Filtered Information…or Obstructionism?

It is possible that, in communication with your Chinese counterparts, information may be filtered out because its importance to you is not recognised. The person withholding the information may genuinely not understand why the information is important and be nonplussed at your agitation, or seeing how critical it appears to be, remain even more content to keep it to themselves.

Information may also be restricted for more ‘strategic’ reasons. For example, when you visit your Chinese partner you are perceived as the eyes and ears of your organisation and, while your partner will expect and understand this, it may limit the amount and/or type of information you are permitted to hear or receive.

Communication Issues

Problems with the communication infrastructure in China can still be a cause of confusion, as can poor translation and/or interpretation. It is critical to your business relationships, as well as any contractual arrangement you enter into, that you understand the role of an interpreter provided by your Chinese counterpart, or even a seemingly neutral third party. This person’s primary responsibility will be to interpret in a way that is advantageous to his/her own organisation; facilitating unambiguous and transparent communication may be a secondary consideration.