Why US and Chinese trade teams have to mind their language as talks get serious
- Negotiators are now said to be pouring through documents ‘word by word’ to ensure there will be no misunderstandings
- One Chinese report that the two sides recently spent two hours arguing over a single word – and still couldn’t reach a consensus
When negotiators from China and the US sat down in Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for the latest round of talks intended to end their trade war, one of the many things on their minds would have been the need to pick their words carefully to avoid misunderstandings.
While the two sides also have to wrestle with a number of thorny problems, such as intellectual property protection or the market access granted to US firms in China, linguistic and cultural differences are also seen as one of the main barriers towards reaching a deal.
Speaking on the sideline of an event at Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC earlier this week, Michael Pillsbury, an informal adviser to Donald Trump, warned that the resulting “misconceptions” may already have hindered their chances of striking a deal.
He also said that the absence of a Chinese language version of a 120-page draft agreement was a potential problem, adding: “In Chinese translation there are a lot of nuances and choices in how you phrase thing.
Chinese media also suggested that negotiations are becoming much more intense at the final stages of the talks because every word involved could affect the outcome.