Chinese News Programs

[dizhitian]

Hi all--Inspired buy the Grand First Episode Thread I am going to try to post a summary and vocab list of one or two Chinese news programs each week. To start I am going to focus on two shows 今日关注 and 首席评论. The first airs on CCTV 4 and the second is closely associated with the magazine under 新世纪 whose editor, 胡舒立, was forced out of the magazine 财经 for pushing boundaries a bit too far. Here are the notes for 今日关注 that aired on August 3. The program can be viewed here: http://news.cntv.cn/world/20110803/115419.shtml.

今日关注—增国债 扩军费 全球经济为美国买单？August 3, 2011

Topic: US-China Relations, Chinese reactions to the American debt crisis.

Guests: 向松祚 from the International Currency Research Center at Renmin and 周世俭 from the US-China Relation Research Center at Qinghua.

First five minutes:

The host quickly summarizes recent events in Washington and points out that while Republicans and Democrats have agreed on a debt agreement, the Pentagon budget is still scheduled to rise next year. With this in mind, the host wonders if American claims about lowering debt have much sincerity behind them. After a short video on American debt as well as the new military equipment scheduled for purchase next year, the host asks the two guests about America’s position in the world. The professor from Renda points out that America’s hegemonic position stems from both money and arms and has three goals: to preserve it position, to protect its capital investment and to ensure access to and control of natural resources. The guest from Qinghua refines this point by saying that the keys to American power are the place as the dollar as a reserve currency as well as the aircraft carriers of the U.S Navy. He concludes that America position as a reserve currency and its ability to run deficits is a very important weapon in its strategic arsenal.

Vocab in this time:

与此同时–At the same time. Used as a transition word at star of a sentence

闹剧-farce

赤字-debt

航母-aircraft carrier

霸气-hegemony

掌控-to control

福利-social welfare

现在全世界给美国打工-Now all the world is working for the United States

From Five Minutes to 15 Minutes:

After stating that American creditworthiness is at an inflection point, the host asks what options China has as far as what to do with its large holding of American debt. The guest from Renda states that China and other countries are in a predicament and refers to DeGaulle’s complaints during the 1960s about how American printed money to finance the Vietnam and makes an analogy to China’s current situation. After another short video on the importance of American aircraft carriers, the discussion turns to how much longer the US can maintain such a position i.e. running deficits and essentially having other countries pay for American military expenditures. The guest from Renda responds that it is important to acknowledge that American are quite gifted at strategic thought and have a very intertwined system in place. Here he mentioned two episodes from the World War II to show how Americans were already planning for the post-war world before they even entered the conflict. The guest from Tsinghua responds that America has broken two agreements related to finance and its history: in the early 1930s when Roosevelt went of the gold standard and essentially depreciated the dollar by about 40% and when Nixon announced in 1971 that the U.S would no longer exchange dollars for gold. He expects to see further monetary loosening because it accords with American interests.

Vocab in this time:

岌岌可危-in imminent danger

遏制-to contain

奇生虫-parasitic. Could also use 奇生分子 for parasite.

欢呼-to welcome, acclaim

摇摇欲坠-on the verge of collapse

软势力-soft power (硬势力－hard power)

不惜-not hesitate to

深谋远虑－to plan far ahead (A similar idiom with nearly the exact same meaning is 深谋远略)

违约－To break an agreement

大萧条—The Great Depression

尼克松—Richard Nixon

罗斯福—Franklin Roosevelt

普京—Vladimir Putin

戴高乐—Charles De Gaulle

美国的安全体系是非常严密-The American security system is very tightly organized.

Last Ten Minutes:

Here the discussion shifts to what options China has as far as its future attitude towards buying more American treasuries. The professor from Renda asserts that there are essentially four investment options available to a person or country: put money in a bank, buy stocks, but real assets (i.e. businesses, property) or buy debt (i.e bonds). Here he brings up the case of the Chinese electronics firm Huawei being blocked from acquiring a U.S. firm earlier this year. His point here is that American prevents China from investing in real assets in the U.S. and essentially forces China to use its reserves to buy Treasury bonds. After another shirt video featuring the views of Putin, Japanese traders (who suggest that America simply give them Hawaii!) and a former Morgan Stanley official on the sustainability of US debt levels, the host asks the guests what position China should take. The professor from Renda argues that the China and other nations should band together like Europe did in the 1960s and make the U.S. sign agreements that future inflation will not exceed a certain level so that America will not be able to inflate away its debts. The professor from Qinghua argues that the United States must open its market to further Chinese investment. If not, he suggests China essentially dump its holdings of American securities on the market.

Vocab in this time:

持有-holder (i.e. of debt)

华为－Huawei Electronics company

无奈的一个办法-To have no choice or no option

应当－should or ought to

机警－perceptive, astute

抛售-to dump on the market

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to structure the posts so that they could be of the most use to others. My inclination was to give brief summaries of the the major points throughout the program to help facilitate understanding so someone who does not normally watch news programs could keep up. I am not in China at the moment and am undertaking the project to keep up my listening while out of the country. I will also be posting these one at: http://chinanewsprograms.wordpress.com

[aspi]

Seems pretty fine to me, but I am not very good at Chinese so can not really say. But anyways I find this text to be very interesting. We do not get much Chinese points of views to this current economic situation, so if you are going to keep translating topics regarding these matters I will be following your future posts.

Thank you for this post, I already got new interesting points out of this text that had nothing to do with the language but I guess this suits both needs. Because I am coming to Beijing to study Chinese economy I wonder if there is a trustworthy source where to find translations like these for me to read? I have tried to find these kinds of text but have not found any yet, I would appreciate if someone could point me to the right direction.

I would also ask you if there is any response from the Chinese to what Alan Greenspan said in the " Meet the press " program. I found hes comment to be quite hilarious but as there is a chance for it to happen I would interested to hear what Chinese has to say to it.

[renzhe]

Great stuff! Keep it up!

It reminds me a bit more of the Newspaper Article a Day and Langdu a Day threads (short posts in one thread) than the First Episode Project (one thread per show), but this makes sense since the news programs are shorter. I suggest to keep it in this format.

If you keep doing this regularly, I can make it a sticky.

[aspi]

My apologies... I just noticed where this post was posted, I jumped to write a response from the first page so I missed the forum sub topic information or what ever it is called. So now I know a lot more. I guess I need to wonder around these forums a bit more because it seems there are a lot more interesting posts hidden in here than I thought. Discard my few first lines, makes me look silly

[imron]

There appears to be a transcript of the show here. I only checked the first part, so I'm not sure if it covers everything, but it looks promising.

[imron]

Hohoho, with a little bit more digging, I think I've found the motherlode of transcripts. This is the sort of thing many learners have been hoping for!

[dizhitian]

aspi-Your question about where to find Chinese economic news in translation is a good one. There is a excellent magazine called New Century that has a good English website that simply translates articles from its publication and has some additional content. It has a reputation for pushing the envelope and good investigative reporting. You can find it here: http://english.caing.com/. I will try to look into the Alan Greenspan stuff

[dizhitian]

imron-That is a great find! In the future I will try to provide a link to the transcript as well. While scouting out other programs ( I would like to do some that aren't on the main CCTV channels) I will try to find transcripts.

[imron]

I will try to find transcripts.

Unfortunately these are usually as rare as hen's teeth

[aspi]

dizhitian- Thanks! I am not sure if I am reading the right stuff but already found few good articles in English. Is there a link to the New Century website or are those articles in that link written by the paper? It does not say directly anything about New Century so I am just wondering.