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Euphemisms for China

We’ve all done it.? You’ve been introduced to someone, but forget his or her name.? And so you spend the rest of the conversation studiously avoiding needing to refer to your new friend by name.? Well, as far as I can gather, the same thing happened on Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.? He gave?a talk at Brookings that was?all about China, but if you didn’t know better, you could be forgiven for thinking he had forgotten her name.
Geithner is an impressive guy.? But perhaps this talk was more interesting for its linguistics than its economics.? Play spot-the-China-euphemism as we wander through his speech:

Hmmm… which country is a “major emerging economy” and is one of “the fastest growing emerging economies” that is “overly reliant on exports” and “whose currencies are significantly undervalued,” and is one of those “large economies with undervalued exchange rates,” “scarce currencies” and “export-oriented policies” which ensures that “the surplus countries” are “running current account surpluses” which are “persistent, large surpluses”?
About the only thing he didn’t do is call for economic reform from “countries which recently hosted the Olympics.”
Tim: It’s spelled C-H-I-N-A.


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