Contemporary Chinese Diplomatic Negotiations From The Sino-us Relations Negotiations

Negotiation, a peaceful face-to-face means of coordinating interests, has been all the more widely applied into various fields of social lives along with the constant development of human society. How to make the most of one's negotiating power has become an issue being widely explored. In recent years, a large number of books on negotiation techniques have come out, mainly focusing on economic and trade fields. Yet, rarely do people see researches on diplomatic negotiations. From an academic angle, this thesis presents an attempt to assess patterns and practices in the ways officials of contemporary People's Republic of China (PRC) managed high-level diplomatic negotiations with the United States during the "normalization" phase of relations between the two countries. It is designed to provide guidance or reference for Chinese diplomatic officials of the new generation prior to their first negotiating encounters with foreign counterparts. The thesis is divided into four parts.Chapter I provides, by way of introduction, a discussion of the concept of negotiation and describes various contexts in contemporary Chinese's conducting of negotiations so as to further understand their negotiating patterns and practices. These contexts mainly involve: Chinese concept of negotiation; contemporary Chinese sense of independence and equality; the impact of China's traditional culture on negotiating behavior.In Chapter II a general review of the official negotiating history during the "normalization" phase of relations between PRC and the United States is given, mainly describing negotiating behavior of contemporary Chinese during this period. This chapter is based on official negotiation record of U.S.-PRC exchanges from the U.S. side, official PRC documentation, Chinese press statements, and such additional materials as the memoirs of former senior U.S. and China government officials.Chapter III divides the Sino-U.S negotiating process of this period into three stages and sketches characteristics of each stage. The first stage is called opening moves. PRC officials make a determined effort at the outset of a negotiation to establish a sympathetic counterpart official as an interlocutor, to cultivate a personalrelationship (friendship) with him; they ask for the acceptance of their principles as the basis of the relationship. They also seek to structure a negotiating agenda favorable to their objectives. The second stage is called period of assessment, which lasts quite long. The essence of this stage lies in exploring the limits of adversary's views, flexibility, and patience. Chinese officials will resist exposing their own position until their counterparts' stand is fully known and their endurance has been well tested. When Chinese officials believe that they have tested the limits of their negotiating counterparts' position and that a formal understanding serves their interests, they can move rapidly to conclude an agreement. Two major features are reflected during this stage: once Chinese leaders have had a final say on reaching an agreement, concrete arrangements can be worked out quite smoothly; some leeway is' allowed for both sides to have further discussion on specific issues.The thesis ends with a conclusion. The basic finding of this study is that Chinese officials conduct negotiations in a distinctive, but much influenced by their own cultural tradition and political practices, manner consisting of a highly organized and meticulously managed progression of well-defined stages.