Some in this forum see the use of the word option as an equivocation. Here is my take.

On or around the 28th, Fung will have another meeting with a so-called high official in the Vz goverment. At that meeting, short of a permit, he will expect a response that is incrementally more substantial than the common refrain that he has been accepting up to now.

If he is given the same old, same old, we will go immediately to arbitration.