There's a very real cultural ethos that if someone CAN take advantage of an opponent and does not, that person is an idiot--who likely deserves to lose out wholesale.
Then there's Rudyard Kipling's assertion that Westerners who think that they will outfox the oriental are also idiots.
We are talking about a culture thousands of years old wherein the serfs & slaves & Jr potentates have been sparing with, outfoxing the local Mandarins and the Emperors for millennia.
As the idiom states . . . ". . . Ahhhh, yes, but the Emperor is far away from here."
Add to that the between cultures competition--the Chinese person will virtually ALWAYS cheat and/or everything else IN BEHALF OF the Chinese people, culture, interests.
Yes, there is a Confucian substrate to a point. But for most individuals, those Confucian values do not tend to influence many decisions except in a few very close relationships.
It is kind of like Thanksgiving or Chinese New Year's dinners. The pretense if "We are all one happy family." While the truth is it is far too often every individual for themselves in trying to carve out benefits for themselves--to the point of some very vicious blood lust in both cultures.
Nevertheless, imho, the philosophical substrate that still hangs on by a thread in the West is still much more influential over most Westerner's behavior than the Confucian philosophical substrate is over the average Chinese individuals' behavior in their relationships.
Sure, there are exceptions. And quality parenting goes on in both cultures where quality honorable values are successfully transmitted to the children. But on the whole, the heart of man is deceitfully wicked and will have sway.
And when that wickedness is unbridled by foundational quality values, "all's fair in love, war & commerce" . . . particularly cross-culturally between the West and the Orient.
Thankfully, all that's hidden will ultimately be exposed. There will be a very final accounting. Nevertheless, we must contend with the realities today, this week, this year.
That reminds me of why we lost Vietnam. Especially “As the idiom states . . . “. . . Ahhhh, yes, but the Emperor is far away from here.””
In Vietnam the village is the center, not the capital. We lost because of exactly what you explained. Along other things but not understanding the culture was key.
Considering that isn’t it amazing that a essentially a legally elected military coup happened and we’re happy about it? How far we’ve come. I hope Col. David Hackworth is smiling.
ME against my brother; my brother and I against our cousins; our family against the tribe; the tribe against all outsiders.