A.G. Gancarski
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.
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.
Rubio, during his confirmation hearing, cited the importance of referring to the original Chinese to understand the words of China’s leader Xi Jinping.
“Don’t read the English translation that they put out because the English translation is never right,” he said.
A U.S. statement on the phone call didn’t mention the phrase. It said Rubio told Wang that the Trump administration would advance U.S. interests in its relationship with China and expressed “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan and in the South China Sea.”
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
7 comments
PeterH
January 25, 2025 at 7:35 pm
It’s important for international leaders to hand hold this sad collection of wingnuts in the Trump administration. Foreign leaders should be very wary of sharing confidential intelligence information with anyone in this administration. Trump has no reliable handlers.
V.A. Porub
January 26, 2025 at 3:56 am
If you are talking about Rubio, I suggest you accept his unanimous support among Senate Democrats as evidence that you should stop your silly vaporing. That is, unless your intent is to represent the Chinese point of view, in which case registering as a foreign agent would be a significant act to avoid prosecution.
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Ocean Joe
January 26, 2025 at 7:36 am
The Chinese remember Rubio as the guy who led the charge to ban Tik Tok. Remember his attack on Val Demmings for dancing with some young folks on Tik Tok. But now, because Trump likes it, Rubio likes it…and all Republicans like it.
Isn’t life great when Trump says so? And the Chinese have got their puppet back. How many patents will Ivanka get this time?
Rubio will do a good job, until he tries to do the right thing and Trump fires him for it. Cutting off aid to Ukraine for 3 months is not subtle, and Rubio knows it.
MH/Duuuval
January 26, 2025 at 10:51 am
Exactly — all Trump needs to do is demand Rubio resign. Simple, really, since DJT imagines himself omnipotent and omniscient.
Harold Finch
January 26, 2025 at 11:09 am
You are absolutely right! We now have a defacto dictator as President. He controls all elections where Republicans are running by his endorsements, therby eliminating republicans abilty to choose who they want and not him! In addition to Congressional Offices, he dictates state legislative and cabinet races, including Governors. And none of these individuals has any backbone to stand up to him. Rubio has more sense and cababolities in his little finger than Trump has in his entire body.
MH/Duuuval
January 26, 2025 at 11:21 am
Masha Gessen wrote an excellent book on the rise of Putin, which occurred in about a decade’s time after the old Soviet Union collapsed.
Putin gradually harnessed — or drove off — the politically active elements in Russia.
Putin, too, is a short guy with a long memory for anyone who crosses him.