that while most of the world’s auto global giants are rushing to supply low-cost cars to the masses in India, Honda is taking another route and focusing on motorcycles. I would loved to have been in the board rooms listening to the debate and discussion on whether to go car, bike or motorcycle in India.

Time to buy a few shares of Honda stock?

Some of you have recently asked me what to do with your passports, particularly in China. Carry them on your person or other?

I can’t/won’t advise you on this.  In the FAQ document I try to give you some items and issues on this to think through and analyze.   This is your call to investigate and make. For myself, I will likely carry a copy of my passport and visa on me, not the original. I will also carry with me a copy of the Trip Information Sheet and my airline ticket so that if I am stopped I can pull out a document that verifies what I tell people as to why I am in China. There is risk in my strategy. I may find that they don’t find this acceptable. So you should not assume that my way is the only way or right way. Everybody is responsible for their own selves on this issue on this trip.  I will also copy and email to my email account a PDF of my passport, visa and airline ticket.

See this recent good CLB post on this very topic, Is That A Passport In Your Pants or Are You Just Happy To See Me? Thanks, Dan Harris. As always, you have a way with titles for blog posts, of which I admittedly used verbatim in this post to grab my own student’s attention.

As I try to mention in our predeparture sessions, China is cracking down on expats with the wrong or expired visa in advance of the Olympics (and World Expo in Shanghai). There are a number of theories why they are doing this. I won’t go into that in detail here, but in short, my own view is that they are coupling the Olympics and World Expo with visa issuance and renewal to find out who the “gamers” are in their country that are not playing by the rules, paying taxes, starting unregistered firms, to get a handle on who is legitimately there, etc., and, they are doing this as part of a fear of terrorism in lieu of those events. Whatever the case, this is an issue to take seriously.

See, e.g., the below email excerpt I recently received from one of our MBA alumni now living and working in China where he/she describes a situation that is even more heavy handed than I realized:

The visa situation is horrible leading up to the Olypmics. The government is going to the [___ citizen] homes and trying to take away their visa by showing they are on the wrong type (i.e., working with a tourist visa). I got mine before these problems. I was on a student visa and now on a business visit visa for work. It was easier to call me an “internship” to get the visa. When I need to renew it might be difficult. My _____[omitted] company is trying to get a license here and get him/her a working visa but he/she is having difficulties so he/she keeps going to other countries to get a tourist visa. We have had guests who had a lot of problems, it is hurting our business. Last week _______ [omitted] came and spoke to ______[omitted name] [and us] because the police are calling people and asking questions to find reason to deport them. It is crazy here. They have pulled over two of my foreign friends and taken away their scooters and tried to take their passports.

As you can see, the Chinese don’t waste time endlessly debating visa, passport and immigration issues like we do in the US and Washington D.C. They make a decision, execute and get it done. Don’t blame them. They are only enforcing the laws that have been on their books for some time which hoards of companies and expats were violating en masse, but now said expats are crying that the enforcement rules have changed. Happens all the time in regulatory environments across the globe. Further, in terms of an checkpoint, or an opportunity to create a checkpoint via the Olympics or World Expo, the Chinese strategy here is pretty darn effective and efficient, in my view.

And for cryin’ out loud, folks, if you DO carry your original passport on your person or in your backpack (can easily be cut open with a knife from behind), do NOT lose it or let it get it stolen!! Per the FAQ document, if your passport is lost or stolen I can do nothing for you other than drop you off at the embassy or consulate to solve this problem (plan for it to take a few days), you are on your own, and the rest of us move on. Any extra expense in you catching up with us will be yours to incur.

Take this issue seriously! Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.