Patriotraitor

爱国贼 (àiguózéi): patriotraitor

Cai Mingchao hiding behind a shield with the characters “patriot.” Cai is a prominent art dealer who defaulted in his 31.5 million euro commitment to purchase two bronze animal heads taken from the Ming Summer Palace. He claimed that he defaulted out of a sense of patriotism. Others sensed an ulterior motive. (blog.ifeng.com)

Paitriotraitor in military garb. “Let’s nuke Taiwan, blow Tokyo to bits, invade New York! The cops are coming, quick, run.”

A play on “traitor” (卖国贼 màiguózéi), a patriotraitor is someone who betrays his/her country’s interests while outwardly professing patriotism. Netizens pejoratively refer to people who are uncritically nationalistic as either patriotraitors or shit youth.

Fudan University student Tao Weishuo earned the title of patriotraitor in a 2009 town hall with Barack Obama after objecting to the president’s discussion of Internet censorship in China. “I strongly disagree with what Obama said about the Internet firewall,” the Washington Post quoted him saying. “I think all Chinese people have Internet freedom—we can speak out freely on the Internet about current social affairs.”

Despite recent strains in Sino-Japanese relations that have grown out of territorial disputes surrounding the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands and Japan’s move to strengthen its self-defense force, the number of Chinese visiting Japan has seen a dramatic increase in 2014. In response to this phenomenon, one Sina Weibo user suspects that this is the doing of the patriotraitors:

克里斯托夫-金: In the first half of 2014, the number of mainland Chinese visiting Japan exceeded one million for the first time, with an increase of 88%. Why are Chinese people so in love with Japan when Sino-Japanese relations has hit rock bottom? Abe has just lifted the ban on collective self-defense. Japan has never compromised on the Diaoyu Islands dispute. China has been calling for a boycott of Japanese goods. Every day you hear patriotraitors calling Japanese scholars traitors. Logically, I can’t understand why Chinese people are so in love with Japan? Please read!

上半年中国大陆访日人数首次突破百万，同比猛增88%，为何中国人在中日关系谷底时仍如此钟爱日本？安倍刚刚宣称解禁“集体自卫权”，日本从未在钓鱼岛争端中让过一步，中国仍在呼唤抵制日货，爱国贼天天咒骂讲真话的知日学者汉奸卖国贼，我百思不得其解，逻辑上，中国人不应该对日本如此厚爱？请读！

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