Yang Jiechi’s 16-minute-long Chinese speech at the US-China talks was not even thought to be translated (Photo credit: video screenshot)
On March 19, Yang Jiechi, director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), gave a 16-minute-long speech in Chinese during the Sino-US talks without giving Time for translation, which was allegedly said for the Chinese people with the aim of intensifying a new wave of anti-American sentiment among domestic pinkies. Another video of Yang Jiechi’s conversation with Wang Yi, and his interpreter, also turned up by netizens, further confirmed such speculation.
The video shows that Yang Jiechi, after finishing his speech in Chinese, said directly to Wang Yi, “Wang Yi, say a few words.” The female translator sitting on the other side of Yang Jiechi hurriedly said, “I’ll start… I’ll translate first.” Yang Jiechi turned his head to the translator and said, “Do you still want to turn?” The interpreter smiled a little bit awkwardly. Yang Jiechi said in an impatient tone, “Go ahead.” The interpreter said, “Then I will translate first.” At this point, Yang Jiechi seemed to be expressing some emotion: I speak well, don’t I? He said in English with a Chinese accent, “This is a test, a test for the interpreter.” As if to say, “Can you translate the tone and momentum of my speech?
A netizen signed by “The Power of Silence” tweeted that the interpreter was too young and did not know what to say – those words did not need to be understood by the Yankees, they were deliberately said for the patriotic Boxer Rebellion at Home.
Yang Jiechi also blurted out the surprising words: “I thought you guys were too good, we thought you would observe basic diplomatic etiquette”. One of the most surprising remarks of Yang Jiechi was, “I will now make a remark that you are not qualified to say in front of China that you talk to China from a position of strength. 20 or 30 years ago you would not have had this position because the Chinese do not eat this.”
Yang Jiechi’s remarks were seen as going far beyond the diplomatic bottom line, but did serve to drum up a little domestic pinkie talk.
After the meeting, a senior U.S. official said that Chinese officials seemed intent on “high-profile showmanship” and focused on public performance gimmicks without any intention of talking about substance. Netizens said: the purpose of the show is to fool the domestic leeks, as long as the domestic leeks do not march and demonstrate to understand the truth of their authoritarian dictatorship, Europe and the West how to see them, they do not care.
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