Chinese guanxi referrals are information-seeking, not necessarily influence peddling

Evidence

When dealing with someone new, a Chinese might ask a guanxi contact for assurance that the new person will be trustworthy. This is often equated with influence peddling in Western understandings- or misunderstandings-that presumably generalize from the use of a guanxi to break the ice with a new person or business associate; but the Chinese in question might merely be seeking an intermediary’s recommendations that another is competent, honest, knowledgeable, or trustworthy (discussions with James Hsiung at New York University, 29 October 1997; also see Boyer 1997 and Holan 1997). — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 646

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s law-merchant thesis: intermediaries function primarily to restore information about others’ honesty — exactly the guanxi function described here.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the informational function behind guanxi, reframing a practice Westerners typically misread as corruption.