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.

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

Two beggars curse those that criticize China. They blame every other country but their own for their plight.

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, where he objected 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.”

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