The phrase “take off one’s clothes” has reportedly been censored on Chinese social media after China’s President Xi Jinping made a slip-up in a speech during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou.
In a speech to the Business 20 (B20) summit on Saturday on the global economy, Xi said the phrase “take off one’s clothes” instead of “ease agricultural policy.”
Quoting from an ancient Chinese text, President Xi was supposed to say “lighten the tariffs, straighten the roads, facilitate trade, and ease agricultural policy.” But because the simplified Chinese characters for clothes and agriculture look very similar, the phrase became “kuanyi” instead of “kuannong.”
A search for “kuanyi” on Chinese social media Weibo returned only two irrelevant results, while a search on censorship watchdog site Free Weibo returned two posts relating to the gaffe that were removed. The four character phrase for “facilitate trade and take off one’s clothes” could not be sent on Chinese messaging app WeChat, though “kuanyi” could be sent.
牆內因爲比較早嘲笑「寬衣」的媒體人，已經被約談、批評了，他的發言被懶惰的人截圖直接轉發。希望不要有更壞的後果。這光天化日講的話，全世界都聽得到，其實也不存在第一個聽到的那個人。
— 上官敫銘 | Matthew PANG (@pangjiaoming) September 5, 2016
Ming Pao journalist Pang Jiaoming tweeted: “Within the wall, the media people who were the first to make fun of “kuanyi” have already been questioned and criticised. His statement has already been directly shared via screenshots by lazy people. Hopefully there won’t be worse consequences. These words that were spoken in broad daylight were heard by the whole world – there was no one who was the first to hear it.”
The “wall” refers to China’s online censorship infrastructure known as the “Great Firewall.”
#巴丢草 漫画 【通商宽衣】#习近平在 #G20 发言中, 把 “轻关易道, 通商宽农” 说成了 “轻关易道, #通商宽衣“。我想他大概是这个意思吧。。。 pic.twitter.com/EmhP9wbiUb
— 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) September 4, 2016
Cartoonist Badiucao published a cartoon of a Xi in his underwear on a neon sign saying “facilitate trade and take off ones’ clothes.”
“I think he means something like this…” he tweeted.
