The top 10 phrases in the media in 2017

The top 10 phrases that have been most frequently used or mentioned by the country’s major media were released last week by the National Broadcast Media Language Resources Monitoring & Research Center.

The phrases were selected from a language pool that covers all the content of the eight main newspapers, 20 radio and TV stations, and four media websites from January to November, according to the center.

“The phrases represent the different focuses of Chinese mainstream media and the new changes in language,” it said.

The 10 phrases are as follows:

1. Xiongan New Area

On April 1, the central government announced it would develop Xiongan New Area in North China’s Hebei province, about 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing. It will be the third national special economic zone after Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Shanghai Pudong New Area, and will be an important part of the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

2. joint property rights housing

In order to bring down housing prices and meet the needs of local residents for housing, Beijing will build more new homes with the ownership rights shared by both the government and property buyers. Beijing officially floated the idea in a draft document released in August. Homeowners will not have the properties in their own names but they will be able to sell their shares in the properties after five years.

3. shared chargers

With the sharing economy booming, shared chargers for mobile phones are available now. If a customer’s smartphone runs out of power in a shopping mall, he or she can rent a charger for use from a device containing many portable chargers.

4. Russiagate

US President Donald Trump’s election team was alleged to have suspected ties with Russia, which meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. The claim was denied.

5. equal rights for home tenants and owners

With the concept of “housing is for living in, not for speculation”, China is now promoting a housing system that ensures supply through multiple sources, provides housing support through multiple channels, and encourages both housing purchases and renting. To meet the housing needs of all people, renters can have the same rights as homeowners in enjoying public services such as the education of their children.

6.detention

According to the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China delivered in October, China will replace the practice of “shuanggui” with detention as the reform of the national supervision system deepens. A national supervision law will be formulated. Supervisory commissions will be given responsibilities, powers and means of investigation in accordance with law. Shuanggui is an intra-Party disciplinary practice that requires a CPC member under investigation to cooperate with questioning at a designated place and time.

7. gray rhinos

A gray rhino is a large, thick-skinned animal with a heavy build, and it seems clumsy but still is dangerous. It is usually used to describe highly probable, high-impact yet neglected threats, which may appear due to people’s ignorance, such as smog and property bubbles.

8. BRICS plus

At a news conference for the Meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs in June, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi introduced the concept of “BRICS plus”. He said BRICS plus refers to BRICS further enhancing its connections, interactions, dialogues and cooperation with other developing countries and emerging market economies, in order to better reflect the common ground and collective will of the developing countries through BRICS cooperation. The BRICS members－Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa－are all developing countries and emerging market economies.

9. Ransomware

In early May, there were at least 200,000 victims in 150 countries due to the unprecedented spread of a computer virus called “WannaCry”. The ransomware locked up computers connected to the internet, especially in intranets in car factories, hospitals, shops and schools in several countries, encrypting data and demanding bitcoin payments of up to $600 to unlock the computers. Experts say that in China, colleges and gas stations were among the hardest hit.

10. low-quality steel made from scrap metal

Ditiaogang, low-quality steel made from scrap metal, was listed as an outdated product in 2002. Earlier this year, the National Development and Reform Commission set a timeline to phase out production of ditiaogang before the end of June.