Breaking with an eight-year tradition of reporting only on Xi Jinping suyus, we felt this one from Hua Chunying needed to be highlighted.
始作俑者
shǐ zuò yǒng zhě
Meaning: creator of bad precedent, the person who first made tomb figures
Original: 现在问题的关键是，作为当前乌克兰局势紧张的始作俑者，美方在这场危机中扮演了什么角色？发挥了什么作用？如果有人一边火上浇油，一边指责别人救火不力，这种行为是不负责任的，也是不道德的。
Source: In her February 23, 2022 press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesperson 华春莹, in response to the first question asked to her about tensions in Ukraine, managed to avoid mentioning Russia and blamed the United States for stoking tensions. Find her remarks here:
This is a corrected version of the earlier newsletter, which may have implied that Hua didn't mention Russia during the rest of the press conference. She did, and then made detailed remarks about why the U.S. is to blame.
