Room-opening bureau chief

开房局长 (kāifáng júzhǎng): “room-opening” bureau chief

Sign above the hotel room door reads "microblog date." The man says, "Let's open the door." After noticing the peering eyes, he says, "Oh no! You saw what I wrote?"

This is the nickname given to Xie Zhiqiang (谢志强) who the Wall Street Journal calls “China’s Anthony Weiner.”

Xie became infamous on the Internet after arranging a rendezvous with his mistress on his Sina Weibo account, apparently unaware that the conversation was visible to the public. A portion of their conversation is as follows (as translated by the Wall Street Journal):

Sign reads “clean Government For the People.” The man (note the traditional official's cap marking him as a government official) is saying, “Babe, let's go to the hotel and get a room.” (Sohu)

Woman: What time do you want meet me?

Xie: How about this afternoon?

Woman: Where?

Xie: What about the Huangting [Hotel]?

Woman: That works.

Xie: I’ll give you the room key. You go first and relax, I’ll come over shortly after, OK?

Woman: How will you give me the key? I won’t go to the reception desk.

Xie: I’ll get it first and send it to you.

In Mandarin, the phrase “room-opening” (开房 kāifáng) sounds nearly the same in Chinese as “generous” (开放 kāifàng), so the epithet “room-opening bureau chief” sounds similar to “generous bureau chief.”

Screenshot of the offending microblog post.