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.”
Thread and Needle
In Liu Xiang’s Garden of Persuasions (说苑), Lord Mengchang has placed a retainer with the King of Qi. After three years the man has still received no post, and he complains. Lord Mengchang answers: “A thread enters by the needle, but the needle does not make it hold. A woman marries through a matchmaker, but the matchmaker does not make the two close. Your talent must be thin.”
The retainer replies that a fox in the altar of the soil is not attacked, and a rat in the altar is not smoked out, “because of what they rest on.” Lord Mengchang then recommended him to Qi again, and the King of Qi made him chief minister. The idiom 穿针引线, to thread the needle, means to act as a go-between.
The Thirteen Hongs
From 1757, foreign merchants could trade only at Guangzhou, and only through the Thirteen Hongs, the licensed merchant houses. A foreign merchant who wanted Chinese tea, porcelain or silk had to buy it through a hong. A Chinese study notes that all negotiations between the foreign merchants and the Chinese side went through the Thirteen Hongs as intermediary.
The Pakistan Channel
In 1970 and 1971, messages between Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai passed through Pakistan’s president, Yahya Khan. Zhou’s reply said that the Chinese government welcomed an American envoy and that the timing “may be settled through the President of Pakistan.”
On July 8, 1971, Henry Kissinger arrived in Islamabad. At a banquet, Yahya Khan announced loudly that the heat had affected Kissinger’s health and invited him to rest for two days at the presidential villa. Kissinger instead flew secretly to Beijing and met Zhou Enlai.
BYD’s Price-Cut Email
In November 2024, an email reported to come from BYD’s passenger car division asked suppliers to cut prices by 10 percent from January 1, 2025.
Li Yunfei, BYD’s head of brand and public relations, answered that “annual price negotiation with suppliers is an industry practice.” He said the 10 percent target was “not compulsory” and “negotiable.” The report put the industry’s usual annual cut at about 5 percent.
Price Increase Letters
Chinese suppliers announce price rises to their customers with a 涨价函, a price increase letter. When chip prices rose at the end of 2020, the chip maker Huiding (Goodix) raised its dollar prices by 30 percent from January 1, 2021. Xinjieneng (NCE Power) told customers that the new prices would also apply to unpaid orders already in its system.
Three Majors and One Large
三重一大 Three majors and one large. Major decisions, important appointments and removals, major projects and large sums of money must be decided after collective discussion.
In June 2010, the General Offices of the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued an opinion on applying this rule in state-owned enterprises.
The Vocabulary of Bargaining
讨价还价 To ask a price and return a price. To bargain. Also to argue over terms when negotiating or accepting a task.
杀价 To kill the price. To push a price down hard.
变卦 To change the hexagram. To go back on a decision already made. The word comes from divination, where a second reading gave a different result from the first.
Maotai for Nixon
On February 21, 1972, Zhou Enlai gave a welcome banquet for Richard Nixon in the Great Hall of the People. After the two sides had exchanged toasts, Zhou went with his glass to the American officials and toasted each of them in turn.
According to an account in Huanqiu, the Maotai with which Zhou entertained guests such as Nixon and Kissinger was said to have been stored for more than thirty years. When Zhou toasted, he said “ganbei” but did not drain his glass. He only touched its rim with his lips and greeted the other person with a smile and a look.
The Shopkeeper’s Sayings
童叟无欺 Cheating neither child nor old man. Fair and honest trade.
货真价实 Genuine goods at true prices.
和气生财 Friendliness brings wealth. A dictionary calls it a common saying of traders: a seller who is gentle and does not offend customers will get rich. In Lu Xun’s story Divorce, a character says: “A person should always be friendlier. ‘Friendliness brings wealth,’ isn’t that right?”
货有高低三等价，客无远近一般看 Goods come at three prices, high and low. Guests near or far are treated alike. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong quotes it as a common saying to an innkeeper who has just named three classes of service.