Maintaining balance and harmony is an important aspect of Chinese thought. Chinese do not want to “lose face,” and they also do not want to make you “lose face.”Therefore, they will rarely disagree with you in public. Negative replies are considered impolite in China. Chinese people won’t say "no" to a proposal. They have a thousand ways to say "no", but they won't use the word "no".
They will say "perhaps", "I'm not sure", "I'll think about it", or "We'll see" instead. If you hear that your proposal "is under study" or has arrived at "an inconvenient time," it probably means "no". This deliberately ambiguous communication is designed to let the Westerner know that the real answer is “no” but the relationship is worthy of preservation.
