Understanding lost in distortions of translation

It was good to hear European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen call for the de-risking of EU-China relations in a speech she made at a think tank forum on Thursday.

However, although trying to demonstrate the European Union has an independent China policy, her argument to sell that point is a familiar one, as it has been heard many times from Washington. No wonder the EU leader could afford to analyze China's diplomacy and socioeconomic policies without mentioning the US' influence on them.

If there was anything differentiating her speech from one coming from Washington, it was her frequent use of direct quotes from President Xi Jinping to make her argument sound more persuasive — although they were taken out of context to distort the meaning.

Her earnestness in reading the trap-laden transcripts thrust on her for the speech shows that Von der Leyen apparently does not know much about the Chinese language, and therefore what she was talking about.

For instance, she referred to Xi urging the Chinese people to prepare for struggle, citing the Chinese words douzheng and fendou, saying "This is indicative of a world view shaped by a sense of mission for the Chinese nation", which led her to conclude "that the Chinese Communist Party's clear goal is a systemic change of the international order with China at its center".

This is an utter distortion of the two words in a bid to hype up a "China threat" theory. The two words in Chinese have different meanings in different contexts. To anybody knowing Chinese, what Xi was doing was urging the people to demonstrate their diligence, intelligence and perseverance at their respective posts to contribute to national development as the nation faces an increasingly volatile external environment.

All of China's development goals have been clearly stated. Building China into a modern socialist country by the middle of the century — with "composite national strength and international influence" as Von der Leyen quoted President Xi as saying — does not equate to her "reading" that the aim is for China "to become the world's most powerful nation".

The great lengths she has gone to in manipulating the Chinese language to portray China as a security threat, ideological rival and economic coercer, only show how divorced these conclusions are from reality. It is to be hoped that her visit to China from Wednesday to Friday will provide the EU leader with a better understanding of what China is actually saying.