Business Spotlight 08.2019

24 Business Spotlight 6/2019 GLOBAL BUSINESS

Fotos: Dilok Klaisataporn/Shutterstock.com; Gert Krautbauer

EAMONN FITZGERALD

writes daily at http://www.eamonn.com.

He uses social media to build

relationships for organizations.

Contact: [email protected]

Caucasian

[kO:(keIziEn]

, kaukasisch

constitute sth.

[(kQnstItju:t]

, etw. darstellen

Department of State

[di)pA:tmEnt Ev

(steIt] US

, Außenministerium

reminiscent: be ~ of sth.

[)remI(nIs&nt]

, an etw. erinnern

research fellow

[ri(s§:tS )felEU]

, wissenschaftliche(r)

Mitarbeiter(in)

take office

[)teIk (QfIs]

, die Amtsgeschäfte

übernehmen

truce [tru:s]

, Waffenstillstand

Speaking at a security forum in Washington in

April, Kiron Skinner, director of policy planning at

the US Department of State, described the competi-

tion with China as “a fight with a really different civ-

ilization and a different ideology”. She also said that

while the “Cold War constituted ... a fight within the

Western family”, the coming conflict with China is

“the first time that we will have a great power com-

petitor that is not Caucasian”.

Li Zheng, an assistant research fellow at the China

Institutes of Contemporary International Relations,

responded to Skinner in the China Daily, an Eng-

lish-language daily newspaper owned by the Public-

ity Department of the Communist Party of China,

saying, “Racist remarks are not new in US political

and social circles, but before the present administra-

tion took office, they did not come from the mouth

of US officials.”

The words on both sides are reminiscent of lan-

guage used during the darkest days of the Cold War.

Following the Trump–Xi agreement at the G20

Summit in Japan in June to restart trade talks, the

world now hopes that a trade war truce will lead to

peace. But most observers of US politics say that a

lot will depend on President Trump’s campaign to be

re-elected next year. An agreement with Xi Jinping,

which he could sell to voters as the “greatest deal in

history”, might be a winner. Or the threat of China

as the West’s most dangerous enemy might help

Trump even more.

A lot will depend

on President

Trump’s campaign

to get re-elected

next year

Sino-English:

Democrazy

The Chinese love to experiment with

English. They make up their own

words and create terms that don’t exist

in the English-speaking world. Much of

this “cryptic English” also functions as

political critique. Here are seven such

terms, together with their Chinese

definitions.

1. democrazy [“democracy with spe-
   cial characteristics”] Special Chinese
   characteristics, of course.


2. departyment [“state / national de-
   partment / sector”]


3. Chinsumer [“Chinese shopper”]
   This has a deeper meaning, which in-
   cludes the daigou (see below), who occu-
   py a special place in the global Chinese
   economy.


4. daigou [“purchase on behalf of; act
   as a purchasing agent”] The daigou go
   abroad and buy things like milk powder,
   medicines, cosmetics and expensive
   handbags in large quantities and then
   transport them back to China to sell at
   a big profit.


5. gunvernment
   [“gun barrel regime”]


6. shitizen [“civilians”]


7. circusee [“onlookers”]

Source: Language Log (https://languagelog.ldc.

upenn.edu)

critique

[)krI(ti:k]

, [wg. Aussprache]

gun barrel regime

[(gVn )bÄrEl reI)Zi:m]

, mit Waffengewalt

gestütztes Regime

on behalf of

[Qn bi(hA:f Qv]

, im Auftrag von

purchase sth. [(p§:tSEs]

, etw. kaufen

purchasing agent

[(p§:tSEsIN )eIdZEnt]

, Einkäufer(in)

Money rivals: dollar and yuan