When I studied at university I read a bit about theories of hostage negotiation (I read quite a lot of other stuff that wasn’t actually on the reading lists, and none of that turned up in exams either), and I found this article on Chinese first batch of trained hostage negotiators and the man doing the training interesting.
The difference between ‘Chinese style negotiations’ (中国式谈判) seems to stem from the nature of ‘Chinese style hostage situations’ (中国式人质事件) . Knives are the weapons of choice, and this allows ‘close-up negotiation’ (近距离谈判) – according to the article, an American negotiator will be 2km away from the hardened hostage-taker and his AK47, while his Chinese counterpart will be only a few meters away from the young, uneducated guy from the countryside who’s fallen on hard times in the big city and his blade. This leads to a greater focus on body language and facial expression rather than purely verbal communication.
The article’s advice for the hostage is worth noting – keep your mouth shut. It’s always the mouthy folks that get done away with first (话语多者往往最先被杀死).
Asia by Blog
Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Monday and Thursday, providing links to Asian blogs and their views on the news in this fascinating region.
This edition contains riots in China, kimchi, Chinese women’s attitudes to sex, tourism in t…
Trackback by Simon World — 11/4/2004 @ 3:13 pm
Simon’s China and East Asia Briefing: 30th Nov 2004
The following is a digest of highlights from the past month’s Asia by Blog series over at simonworld.mu.nu. The round-up has four key areas of focus: China, Taiwan & Hong Kong (Politics, Economy & lifestyle, History sport & culture, Information), Kore…
Trackback by Winds of Change.NET — 11/30/2004 @ 1:52 pm