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Commentary Wrap: Linguistic Corruption, Dual Nationality, CGC


A round-up of commentary appearing in the Chinese press over the past week.

April 27, 2012
Compiled by Gao Xin, Tang Xiangyang

 
Center Stage at the Auto Show -
People\'s Daily
As China’s most important auto show, the 2012 Beijing International Automobile Exposition should have shown more about automobile technology and industrial design improvements. Instead, it has more been known as a competition for scantily-clad female models.
Netizens have complained of vulgar sensualization. As a result, the Beijing Cultural and Morality Office (首都精神文明办) had to intervene to prevent the "exposure" going too far. Sure, businesses need to attract as much attention as possible, but profiting from this indecency is just a sign of the degeneration of China’s business culture. Businesses need to work with the public to agree on a more healthy social morality.


The harm of linguistic corruption - 
Economic Observer
By Zhang Weiying, Former dean, Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management
Corruption might be the most frequently used word in current China, but linguistic corruption may not have got the attention that it deserves. It refers to people changing the meaning of words so as to meet their economic, political and ideological purposes. The Cultural Revolution is the best example. Chongqing’s movement of “cracking down on criminality”, which turned out to be a mixture of tackling criminals and persecuting “dissenters” is one of the most recent examples.
Linguistic corruption has three negative effects. Firstly it makes people less intelligent since people are constantly lying and believe those lies. Communication has failed; equality is lost in conversation and discussion.
The second is moral degeneration. You cannot expect a liar be trustworthy or upright. When people are used to lies, there are neither qualified witnesses nor morally good people. All the written rules are replaced by those hidden ones.
Last but not least, linguistic corruption leads our society to high uncertainty and unpredictability. One of the most important functions of language is communicating the social situation. However, since language is corrupted, it cannot convey the useful, correct and reliable messages that it’s supposed to.
The future of China depends on our getting rid of linguistic corruption. If one day “people’s representative” really means they were democratically elected and can speak for the people, we will be able to say that at least 50% of linguistic corruption has been eliminated, our government will be clean and our morality will be improved. 


Dual nationality: an Escape Route for Corrupt Officials -
Guangzhou Daily
During the joint sessions of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, some representative pointed out that holding dual nationality has been a more and more frequent "unwritten practice". It has been a way for certain people to "gain profits in China and then transfer them overseas", and has also partially become a "talisman" enabling corrupt officials to escape abroad.
As many Chinese who hold dual nationality are either rich or powerful "upper-class citizens", local officials mostly turn a blind eye in order to retain their talents and capital…. it seems very urgent to start the clean-up and stop this commonplace "unwritten practice" …it is not only a matter of the dignity of law, but also a timely reminder of new way to combating corruption. 

 
Party media blame American Ambassador for using Cheng Guangcheng
Beijing Daily/ Beijing Times
Four major daily newspapers based in Beijing have published four commentaries criticizing the American government for intervening in China’s “internal affairs” and saying Chen Guangcheng has been made a representative of an “anti-government, anti-system.”  
Those newspapers are Beijing Daily, Beijing Times, The Beijing News and Beijing Youth Daily. The Beijing Daily wrote that the American Ambassador, Gary Locke, is taking advantage of Chen Guangcheng and doing long-term damage to the Sino-American relationship. The commentary describes Cheng Guangcheng’s escape as a shameful plot initiated by the American government.
The Beijing Times says the American government has “no good intention” on the Cheng Guangcheng issue. It is using the media to exaggerate a small conflict in a small Chinese village and make it the focus of western society.
Beijing Daily says Gary Locke was showing off when he flew from the U.S. to China in coach class, photographed at the airport with his backpack using a coupon to pay for a cup of coffee. Beijing Youth Daily claims he was manipulating the media when he pushed Cheng Guangcheng into Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital in a wheelchair.

  
The most important "strategy" for Sino-US Dialogue - Beijing News
No matter how many issues are discussed during these high-level negotiations, the main task is how to improve the strategic mutual trust. In the current circumstances, the American economy has already had recovered substantially, and the sensitivity of economic and trade themes is lower. Even though the electoral year has blurred America's position, but it should not be an excuse for the U.S. to ignore China’s question.

 

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