The whole morning, neither side was in a hurry to talk about the overall deal. After having lunch together, at one in the afternoon they were back at the negotiating table, each side trading tricks back and forth.
Who says foreigners are straightforward and value efficiency? Zhou Jiao would like to beat that nonsense out of you!
They spent two hours in the afternoon just circling around: could they gain the upper hand in the talks, could they hit their own targets and still make it a win–win?
Back and forth they went, you attack, I respond, both sides throwing in every skill and tactic they had. Straightforward questions, hinting questions, leading questions—by the end, apart from a product spec sheet, everything else had to be pushed to tomorrow.
And Zhou Jiao's task was to record all the discussion from today's two meetings that hadn't gone through the interpreters.
As for our side, there were dedicated recorders doing the official minutes.
