What do Xi Jinping’s and Kim Jong-un’s Congratulatory Telegrams look like?

Punched tape, email, portable document format? Don’t know about you, but when I hear that Putin sends a congratulatory telegram to Kim Jong-un, I’d really like to know what that telegram looks like. If you do, too, keep reading. If not, don’t let me bore you.

^{Victorious triple chin}

“Ars Technica”, in a blogpost of June 2013, gives us a first clue:

Samuel Morse’s version of telegraphy—Morse code over the wire—died a long time ago. It was replaced by Telex, a switch-based system similar to telephone networks, developed in Germany in 1933. The German system, run by the Federal Post Office, essentially used a precursor to computer modems and sent text across the wire at about 50 characters per second. Western Union built the US’ first nationwide Telex, an acronym for Teleprinter Exchange, in the late 1950s.

Ordinary Chinese cadres appear to send faxes – they are considered to be more reliable or legally binding than emails, and fax machines are relatively easily available.

As I have no idea what North Korea‘s or Russia’s “telegrams” look like, I’ll focus on China’s. The political folklore on both sides of the Yalu River is becoming more alike by the day, anyway.

There is an article concerning diplomatic protocol available online, written by quite an authority, it seems, but without verifiable autenticity. According to  the info provided, the autor would be a former advisor or counselor  at the Chinese foreign ministry’s (FMPRC) protocol department (礼宾司). His name is Wu Deguang, born in 1938.

This is how he is quoted:

Congratulatory telegrams and congratulatory messages are most frequently used methods of congratulations. State leaders, foreign ministers and diplomatic envoys overseas generally use diplomatic letters, diplomatic telegrams or formal diplomatic notes  to send letters or telegrams of congratulations. Leaders’ congratulatory telegrams can usually be passed on by the relevant embassies or consulates abroad, or directly be sent by electronic means (电传)^*).
贺电和贺函是最常用的祝贺方式。国家领导人、外长、驻外使节一般采用外交函件、外交电报或正式照会的方式发送贺函、贺电。领导人的贺电可通过有关驻外使领馆转递，也可通过电报局或经电传直接拍发。

Different from a lot of other things (and people), Chinese authorities don’t show congratulatory telegrams received around like trophies. So there remains an air of mystery around those messages, or their substance.

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Notes

^*) The “Yellowbridge” online dictionary explains “electronic means” as follows:

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Tags: China, communication, diplomacy, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping