Ancient poet Hui Hong’s verse: “It is up to the one who tied the rattle to the tiger’s neck to remove it.” Xi had in the past picked up a similar Chinese proverb: “To remove the doorbell, it takes someone to put them on”
In Xi Jinping’s rhetorical repertoire, there are endless cultivated literary quotes and proverbs that are easy for ordinary people to consume. Yesterday he distilled one of the second category for Joe Biden: “jie líng hái xu xì líng rén”. Loosely translated, it means: “It is incumbent on whoever tied the rattle to the tiger’s neck to remove it”. As part of the video summit of the two presidents, he expresses China’s line on the Ukraine crisis: The tiger would be Vladimir Putin; the rattle of NATO’s eastward expansion that would undermine Russian security; the author of the risky feat of the United States. Now that if you want to tame the tiger, enraged by the constant ringing of the bell, you should approach the animal alone and carefully remove it.
It remains to be seen whether the Chinese have the desire and interest in somehow facilitating the rapprochement and whether they see themselves as placating tigers. Xi Jinping is said to have an endless literary culture (he also quotes Hemingway, Dante and Petrarch to intrigue audiences). When he was sent to the countryside with hundreds of thousands of young students during the Cultural Revolution to “learn from the peasant masses,” he arrived with a suitcase. The villagers began to imagine that there were supplies inside, perhaps treasure. It was full of books, read and reread during those difficult years that prepared him for power. The pearl that Biden was awarded probably came from one of these precious volumes.
It is a quote from the ancient Song Dynasty poet Huì Hóng. The parable of the tiger and the rattle is a favorite of the communist general secretary, who uses it publicly to signal anger when confronted with an unwelcome question. In 2014, he dedicated it to a New York Times reporter who questioned Beijing’s restrictions on the international press. He replied, “The government of the People’s Republic of China protects people’s freedom of expression according to the law, as well as the legitimate rights of the press. However, the international press should also respect China’s laws here. For example, if a car breaks down, you need to get out and see what the problem is. When you call something a problem, it means that there are reasons. We Chinese have a saying: “To take off the bell, you need the one who puts it on” ». Foreign correspondent bureaus (including the Courier) did research to decipher the clear and brutal, if poetic, message: You’ve irritated us, now find your own way to placate us.
March 19, 2022 (change March 19, 2022 | 14:29)
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