Business: How to Dicker with the Chinese

They are scrutable if a U.S. firm is patient and prepared

The dining rooms of the Min Zu (Nationalities) and Peking hotels are jammed these nights with foreign businessmen dawdling over dinner because there is little else to do in the Chinese capital after dark. But an American hoping to compare notes with a Western colleague on the art of negotiating in the Middle Kingdom will be disappointed. Fearful of tipping off competitors, each company group huddles by itself and speaks in hushed tones. Says a U.S. businessman: "You sit there surrounded by Westerners...

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