Two weeks ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) completed it’s 18th National Congress, at which a new set of leaders was appointed. The nine-member Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) that sits at the apex of Party power and thus effectively rules the country was reduced to 7 members, and all but 2 of the out-going members were replaced (their terms were up).
Hu Jintao, the man who had been the General Secretary of the CPC for the last ten years stepped down. The man ‘elected’ to take his place was Xi Jinping (pronounced She Jeenping).
As you can imagine, this has spawned something of a cottage industry in pun-making.
A recent post on the website Foreign Policycompiled a list of bad-pun headlines they hope never to see:
1. Territorial disputes in the South China Sea: “Xi’s Gotta Have It.”
2. A profile of his teenage years: “Xi was only 16.”
3. His second visit to Iowa: “There Xi Goes Again.”
4. His portrayal in Chinese state media: “Isn’t Xi Lovely?” (Or “Xi Will Be Loved.”)
5. A Chinese Gorbachev: “Xi Change.”
6. Bizarre policy choices: “Xi Moves in Mysterious Ways.”
7. A definitive chronicle of his speeches: “That’s What Xi Said.”
8. His meeting with Henry Kissinger: “The Old Man and the Xi.”
9. On a conflict with the current head of the disciplinary committee: “He Said Xi Said.”
10. His stylish sartorial choices: “Ain’t Nothing But a Xi Thing.”
My contribution to the madness is the title of this post.
How about you? What are your favorite “Xi” puns?
For further reading on Mr. Xi:
Xi Jinping: the ‘big personality’ taking charge in China (The Guardian)
China’s incoming first lady a challenge for the image makers (Los Angeles Times)
What China’s seven rulers mean for its 80 million Christians (Christianity Today)
Image source: Wikipedia
“Xi’s the man.”
After a content-less inaugural speech: “That’s all Xi wrote!”
But he smiled when he gave the speech, something none of his predecessors ever did. Isn’t that sort of kind of like a reform?