So far I’ve seen four different translations of the Chinese characters representing a purported exchange between a Taiwanese military pilot and a PLA pilot.
The translations may differ more than can be readily explained by the difficulties of auto-translating Chinese into English. For one thing, different translation engines apparently have different protocols for dealing with obscenity. Scrupulous fidelity to intended meaning is not always one of the protocols.
These two translations don’t require you to cover your ears:
Taiwanese Military Pilot: You can talk when you stand up. You’re kneeling for life, a commie slave, don’t even know how to stand up and fight back. Pathetic.
[This is also rendered: “Can you even stand up? You’ll be kneeling your whole life, a slave to the Communist Party, and you don’t even know how to stand up and resist the Communist Party. Pathetic.”]
PLA Pilot: You think you’re so smart, fight your mother-effing whatever.
[This is also rendered: “Self-righteous, resist your f***ing ass.”]
Taiwanese Military Pilot: You don’t even know what freedom is. Did *you* vote for Xi Jinping? How sadly amusing.
[This is also rendered: “You don’t know what freedom is. Did you elect Xi Jinping? How pathetic.”
PLA Pilot: Amusing your mother-effing…
[This is also rendered: “Pathetic your ass.”]
Taiwanese Military Pilot: A kingdom of cussing. You’re world-class cursers, top-tier pathetic.
[This is also rendered: “A kingdom of profanity, you’re the world’s best at using foul language, how pathetic.”]
The Chinese text and an audio file of a report on the exchange have been posted at LuJun Quan’s X account, @QuanLujun. LuJun Quan assures his followers that “the whole Internet’s buzzing about this.”
Monkton, who told us about the post, says “I hope it is true.” That would be nice.
If it is true, it would also be nice if, as a result, the PLA guy ends up having second thoughts about his submission to the commies/Communist Party.
