The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India

by Vijay Gokhale

As the Chinese diplomats have become more proficient in the English language and in their sense of dress and deportment, the international community tends to regard them as ‘one of us’. Chinese diplomats are not one of us. At the higher echelons, they are all members of the Communist Party of China, and owe their loyalty to the Party above the State. Diplomats in democracies act as agents of the government; Chinese diplomats act as agents of the Party. This is an important distinction. Chinese diplomats are ideological. Logic or reason is, therefore, not likely to convince the Chinese negotiator. Although many Chinese negotiators speak foreign languages with a fair degree of fluency, they almost always use an interpreter. This is both a statement of their Chinese identity and a ploy that the negotiator utilizes to think through and formulate her or his response. Foreign negotiators often make the mistake of believing that the Chinese negotiators cannot speak their languages, and tend to discuss the subject of Chinese interest in the open without realizing that somebody in the Chinese delegation who has fluency over the foreign language, is taking mental notes. In a similar manner, the Chinese negotiator may also play the boor in public. This is only because it suits them to allow the other side to believe that they hold the advantage. Behind closed doors, they are effective communicators and tireless negotiators, equally skilled in closing a deal as in putting the onus of ...