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In the 1990s, Taiwan and China conducted over twenty rounds of negotiations through the semi-official Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) concerning the following issues: notarized papers, registered mail, illegal immigration, fishing disputes, airplane hijacking, and post-1997 shipping links between Taiwan and Hong Kong. Regrouping these issues into rights, law-and-order, and shipping, this study analyzes the differences in the negotiation processes and outcomes through variations of value-interest alignments and their perceived impact on future policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many individuals speak of China as a single trading partner, in reality Greater China consists of at least three regional subcultures - the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. These regions differ in terms of their historical development, values, and traditions, which have implications for what to expect in negotiations. This article examines the cultural differences found in these three regions of Greater China, with particular attention to an often overlooked yet critical stage of the negotiation process - the initiation stage. Using data from the GLOBE Study on cultural practices and values, propensity to initiate a negotiation (engage a counterpart, make a request or demand, and optimize that request) is estimated for each regional subculture. The implications of these findings for practitioners and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the process of the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong that led to the signing of the Joint Declaration of 1984. It shows how the British, as the weaker party in the asymmetrical negotiations, retreated from their initial proposals and how they came to work within the parameters set by the Chinese side. This then helped them to gain concessions from the other side that were important to them in managing the interim period of their rule, while helping to safeguard the territory after its reversion to China. The article highlights the link between the communications among the top leaders and the conduct of the negotiations, showing how skillfully the British identified the other side's concerns and perspectives and how they were able to use the subtleties of language and pressure of time to their advantage. The British experience has important bearings on the literature of international negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the perspective of the lead U.S. negotiator, Charlene Barshefsky, this article details and analyzes the negotiations that took place in the mid-1990s between the United States and the People's Republic of China over intellectual property rights (IPR). Employing a "negotiation analytic" methodology,Charlene Barshefsky's actions are interpreted to suggest a number of promising approaches to managing the daunting complexities of trade and other negotiations: recognizing the multiparty aspects of apparently bilateral dealings and capturing them in a "deal diagram;" carefully assessing "barriers" to agreement; sequencing to build a winning coalition and overcome potentially blocking ones; "acoustic separation" of issue-frames; and, most broadly, changing the game advantageously relative to a purely tactical orientation "at the table" through 3-D actions "away from the table." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing joint ventures in China is an interesting test of cross-cultural negotiation under conditions of uncertainty within a complex network of constraints. On one side is the huge Chinese company, heavily bureaucratic and focused on taking care of all dimensions of its employees lives. On the other side is the Western enterprise focused on quality performance and financial effectiveness. The negotiation process can be distinguished by several stages, each of them related to a specific issue such as the basic policy of the future joint venture, the technical issues, the financial aspects, and the legal aspects. Among the many issues, 16 are considered in this analysis as key issues of crucial importance in the building up of the agreement. A number of difficulties encountered by both parties during the negotiation are scrutinized, such as hidden differences in objectives, the obstacles due to non-overlapping perceptions, the lack of managerial culture, conflicting values behind behaviors, and the decision-making process in an administration-run economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]