In 2011, after a decade as CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), at that time the worlds leading lender to high-tech companies and their venture backers, Ken Wilcox moved to Shanghai to establish a joint venture bank between SVB and the Chinese government to fund innovative startups. Wilcox describes first-hand the challenges he encountered in his efforts to establish a joint venture, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) efforts to systematically sabotage the project and steal SVBs business model. Wilcox describes his difficulties in transplanting SVBs model to China, from misunderstandings about titles and responsibilities to pitched battles over toilet design--all with SVBs global reputation and its $100 million investment at stake. Based on interviews with a wide spectrum of Chinese society, Wilcox describes a China he found fascinating and maddeningly complex, from the baijiu-loving history buff to the apartment-hopping Chinese instructor. Unsparing in his assessment of his own missteps, listing his own painfully learned lessons. Wilcox provides a clear roadmap for Western bankers, c-suite executives, consultants, and entrepreneurs to interact with China. Wilcox argues, while Wall Street continues with its China optimism, the West cannot approach China assuming Western cultural norms will work, instead meeting China with realistic expectations. The book concludes with a set of guidelines to boost other Westerners up his painful learning curve, so they can avoid these missteps.