Coming in 2026
The China Business Playbook

Know what is happening
in the room and what to do next

A course for Western executives, founders, and business development professionals who need to navigate Chinese business relationships with real confidence.

After The China Business Playbook, you will know how to navigate each stage of a Chinese business relationship: the first meeting, early cooperation, execution, relationship maintenance, and what to do when things go wrong.

More specifically: you will know how to read what your Chinese counterpart is actually communicating, not just what they said. You will know what to do and what not to do in specific situations. You will stop guessing.

The goal is that you can be in the room, in a real meeting, a real negotiation, a real dinner, and know what is happening and what to do next.

Read silence accurately: whether it means the project is dead or just waiting on an internal decision

Understand when warmth is real interest versus the default, and what to do differently in each case

Navigate the contract question: when to raise it, how, and what pushing too early actually signals

Handle disagreements without damaging the relationship, knowing where, when, and how problems can be raised

Build trust correctly: understanding what dinner is actually for and what it doesn't accomplish

Recover when something has gone wrong, recognizing the signals and knowing what options you still have

Orientation
The Operating Logic

The logic underneath Chinese business. Why the same behaviors that signal trust in Western business signal distrust here, and vice versa.

Module 1
The First Meeting

What the other side is actually doing when you introduce yourself. How relationships need to be located before they can be built.

Module 2
Early Cooperation

When warmth isn't a green light. How to read the signals correctly and avoid the most common early-stage misreads.

Module 3
Execution

Silence, follow-up, and the five-year plan your counterpart has that they will never show you. How to work with a different sense of time and urgency.

Module 4
Relationship Building

What dinner is actually for. The difference between familiarity and trust, and why you can have many dinners with someone and still not have earned it.

Module 5
When Things Go Wrong

How to raise problems without damaging the relationship. Reading the signals that something has shifted, and what options you still have.

Module 6
Integration

Carrying the system forward. How to keep reading the room as relationships evolve and situations change.

This course is built for people actively working with Chinese partners.
It is not a language program. You will not learn Mandarin, and that is not the goal.
It is not a general introduction to Chinese culture. Culture is addressed where it directly explains a business behavior, but that is the means, not the end.
If you are not currently in, or preparing for, a working relationship with Chinese partners, the course will be more useful once that context is in place.

Get notified when the course launches

Subscribe to the newsletter and get the free guide while you wait.

Free guide included What Nobody Tells You Before You Do Business in China, delivered immediately on signup