Rudd addresses Chinese President in fluent Mandarin

[Swagman]

By Doug Conway
September 06, 2007 04:27pm

LABOR'S Mandarin-speaking leader Kevin Rudd upstaged John Howard today in a show of linguistic one-upmanship at a state lunch for China's President Hu Jintao.

The Prime Minister's own speech went down well.

But when Mr Rudd started addressing the leader of one quarter of the world's population, fluently in his own tongue, the effect was stunning.

There was an almost audible intake of breath among the scores of Chinese political and business heavyweights in the audience.

Many sat bolt upright in their chairs, beaming at Mr Rudd's virtuosity.
The effect could not have been greater had the family's precocious nine-year-old played a Chopin prelude perfectly for the visiting relatives after Christmas lunch.

But it worked so well because Mr Rudd was not acting like a show-off.

He spoke at length in English first, displaying a commanding grasp of China's history and development into an economic giant, before seeking his audience's indulgence to welcome President Hu personally in Chinese.

And when he did, he must have made Mr Howard squirm in his seat.

He spoke not for a few lines but for a few minutes.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22373556-2,00.html

[PinkUnicorn]

1. Ha

The very fact that he made an attempt (let along maintain a dialogue) in Mandarin would have impressed the Chinese no end. The Chinese are very big on respect, and making the attempt show that you have some for them as opposed to benign contempt.

Unlike Johnny Jackboots and Alexander conehead who are too busy fellating Bush to work with 'those asian devils' beyond selling stuff - it seems that Rudd actually realises that the metting is APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Forum) as opposed to a 'Suck up to the Amercians' conference.

I wonder if Johnny will be frantically trying to learn a few Russian phrases for when Putin arrives?

[Aussie leftie]

2. It is patently obvious that Howard sucked up to the wrong leader at the "OPEC" conference

While we had Rudd speaking in Hu's native tongue and showing Howard what diplomacy is all about, we had Howard sucking up to the buffoon from the USA who was thanking our "Austrian" troops at the "OPEC" conference. I noticed in this morning's SMH Howard and Bush are running neck and neck in the polls.

[RollWithIt]

3. Keep in mind that the UK as well as Australia need heightened trade relations with the US....

Now more than ever actually. Bush is gone in 10 weeks. Obama is in. I'm not saying Bush actually accomplished anything with Howard, but I'm saying it remains in Howard's best interest to maintain communication. Did you know that China's stock market has dropped 200% in one year, over 10,000 factories have closed this year alone, new home values have dropped 50%, and many of the major cities are now seeing close to 20% unemployment (traditionally less than 5%). The Chinese economy has seen negative growth for the last five straight quarters in comparison to 20 years of 10% annual growth.

While it's been fairly brutal in the US, if we'd have had drops like that we'd be sitting in the middle of a Super Depression.