‘Never right’: why there’s a war of words over Beijing’s English translations

America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio has made clear that he does not trust Beijing’s English translations of Chinese officials’ words – he says they are “never right”.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, appears to be the most powerful diplomat under President Donald Trump. He is the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the national security adviser and secretary of state positions at the same time, making him the point man on China over the next four years.

Rubio has been blunt about his distrust of China. During his secretary of state confirmation hearing in January, he highlighted the importance of referring to the original Chinese to understand the words of President Xi Jinping.

The subject of translation came up again later that month, when Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone. Wang reportedly told Rubio to “hao zi wei zhi” – an idiom Beijing translated as “act accordingly” in its English readout of the call. It was more stern in foreign media reports on the meeting – Reuters translated it as “conduct yourself well”, while Bloomberg’s translation was “conduct yourself properly”.