Talks to end the Korean War opened at Kaesong on July 10, 1951. In May 1951, the Chinese Communist Party leadership had set its course: 边谈边打，争取谈判解决问题, “talk while fighting, and work to settle the problem through negotiation.”
The armistice was signed at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953. A Party website notes that two years of the war passed in talking while fighting.
On August 1, 1955, the ambassadors of China and the United States met in Geneva for the first of a series of talks. After a meeting in December 1957, the talks were suspended for nine months. They resumed in Warsaw on September 15, 1958. By February 1970, the two sides had held 136 meetings.
Negotiations on an investment agreement between China and the European Union were formally launched in November 2013. The 35th round took place from December 6 to 11, 2020. On December 30, 2020, the two sides concluded the talks in principle. A Chinese report called the negotiations a seven-year “long run” (长跑).
On May 20, 2021, the European Parliament voted to freeze work on the agreement until China lifted its sanctions.
On October 10, 1984, the Chinese and German partners signed the joint venture contract for Shanghai Volkswagen in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. It came, in the words of a Chinese account, “after nearly six years of difficult negotiations” (经过近6年的艰难谈判).
On September 24, 1982, Deng Xiaoping met Margaret Thatcher in the Great Hall of the People to discuss Hong Kong. According to People’s Daily, he told her that “one or two years at the latest,” China would formally announce its decision to take back Hong Kong.
The talks that followed ran to 22 rounds. A Chinese account of July 1984, when the talks were stuck, refers to the “original two-year period” set for the negotiations.
In May 1991, China and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on the eastern section of their border. On October 14, 2004, during a visit by Vladimir Putin, China and Russia signed a supplementary agreement on that section. On July 21, 2008, the two sides signed a protocol in Beijing defining the border line between them. China Daily quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that the talks had lasted more than 40 years.
From May 26 to June 3, 1938, Mao Zedong gave a series of lectures in Yan’an titled On Protracted War (论持久战). He rejected two views of the war against Japan: that China would win quickly, and that China would be conquered. The war would be protracted, he argued, and the final victory would be China’s.
从长计议 To plan from a long view. Not to decide in a hurry, but to discuss the matter slowly.
缓兵之计 A plan to slow the troops. A delaying tactic, used to gain time before acting.
推三阻四 To push three and block four. To decline with one excuse after another.
含糊其辞 To keep one’s words vague. To speak unclearly on purpose and take no clear position.
欲言又止 To want to speak and then stop. To hold back what one has to say.
In March 1999, Premier Zhu Rongji spoke about China’s long negotiations to rejoin GATT and enter the World Trade Organization: “China has been negotiating to rejoin GATT and join the WTO for 13 years. Black hair has turned white. It is time to end these negotiations.”
On October 25, 1978, at a press conference in Tokyo, a Japanese reporter asked Deng Xiaoping about the Diaoyu Islands. Deng said that the two sides had set the question aside when they normalized relations. “It does not matter if such a question is set aside for a while, even for ten years.”
He added: “Our generation is not wise enough. Our next generation will surely be wiser than us. They will always find a good way, acceptable to all, to solve this question.”