This thesis examines the values and criteria American companies use in hiring or placing expatriate employees in China. These values and criteria affect the success or failure of expatriate employees and a company's bottom line - profitability. Investigating this topic required an examination of the history of the political, economic, and social philosophies that have shaped contemporary China. It was also necessary to examine expatriates and their role, and to define an American company. Cultural comparisons are made between the United States and China using Hofstede's Four Dimensions, Ronen and Shenkar's Country Clusters, and Hsu's analysis of internal versus external motivation. I explored the relationship between two primary personnel parties in an effort to define how success and failure are measured in overseas assignments. To this end, I interviewed 42 Americans working in China categorized into two groups - the Management Group and the Employee Group. AU participants were located in either Shanghai or Beijing. Based on the interviews, an analytic distinction was made between expatriates hired locally and those employees who were transferred from the United States to China. The results of this study found that local hires tended to be younger and have linguistic and cultural skills, while the expatriates sent from the United States tended to be older and have managerial and technical skills. Challenges confronting both managers and employees will be shown to primarily stem from: 1) External motivations, such lucrative compensation packages, not guaranteeing a successful assignment in China; 2) the focus of companies when hiring or placing an expatriate employee being based on technical and management expertise; 3) cultural and linguistic skills being important for successful expatriate assignments; and, 4) cultural and linguistic training positioning an expatriate to have a successful assignment. These findings lead to the following recommendations: 1) Top managers should be provided with cross-cultural training to understand the importance of cultural and linguistic skills; 2) companies in China should hire local expatriates who have linguistic, cultural, and adaptability skills; and, 3) an investment should be made in technical skills training for local hires rather than linguistic and cultural training for technical expatriate employees. / Graduation date: 2001