Things in the Pacific area are getting interesting. China, the United States’ chief geopolitical rival, has designs on the western Pacific. They are building a navy and making territorial incursions; they aren’t kidding around. The United States, though, has a new administration, one very different than the old one, and it’s led by President Donald Trump–a man China has dealt with before. That’s not stopping a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official from failing to read the room, and telling newly-minted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during their first phone conversation on Friday to mind his P’s and Q’s.
China’s veteran foreign minister has issued a veiled warning to America’s new secretary of state: Behave yourself.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi conveyed the message in a phone call Friday, their first conversation since Marco Rubio’s confirmation as President Donald Trump’s top diplomat four days earlier.
“I hope you will act accordingly,” Wang told Rubio, according to a Foreign Ministry statement, employing a Chinese phrase typically used by a teacher or a boss warning a student or employee to behave and be responsible for their actions.
The short phrase seemed aimed at Rubio’s vocal criticism of China and its human rights record when he was a U.S. senator, which prompted the Chinese government to put sanctions on him twice in 2020.
Asian cultures and expressions are full of veiled meanings. The first time I worked in Japan, my translator informed me that the Japanese phrase “wakarimashita” when said one way, translated literally to “I understand what you’re saying,” but when said another way, with a different inflection, could be taken to mean “I understand what you’re saying but I think you’re full of beans.” This appears to be another such case of veiled meanings – except, since we know about it, it’s not really all that veiled:
It can be translated in various ways — in the past, the Foreign Ministry has used “make the right choice” and “be very prudent about what they say or do” rather than “act accordingly.”
The vagueness allows the phrase to express an expectation and deliver a veiled warning, while also maintaining the courtesy necessary for further diplomatic engagement, said Zichen Wang, a research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, a Chinese think tank.
We can assume that was intentional. […]
— Read More: redstate.com