In some sense, the same ethic can be found in business dealings. Much of commercial life is lubricated by guanxi, a concept best translated as “connections” or “personal relationships.” Guanxi is an alternative to the legal trappings of Western capitalism in that business is cemented by the informal relationships of trust and mutual obligation. Sometimes viewed as bribery, guanxi grows more out of the Confucian ethos of family obgitions. Guanxi is less like using professional U.S. congressional lobbyists than interlocking entanglements of mutual friends among whom trust can be maintained.