Pollsters warned: Follow rules

Stephen E Philion philion at hawaii.edu
Sun Oct 10 22:37:02 PDT 1999


This reminds me of a grad student I knew in Beijing who told me how his statistics dept. was hired out by a world famous soft drink company to conduct 'research' about the taste preferences of the Chinese populace, so that it could gobble up the local market. They also got suggestions from their handsomely paid research team on strategies to make their soft drink more appealing to the local population. This kind of thing is done by MNCs all around the world, it's nothing new of course. And as long as MNCs have the cash to buy off researchers to do such 'research', this trend will continue unabated. Would that such 'research' fell under the purview of this recent law.

Doubtful, after all, such research is not political.....and there is too much money that it attracts. Odds are small budget graduate researchers will make up the target of such laws...If you have bucks backing up your research in China, laws or no laws, you're in good hands.

Steve

South China Morning Post

Monday, October 11, 1999

Pollsters warned to follow rules

DANIEL KWAN

_________________________________________________________________

Foreign pollsters were warned yesterday to comply with mainland

regulations on conducting surveys or risk severe punishment.

The State Statistical Bureau said it would strictly enforce a

two-month-old regulation on conducting polls on the mainland.

From next month any foreign violators would "be dealt with severely",

the bureau said without elaborating.

A spokesman told Xinhua that there had been "frequent incidences" when

polls conducted by foreign pollsters "threatened China's national

security and social and public interests and provided false

information that jeopardised their clients' interests". He did not

give any examples of the alleged violations. But the spokesman said

foreign companies would be able to continue to conduct market surveys

of their own products or appoint mainland firms for research outside

their own business area.

The Xinhua report said only approved polling companies could conduct

surveys in China, under a licensing system to be implemented next

year.

Foreign organisations and individuals would have to appoint these

licensed firms if they wanted to commission any polls on the mainland.

The spokesman said many organisations had not yet complied with a

regulation issued by the Government two months ago on conducting

surveys.

Under this rule, polling organisations must submit their surveys and

results to the Government for approval.

He warned that these organisations would not be qualified for licences

if they remained defiant beyond November 15.

A number of polling companies have appeared in recent years to compete

in China's burgeoning polling market as manufacturers pay more

attention to customers' tastes and preferences.

Some foreign companies including media organisations have also begun

to hire polling companies to gauge public attitudes on sensitive

social issues.

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