in negotiation: both French and the UK
tried to cross-link concessions. But to
no avail. Progress can therefore often only be measured by such symptoms as a change in agenda sequence, which may imply
that items lower down are ones that the
Chinese expect are less likely to be
granted. But again, look out - next time,
the item at the bottom may suddenly rise
to the top. In the course of the whole
negotiations there was only one concession
made by the Chinese over the table
dropping the request for Hong Kong dollar
finance, otherwise the UK and French.
positions consistently failed to meet
"Chinese requirements".
(i)
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•
Free floating: The Chinese have a
reluctance to have "formal papers" on the
table, but tend to proceed by elaborate
and carefully worked "position speeches" Frequently, the UK had to submit formally
a paper clarifying a point, or summarising
a particular stage of negotiation
the
Chinese were not entirely comfortable,
since they prefer to hold to "their
interpretation" of what you may have said.
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