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At China Law Blog,  Dan Harris has advice for negotiating with Chinese business during periods of economic slowdown. There's a lot of useful insight here regarding cultural and political differences that can affect negotiation relationships, to wit:

There’s a filter bubble.  Chinese bureaucrats and SOE bosses don’t see reality the same way American and European MNC managers do.  Within China the official party line is that everything is going according to plan. It’s rebalancing and the expected results of a successful anti-corruption campaign. Everything is fine. Don’t assume that your Chinese counterparty is as nervous or anxious as you would be at the start of a sustained recession. He may still feel that time is on his side.

Harris, who has previously posted on issues with enforcing contracts in Chinese courts, posted earlier this week on a novel but untested idea for facilitating such enforcement: an "agreement to enforce" clause in which the parties consent to permit a Chinese court to enforce a foreign judgment.

Posting in Above the Law, Harris has some world-weary advice for those doing business in China: "Don't Trust, But Verify ."