When someone provides you with something valuable—good service, favorable terms, relationship investment—you incur a genuine obligation that goes beyond just paying for what you received. This isn’t just social convention but moral reality in Chinese thinking. A supplier who has served you well over time has created claims on your loyalty that transcend what any contract specifies. Switching to a competitor for marginal savings isn’t just a business decision; it’s a failure to honor what you’ve received.
Similarly, a customer who provides stable business and reasonable treatment creates obligations in the supplier to maintain and nurture that relationship. Every act of provision creates debt; every receipt creates obligation. Understanding this helps you recognize that your Chinese counterparts are tracking these obligations seriously and expect you to as well. Relationship history matters because it represents accumulated obligation.
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