More interesting fact: back in about 2013 the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) announced on CCTV (China Central Television) that they had banned all English language acronyms like WHO (World Health Organization) and WTO (World Trade Organization) in favour of the full Chinese translation 世界卫生组织 (shì jiè wèi shēng zǔ zhī) and 世界贸易组织 (shì jiè mào yì zǔ zhī).
There were fines for organizations who flouted the law.
I don’t know whether this is true, but it’s not a bad idea for a style guide, but imposing a fine is very heavy-handed. Chinese people speak Chinese and their names in Chinese describe what the organisation does, whereas the English acronyms are just meaningless symbols.
At the time China had just had a ruling go against them in one of those big international bodies, which I assume prompted the announcement.
No effort seemed to be made to actually phase out English acronyms, my Chinese friends (I was living in Hebei at the time) said that was just a government temper tantrum that would soon be forgotten.
Interesting fact: CCTV is also the name of China’s state-run television network.
More interesting fact: back in about 2013 the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) announced on CCTV (China Central Television) that they had banned all English language acronyms like WHO (World Health Organization) and WTO (World Trade Organization) in favour of the full Chinese translation 世界卫生组织 (shì jiè wèi shēng zǔ zhī) and 世界贸易组织 (shì jiè mào yì zǔ zhī).
There were fines for organizations who flouted the law.
I don’t know whether this is true, but it’s not a bad idea for a style guide, but imposing a fine is very heavy-handed. Chinese people speak Chinese and their names in Chinese describe what the organisation does, whereas the English acronyms are just meaningless symbols.
At the time China had just had a ruling go against them in one of those big international bodies, which I assume prompted the announcement.
No effort seemed to be made to actually phase out English acronyms, my Chinese friends (I was living in Hebei at the time) said that was just a government temper tantrum that would soon be forgotten.
Yeah, Western broadcasters should instead use Chinese characters and not do any translations when covering China.
I am very smart.