This may be one of the more delicate operations you will have to undertake during the course of a business relationship in China. In general, your Chinese counterparts do not like to answer probing questions, and those posed by a foreigner are perhaps the most difficult.

The Chinese can be averse to saying “I don’t know,” thereby admitting personal ignorance. To a Chinese person who feels put on the spot by a question, any answer may be preferable to saying “I don’t know.” For this reason, if pushed on a particular issue, you may get an answer that is not intentionally incorrect or misleading but will not get you any closer to resolving the issue at hand.

Your Chinese colleagues will also not provide you with information they have been expressly forbidden to discuss, particularly with a foreigner. Instead, you will hear “Bu tai qingchu” (“It’s not very clear”), or something similar, which in essence means “I don’t know” or “I’m unable/not allowed to discuss that with you.”

If you are observant, you may also notice that your Chinese colleagues will steer conversations away from the possibility of a negative outcome by gauging your responses and, regardless of what they initially intended to achieve/say, replying with the interests of harmony in mind.