American diplomacy pursues specific outcomes with single-minded determination. Chinese negotiators are more likely to view the process as combining political, economic and strategic elements and to seek outcomes via an extended process. American negotiators become restless and impatient with deadlocks; Chinese negotiators consider them the inevitable mechanism of negotiation. American negotiators represent a society that has never suffered national catastrophe ---except the Civil War, which is not viewed as an international experience. Chinese negotiators cannot forget the century of humiliation when foreign armies exacted tribute from a prostrate China. Chinese leaders are extremely sensitive to the slightest implication of condescension and are apt to translate American insistence as lack of respect. (from The Washington Post, Jan.14,2011)
美国的外交一心一意追求明确结果。中国的谈判代表可能会把这个过程看作是汇总政治、经济和战略因素并谋求通过更大范围的程序来取得结果。美国谈判代表对僵局变得焦躁不安，中国谈判代表则认为僵局是不可避免的谈判机制。美国谈判代表所代表的社会从未遭受过国家灾难——除了南北战争，没有人把它看作国际事件。中国谈判代表忘不了外国列强向一蹶不振的中国索要钱财的百年屈辱。中国领导人对哪怕最细微的傲慢态度都极为敏感，往往把美国人的坚持己见理解为缺乏尊重。
