Chinese business culture - silence in meetings – why junior person might not speak at all

Have you ever been in a meeting with Chinese colleagues where junior staff remained silent and let their seniors dominated the conversation?

This behaviour might be puzzling, especially if you are accustomed to a flatter structure and open discussions. Respecting hierarchy is one crucial element in Chinese business culture. Let's have a look at how this is reflected into Chinese business meeting etiquette.

China is a fast growing country blended in modern and beautiful traditional landscape. Despite the fast growth, the traditional values remain. This is a beautiful sunset in Guangzhou, one of the fastest growing city with a fantastic blend of modern and traditional cultures. Learning the Chinese business culture is essential to win clients there.

When I worked as investor relations consultant in Hong Kong, my clients were mostly Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong. We interacted regularly with the Chairman, CEO and CFO of these companiese. When I was still relatively junior, whenever there were client meetings, I must go with my manager who is the senior member of our team. The Chairman, CEO and CFO of our client companies usually came to the meetings with one or two junior/mid-level members from their companies.

During those meetings, the junior members of my client companies and I usually remained silent. Our roles were to jot note and support the senior members with information, presentation slides or technical set-up in the room. My additional role for being on the service provider side was to make sure everyone has water, coffee or tea.

I was not being disrespected in these business meetings. On the contrary, we were all respecting the hieracrhy in Chinese culture which formulated the hidden set of "rules in Chinese business etiquette.

If you will be attending meetings with your Chinese business counterparts, here are some quick tips for you.

Quick tips:

• Recognise hierarchy: Understand silence as respect for hierarchy, not lack of engagement.

• Do not single juniors out: Avoid directly addressing juniors without explicit permission from senior management.

• Ask questions indirectly: Channel your questions to senior people first, allowing them to delegate answers.

Why does this matter?

In China’s hierarchical and Confucian-influenced business environment, openly challenging or speaking ahead of seniors can be considered disrespectful. This means junior employees deliberately avoid speaking to show respect and deference to senior colleagues, preserving workplace harmony.

What can you do practically?

• Invite senior input first: Always give senior people the chance to respond first, before juniors. Let the senior people direct the questions or answers within their team.

• Private follow-up: If junior input is crucial, arrange one-on-one follow-ups to comfortably gather their thoughts. More on the private follow-up and how to extract real feedback from Asian clients on later articles.

• Clarify expectations: Let senior colleagues know beforehand if you specifically need junior input to achieve project outcomes.