Westerners often fail to understand - or more accurately, misunderstand - the business environment in China. It's possible that the rapid pace of change in China is exciting enough that even talking about surface-level information can make for great copy.

Only with an eye to the past are we able to do some crystal-ball gazing of the business environment in China in 2006 and beyond. Like the California gold rush, early foreign investment and prospecting in China faced tremendous challenges and limited success. What do today's businesses need to know to avoid the gold-rush risks?