The diplomatic language barrier

 August 10, 2022

There's an unspoken "thing" about diplomacy that is, wherein what can be understood between two countries with a common language of a) education, and b) administration is less between two countries wherein there is not a shared language at any official level; no matter how honest and authentic a cultural interchange is, to the other side and vice versa, in a relationship without shared language at an official level, the counterpart will seem evil because they appear locally illiterate. 

I think this is especially relevant in Taiwan-U.S. relations right now. 

站在外交手法的立場，兩位沒有共享語言的國家，互相理解的會比較少；最老實的溝通還會有困難，無論兩位對方還會看起來是文盲。

My Chinese is by no means literary, in fact, the wording is probably ugly as can be. But it is honest a translation as I can make out with my limited ability. My literary ideal is for translation to translate the meaning, and not the optics of the original. If only my abilities were up to the task of achieving my ideal of aesthetic beauty in that category...