Abuse of ‘compatriot’ again
When China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesperson Fan Liqing (范麗青) brazenly and rudely stated during a Beijing press conference that Taiwan’s future “must be decided by all Chinese people, including [our] Taiwanese compatriots [ton bao, 同胞],” she was not only coming across as a shrill propagandist, but also as an abuser of language.
Language matters in all discussions of cross-strait issues.
Here is what Fan said in Mandarin, with the key words in brackets: “兩岸不是國與國關係, 任何涉及中國主權, 和領土完整的問題, 必須由包括 — [台灣同胞] — 在內的, 全中國人民共同決定.”
Fan knows that Taiwanese are not “compatriots” of Chinese nationals. As a well-educated woman who is fluent in English, she knows full well that “compatriot” in English — and Chinese — is a word that means “fellow countryman” and that it comes originally from Latin.
She also knows that British nationals and US nationals are not compatriots, and that New Zealanders and Australians are not compatriots.
Yet brainwashed and mind-controlled as she is, she comes out telling Taiwanese that they are her compatriots. Rubbish!
Since, as everyone knows, Taiwan and China are separate countries, how can Fan have the gall to refer to Taiwanese are her “fellow countrymen?” And why do so few commentators even in Taiwan take issue with her use, once again, of the word “compatriot?”
I have not seen one commentary in a Chinese-language newspaper in Taiwan criticize Fan for linguistically abusing the word.
Language matters, whether one is speaking Chinese or English. Or Latin or French. Chinese and Taiwanese are not compatriots. Period.
This recent gaffe was not the first time Fan has misused the word.
In June last year, she did the same thing, stating at a press conference in Beijing that establishing reciprocal cross-strait offices would be a good thing beneficial to the safeguarding and enhancement of welfare for “compatriots” on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Fan has constantly misused or, one might say, abused the word, during her entire term as TAO spokeswoman. And her misuse of language reminds many Western observers of the same kind of propaganda that came out of the former Soviet Union, an earlier dictatorship that has been wiped off the map.
When Fan said that Taiwan’s future will be decided by “all Chinese citizens” — adding that she considers Taiwanese to be fellow Chinese citizens — it was only natural and proper that responses inside Taiwan ranged from a diplomatic call for self-determination by Taiwanese to a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker asking Chinese officials to stop making such comments.
Yet has anyone called out Fan for not knowing her Latin? It is downright Orwellian, this ton bao nonsense.
Linder Atkins
Boston, Massachusetts
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