资料：Western business visitors are often deadline-driven and unwilling to slow down to the Chinese pace when discussing business. But in China the pace can be fast and slow simultaneously.

Another different approach to doing business is that in a buying decision Westerners tend to look for clear alternatives, while Easterners may examine ways to combine both option. For example, a Chinese panel may feel that a supplier who claims of best quality with a low price may either raise the price during the contract or fail to implement the contract. They will therefore often prefer to choose a supplier whose price is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive. In addition, a Chinese panel may avoid awarding each supplier more than one contract, in order to minimise dependence on a single supplier. Such an approach may make a Westerner think that a Chinese negotiator is being illogical, evasive or devious, when he believes he is being quite straightforward.

What's more, both Chinese and foreign companies will often attribute their business success to having good guanxi. The objective of developing close relationships is to build what the Chinese call guanxi (pronounced gwan shee). which are essentially social or business connections based on mutual interest and benefit. In a centralised and bureaucratic state, reliance on personal contacts is often seen as the only way to get things done. And in a place like China where the legal system is still relatively weak, the need to rely on guanxi remains strong.

Both China and foreign companies will often attribute their business success to having good guanxi. But the obligations of guanxi are very real. In the wrong place, at an inappropriate time, with unsuitable people, the obligations can become a trap it is hard to escape.

The word “deadline-driven” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to: