TNAG-1657-FCO40-2305-Daya-Bay-nuclear-power-station-project-safety-concerns-in-Ho-1987 — Page 33

(j)

Pressure: Past masters at "slow torture",

and here the whole spirit of Sun Tsu comes to bear. (k) Formal exchanges/go betweens: Where exchanges are in a very conventionalised idiom, they can

become blocked as each side commits its "face"

to a particular position: hence it is important

for a negotiator to have an effective "go-

between" the UK commercial staff at our Embassy

performed this function for the UK, and the

French had a Chinese-born nuclear engineer as

their Nuclear Counsellor and all Chinese

agents are "double-agents" Sun Tsu otherwise

they cannot survive in China.

-

These characteristics are rationalisations from

hindsight, and for newcomers, such as UK officials

brought up in the comfortably conventional

atmosphere of Whitehall, extremely disconcerting.

But equally for commercial companies, since they

do not have at least some practice through

correspondence with the Treasury not just a

Departmental joke, but style is very bureaucratic.

NEGOTIATING SCENARIO

The general strategy composed the following

elements:

(a)

With all the parties involved on the Chinese side, and the inevitable prospect

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