Chinese Negotiating Behavior: Pursuing Interests Through "Old Friends" Book

This book is more appropriate for a historical overview of the dynamics between US-China negotiations between the 1970s and early 1980s rather than an overview of a current analysis of Chinese negotiating behavior. Within that context, this book gives a detailed analysis of the trends and tactics the American side witnessed when it engaged Beijing in the 1970s.

The book itself is well-written, if not a little academic in tone, and includes many snippets of dialogue, primarily between Henry Kissinger and his Chinese counterpart at the time. The book deconstructs Chinese negotiating methods, as the author experienced firsthand, and draws conclusions based on his inside experience form those talks. Despite being academic in tone, the book was a quick read, and the balance of analysis and anecdote was well-executed.

This book, however, limits its analysis of China to government-to-government talks, rather than including a commentary of business negotiations. Further, it also seems to limit its analysis to a specific type of Chinese tactics, that is, where the Chinese sit across the table from a counterparty that is either in a materially advantageous position (as the US arguably was in the 1970s). The book was written when Deng Xiaoping was the uncontested ruler of China (although an additional chapter was written during the later Jiang Zemin era), when China was a far poorer country, and its current state of economic growth was far less certain. Since the book was updated in the late 1990s, China has transformed itself several times over, and the book now seems fairly limited in scope compared to the multitude of levels where the Chinese engage and negotiate with the outside world. This book therefore needs a significant update, with inclusion of examples of corporate negotiations and of contemporary negotiations. It also needs to include examples where China was the clear dominant party in a negotiation.

In sum, this book is good for understanding a certain period of US diplomatic history, but would need a significant updating and expansion to be relevant across a variety of sectors today.