Meetings in China are conducted by the leader who sets the agenda, the content, and the pace of the meeting. The purpose of meetings is to communicate information and decisions, which are made at the top of the organization and communicated down. Employees may be called on to corroborate or clarify facts and statistics, but there is little or no collaboration in the decision-making process.

Meeting schedules are not highly structured in China. There may be an agenda, but it serves as a guideline for the discussion and may act as a springboard to other related business ideas. As relationships are highly valued, there may be some time in the meeting devoted to non-business discussions. Time is not considered more important than completing a meeting satisfactorily, therefore meetings will continue until the discussion is completed and may extend well past a scheduled end time.

People in China are very indirect in their communication and are as concerned with the effect of their words on others as they are with the content of their communication. They take great care to avoid communicating anything directly that would hurt or offend a colleague as it would cause a loss of “face”. They will gently push their ideas forward and wait for others to respond. If they disagree with an idea, they will simply remain silent.