Important Elements of Chinese Culture —“Guanxi” and “Renqing”

00:15 The Myth of “Guanxi” 04:10 The Act of “Renqing” If you’re a Canadian SME and have questions about doing business in China, please send us your questions by email at SMEGateway@. All services of the Trade Commissioner Service are FREE of charge to qualified Canadian clients. The Myth of “Guanxi” There’re a number of Confusion elements that drive how China thinks and acts in many ways. One that you often hear about is “Guanxi”, or relationships. It’s not that Guanxi doesn’t exist in other cultures. Our own relationships are important as well. But the Chinese concept of Guanxi is very important. What I often tell people when we start out is: Guanxi is necessary but not sufficient in any relationship. So you’ll find potential Chinese partners that would try to sell themselves to you solely on their own merits of Guanxi. It’s called the “I know a guy” concept. You shouldn’t ever base a business decision on somebody that tells you that they know a senior official and that’ll be enough. H