Cross-Cultural Business Negotiation in China

When people from different cultural backgrounds sit around a negotiation table and all speak the same language -- English, cultural differences will appear from time to time, which often leads to misunderstanding. Some foreign businessmen have positive experience while others have some negative experiences in negotiating with their Chinese counterparts. Those who hold a positive point of view say that the Chinese are very polite, friendly and cooperative and it is easy to work with them, but those who take the negative view often say that they never know how to deal with their Chinese partners because they never understand them or, to be more exact, they never understand the true meaning of what they have said. What is wrong?

1. In Chinese, negotiation means, in a sense, to talk with strategy. Therefore, an excellent negotiator refers to someone who is expert in the use of strategy in order to gain the largest benefit. Chinese history offers a lot of case studies on the masters of negotiation. For example, the Art of War by Sun Zi and Thirty-Six Strategies are very familiar to the Chinese though both of them were written over two thousand years ago. The Chinese term 计谋(jimou)is a positive idea which must be mastered by any manager, but its corresponding equivalents stratagem, ruse and artifice are not always positive.
   
2. During the process of negotiation, it is very common for one side or both sides to make a compromise, but it is a little difficult for the Chinese side to take the initial step because of the problem of being afraid of losing face. In the Chinese language, the equivalent for compromise is 让步(rangbu) or 妥协 (tuoxie) and they both have a slightly derogatory sense and carry the implication of being forced to do so and even disablement. On the contrary, if one negotiator suggests that we both drop a certain percentage or if you reduce a certain amount, we will drop ... the proposal would be accepted much more easily. Therefore, taking into consideration cultural differences, if your company would like to be successful in negotiating with the Chinese, your company has to pay attention to saving the face of your partner and also giving face.
   
3. Many foreign business people are annoyed by so many dinners and meetings with irrelevant personnel during the time of business negotiation when they first do business in China, but by and by they become used to it, because they have quickly come to understand that all the dinners and meetings the western idea of "business are part of the negotiations. In these situations, is business" is not a good philosophy, and even in conflict the Chinese concept of harmony still plays an important role which can often make the impossible possible.
   
4. Therefore, the way of thinking between the Chinese and foreigners, especially the westerners, is not the same. According to Karl Pribram westerners have four ways of thinking in general, namely, nominalistic reasoning, universalistic reasoning, intuitional reasoning and dialectical reasoning, with which they mainly prefer the way of analysis while the Chinese, on the other hand, would like the way of synthesis, in which the Chinese prefer holistic to partial and the westerners are just opposite. Therefore, the westerners think of things more directly, more frankly and openly and on the contrary the Chinese express themselves with understatements. Instead of the linear way, they enjoy more indirect ways, which is sometimes like a gyre making the westerners dizzy. Many examples can be taken to indicate the difference.

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