ABOUT THE BOOK
Completed blades in HT Blade’s first factory yard in Baoding, China. Note shaded bicycle parking to the left. Baoding, China, September 2004.
In an honest and freewheeling conversation with New York Times bestselling author Steve Fiffer, Jenevein recounts the story of his two-decade attempt to work fairly, forthrightly, and faithfully with his People’s Republic of China counterparts, his travels via jumbo jets, puddle jumpers, jeeps, and camels, his elation over sealing a groundbreaking deal designed to bring success to everyone, and his disappointment—and disbelief—over being betrayed by his PRC partners, who had also become friends. Equally important, he reflects on the current state of US-China relations and provides navigational markers for the critical coming years.
In his twenties, Jenevein unexpectedly found himself in the energy business in Texas; in his thirties he serendipitously tested the energy business in China; and in his forties, he pivoted from building power plants and wind farms to manufacturing wind turbine blades. Within eight years, that joint venture with China’s state-controlled aviation and military behemoth AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China) was valued at $1.8 billion dollars.
The Dabancheng wind farm in Xinjiang, called East Turkestan by Uyghurs, circa 1999.
Buoyed by their success, the partners set their sights on the burgeoning wind farm markets in Asia, the US, Europe, and South America. When his PRC partners breached the new venture’s contract, Jenevein sought an amicable resolution, but the Communist Party of China played by their own rules. In harrowing detail, he relates how the party not only refused to settle the dispute but threatened him and his family.
These tribulations led to a trial with issues that eventually worked their way up to the US Supreme Court. Jenevein carefully but swiftly recounts the prickly David v Goliath proceedings that led to a rare instance in which a US company prevailed against a Communist Party of China controlled entity…and actually collected on the judgment.
Jenevein is currently a persona non grata in China. But thanks to his unique understanding of that nation’s culture, politics, and business, he has built a successful strategy development and implementation firm whose clients range from US government offices to multinational corporations. In a thoughtful coda to this cautionary tale, the old China hand shares his thoughts about how to deal with the dragon today and in the future. Educating ourselves about the world’s only other superpower is essential, he says. Both entertaining and eye-opening, Dancing with the Dragon is an excellent primer for doing just that.
