Mar. 14,
2018

ISSUE
No. 125

AMS Weekly Newsletter
Dedicated to the development of the future stewards of U.S.-China relations
We are in the process of digesting the recent structural and bureaucratic changes coming out of the 两会. Next week's newsletter will bring you analysis on the key outcomes. 

This week we focus on China's efforts to further develop its external propaganda, choose another idiom used by Xi Jinping in praise of Zhou Enlai, and present the third season of A Bite of China. 流口水了吧...
Weekly Readings
 
In the last decade, Beijing has devoted a great deal of energy to invigorating its external propaganda. The focus of this effort is to achieve "discourse power" to decide who speaks and how events are interpreted. This week's reading is an interesting essay by the dean of Renmin University's international relations institute about the nature of this power and its relationship to political power and state security. Given Xi Jinping's continuing personalization  of power and his energetic expansion of China's global role, Beijing's "discourse power" likely will be a continuing topic of Chinese political and policy discussions.


俗语 in Xi Jinping's Speeches

鞠躬尽瘁、死而后已
ju1 gong1 jin4 cui4,si3 er2 hou4 yi3

Meaning: to give all of one's effort until one's dying day

This idiom was used in the same speech we highlighted last week, the March 1 commemoration of the 120th anniversary of Zhou Enlai's birth. It can be used as an eight-character phrase, or also just the first 4 characters, which on their own mean to exert all of one's effort in a task or in performing one's duty. 

Original: 可是这二十几年的时间,总应该把国家建设得好点, 人民的生活多改善一些,去马克思那里报到,才感到安心。 现在这种状况去报到,总感到内疚、羞愧。周恩来同志真正做到了鞠 躬尽瘁、死而后已。


Video of the Week

This week's featured video is the highly anticipated third season of fan favorite Chinese food and culture documentary series 舌尖上的中国 ( A Bite of China), available  here .



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