What the Heck are “National Conditions”?

From Qianjiang Evening Post (钱江晚报), Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, founded in 1987.  Although named “evening paper”, it is sent to subscribers in the morning. The following signed editorial was apparently published online on Friday.

Links added during translation.

If “national condition” is some kind of dough, National Food Safety Assessment Center deputy Wang Zhutian has put it into a mold.

“国情”是个面团，国家食品安全风险评估中心主任助理王竹天把它捏成了方的。

This official, assigned to watch over the food security of 1.3 billion Chinese people, said in reply to questions concerning the definition of our country’s food security issues that we are a developing country, and that we need to define our standards in accordance to our “national condition”. If we took European air-quality standards, we wouldn’t be up to the standards.

这位身居13亿中国人食品安全站岗放哨要职的官员，在回答我国食品安全标准制定的问题时说，我们是发展中国家，还要按照“国情”来制定我们自己的标准。如果我们都拿欧洲空气做标准，那么我们都不合格。

This national-condition stuff – China Civil Aviation Cadres Institute associate professor Zou Jianjun has shaped it.

“国情”这团面，中国民航干部学院副教授邹建军把它捏成了圆的。

He voiced disdain for a flight data statistic  – he believes that to put Beijing Capital Airport and Shanghai Pudong Airport into a punctuality statistic with an overall of 35 airports worldwide, where they rank last and second-last, won’t perfectly reflect actual punctuality, and emphasizes that currently, our economic development doesn’t match Europe’s or America’s, and to put them all together [in the same statistic] was unreasonable.

这位专家对美国航空数据网站发布的一组数字表示不屑。他认为，北京首都机场、上海浦东机场双双包揽上个月全球35个国际机场准点率排名倒数第一第二名，这个数据不能完全准确反映实际准点率，并强调，目前我国经济发展水平并未与欧美相同，放在一起比较并不合理。

According to Wang Zhutian’s theory, the “national condition” of food safety standards – i. e. an acknowledged “national condition” – China, in its primary stage of socialism, should forget about wild hopes for eating with the same peace of mind as people in developed countries.

按照王竹天主任的理论，食品安全标准的“国情”，就是一个认命的“国情”，社会主义初级阶段的中国，别奢望吃上与发达国家一样放心的食品。

I don’t know how much of a natural connection there is between melamine in milkpowder and the incessant stream of poisonous rice and ginger, and the degree of  a country’s economic development. If there is a relation, is it that not enough tax money is spent on supervision? Or is it that the money spent by consumers on food doesn’t qualify for eating with their minds at ease?

我不知道奶粉中的三聚氰胺、层出不尽的毒大米毒生姜，与一个国家经济发达程度有多少必然的关系。如果有关系，是指纳税人提供给监管的钱不够花？还是消费者现有的食品购买支出，没资格吃上放心的食品？

From the common peoples’ dining tables to the state council’s meetings, the entire country is filled with fear about food safety issues, and this supervision official puts his “national-condition” dough into the mold. If “national conditions” become the food-safety supervision officials excuse for inaction, it will be a crudely-made protective umbrella for the inaction, and “national condition” will be a warning to compatriots to resign themselves to the destiny of accepting cheap standards.

吃的安全问题，从黎民百姓的餐桌上，摆到了国务院常务会议上，全中国都在为食品安全问题提心吊胆，偏偏这监管的官员，把它摆到了“国情”这个任他们拿捏的面团里。如果“国情”可以成为食品监管不作为的借口，可以成为放任食品粗制滥造的保护伞，那么，“国情”就是个告诫国人自认命贱的标准。

To grasp the theory of “national condition”, some of our experts and officials aren’t ahead of the rest of us with their standards, but the skin of their face is thicker than ours. The airports we built [in this country], in the words of our achievers, experts and officials, are of “international standards”.  Our high-speed trains, are testimony that there is “no match for them elsewhere in the world”. But when comparisons are about operation capabilities or quality of service, “national conditions” serve as shields. Our experts and officials don’t feel the least of shame that in many fields, China trails behind internationally.

在把握“国情”的理论上，我们现在的一些专家和官员，已经不是在与别人比水平有多高，而是在与别人比脸皮有多厚。建机场，夸成就，专家和官员嘴里，那是一个“国际一流”。修高铁，说功劳，那是一个“世上无双”。但是，比运营能力、比服务水平，“国情”就被扯出来做挡箭牌了。中国很多事情在国际上“垫底”，我们在这些专家和官员身上，感受不到丁点儿羞耻。

You don’t get on your plane or train? It’s “national condition”. Delays in arrival? “National conditions”. Rising prices? They have nothing to say. When spending money, they have nothing to say. Showing off their (small) achievements? Nothing to say. When earning high salaries and state remuneration from taxpayers’ money, when counting their money, have they ever mentioned “national conditions”?

坐不上飞机火车的时候，他们说“国情”。晚点的时候，他们说“国情”。涨价的时候，他们不说了。花钱的时候，他们不说了。表功的时候，他们不说了。拿着纳税人供奉的高薪与厚禄，在点钱的时候，他们说过一句“国情”了吗？

What kind of condition is a “national condition”? First of all, it should be the people’s conditon, the responsibility entrusted to officials and experts, the willingness to be worthy. Apart from the people’s feelings, it is this inaptness, this demand on compatriots to acknowledge their own worthlessness which is China’s most unfortunate “national condition”.

“国情”是个什么情？它首先应该是民情，是官员与专家寄托在百姓身上负责任、愿担当的感情。抛开民情，站在那个与自己的能力、品行不相匹配的位置上，以“国情”的名义让国人自认命贱，这才是中国最不幸的“国情”。

What’s the “national condition”? Above all, it should be the people’s sentiments, the responsibility for the common people, entrusted to officials and experts, the desire to be worthy.

“国情”是个什么情？它首先应该是民情，是官员与专家寄托在百姓身上负责任、愿担当的感情。

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Related

» One on One, Wang Zhutian, CCTV, May 12, 2013

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