I read a John Simpson book where he mentioned travelling through rural China and asked to go somewhere that had been untouched by western influence. When they arrived in a village the elder told him that they had had westerners through "recently"... it later unfolded that he meant 300 years before.
It then came up in conversation between myself and a teacher in China that Xi Jinping (could be wrong) said when asked if the French Revolution had any effect on China said "It's too soon to tell."
So my question is; what is the understanding of time in China that warrants these kinds of responses or have I just taken two things out of context?
I can't help you with the overall thrust of the question since it's not my area of expertise, but I can clarify the second part of your question.
It wasn't Xi Jinping who said "It's too soon to say" in relation to the French Revolution, it's Zhou Enlai, Premier of the PRC under Mao Zedong. He said it in the 1970s (probably) to Nixon (or Kissinger) during their trip to China.
As with everything, context is king. The PRC at the time was going through the Cultural Revolution, and no one's head was safe apart from Mao's. In fact, in the previous year Lin Biao, Mao's no. 2 had died after attempting to flee to the USSR. So Zhou had to be careful with what he said.
Now there are two 'theories' about the context of the quote. The one in popular history is that Zhou couldn't say "It was a success", because then he'd be saying that the subsequent events, Napoleon etc. were also part of that success - so he would be endorsing Imperialism of a kind. He couldn't say "it was a failure" without risking offence to his guests. So he said "Too soon to tell"
However, it seems that this version of his reasoning might not even be relevant to how events actually transpired - it might've been down to a translation error. Chas Freeman, a retired foreign service officer said that Zhou was actually referring to the 1968 riots in Paris, who also used the terms 'French Revolution', 'Paris Commune' etc. Professor Barme of the ANU says that the documents in China make it clear that he was referring to the 1968 riots as well.
As to the Chinese view of time? I leave that to more qualified people than I.