Embarrassment! ‘Exploitation’ among buzzwords decorating China-Africa friendship event in Beijing

Beijing, Feb 7: A few months back, a Pakistan news channel faced flak for showing Beijing as "Begging" when the country's Prime Minister Imran Khan was on a friendship tour of China where he was seeking financial aid from the all-weather ally.

Hell broke loose with Pakistan getting reduced into a butt of joke before the world.

Something similar took place in the Chinese capital again last month and it is the host nation which was at the receiving end this time.

It was at a friendship event featuring China and Africa, the continent where the Chinese have been carrying out their development and other work extensively, where a giant video screen behind the stage where officials were exchanging pleasantries showed four buzzwords stressing the bonding.

One of those four words was - 'Exploitation'!

These words were basically translations from Chinese terms and 'Exploitation' was the translation of the Chinese word '开拓'(kaituo) which could be translated into "development", according to Shanghaiist. The three other words were 'Innovation', 'Efficiency' and 'Transcendence'.

The embarrassing moment came at a hotel in Beijing on January 9 where the China-Africa Friendly Economic and Trade Development Foundation hosted the "China-Africa Friendly Night 2019" and it was reportedly attended by representatives from China and envoys from a number of various African nations.

The faux pas though was missed by many while others called it a Freudian slip and it was noticed only after a Chinese journalist posted a picture of the screen on Twitter.

However, given the accusations against China of flagging off a new era of colonialism in Africa, this was perhaps a perfect symbolism.