Negotiating with the Chinese

Negotiation is a context sport. It demands attention to multiple motivations, agendas, and preferences. Negotiation across culture complicates context by highlighting the cultural realities of the negotiation dance. Without awareness of appropriate cues to follow and sensitivity to the possibilities for action opening and closing throughout the negotiation process itself, foreigners face little possibility of successful conclusion to negotiation in a cross-cultural setting. This article makes explicit seven principles driving the act of negotiation in a Chinese context. Within the framework of an actual negotiation for delivery of training for Chinese managers, the author describes what these principles look like as they were enacted through Chinese negotiating practices and how he responded to them from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. In the face of Chinese negotiation principles, the article suggests a range of practical strategies for successful—and respectful—negotiation in China.