"Cigarette smoke whirled to the ceiling filling the room like incense in a Taoist temple. Chessboard silence filled that area of the room not already suffuse with cigarette smoke. " Foreword
Negotiating a deal in China requires patiencea wellknown Confucian virtue; persistencesomething which comes with time; and survival instinctssomething that comes with persistence. For both the uninitiated, negotiations in China may come as a culture shock, laced with frustration. For the experience China trade negotiator, it is a neverending learning process. For both parties, the secret to negotiating in China may well lie in the knowledge of the military ploys described in China's ancient classics.
In The Art of the Deal in China, author Laurence J. Brahm applies Sun Tzu's Art of War, the ultimate guru's statement of military strategy and the Thirtysix Strategies, a collection of sayings which capsulize strategic prowess in ancient Chinese history, to modernday negotiating situations in China, both commercial and political. The stories in the book, all based on actual happenings, will not only amuse but will provide hope to many foreigners engaged in the often drawn out and frustrating process of negotiating a deal in China.