TNAG-1343-FCO40-1773-Visit-by-Margaret-Thatcher--UK-Prime-Minister--to-Beijing-fo-1984 — Page 156

e. FACE

This concept is linked with Confucian ideas of human relationship and behaviour and often finds expression in an oblique approach to dealing with contentious questions. In negotiations the Chinese perception of face is evident on the one hand in the importance attached by them to preliminary courtesies designed to establish a favourable general atmosphere and in the attention paid to hospitality, and on the other hand in their propensity to take offence when they feel that difficult questions are being discussed without sufficient regard for their

sensitivities.