...only in a country like China with its totalitarian, suppressible regime would something like this be an issue...
The larger story is the flourishing of Chinese science. Science magazine has major reports every week on newly discovered dinosaurs, sequencing the DNA of species, and everything imaginable.
In 2015, Youyou Tu won the Nobel prize for the discovery of artemesinin, a drug used to treat malaria http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/tu-facts....
This prize is significant for two reasons. (1) it was for a new drug to treat a major disease that kills half a millon a year, mostly children, and malaria is becoming resistant to existing drugs (2) Youyou Tu used the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine to find candidate antimalarial drugs, and then used the methods of modern science to find the best ones and chemically modify them to make them clinically useful.
When Youyou Tu won the Nobel prize (and the Lasker before that), she said that she was merely the leader of the team, and her colleagues were equally responsible for this accomplishment.
Her work was supported by Chairman Mao. Malaria was a big problem for the Vietnamese fighting the Americans in that misguided war. Artemesinin will be one of China's great contributions to the world. Chairman Mao earned his species on that one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maotherium
In 2015, Youyou Tu won the Nobel prize for the discovery of artemesinin, a drug used to treat malaria http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/tu-facts....
This prize is significant for two reasons. (1) it was for a new drug to treat a major disease that kills half a millon a year, mostly children, and malaria is becoming resistant to existing drugs (2) Youyou Tu used the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine to find candidate antimalarial drugs, and then used the methods of modern science to find the best ones and chemically modify them to make them clinically useful.
When Youyou Tu won the Nobel prize (and the Lasker before that), she said that she was merely the leader of the team, and her colleagues were equally responsible for this accomplishment.
Her work was supported by Chairman Mao. Malaria was a big problem for the Vietnamese fighting the Americans in that misguided war. Artemesinin will be one of China's great contributions to the world. Chairman Mao earned his species on that one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maotherium
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....hey Norman, agents of foreign governments are required to register with the State Department otherwise you could be arrested....
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And, don't forget the feather louse named after renowned cartoonist Gary Larson: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigiphilus_garylarsoni
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Kind of sad how the gesture is lost on us. I hope for the entomologist that the Chinese government doesn't take it as an insult and end his career early.
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Th discovery of a new beetle named after Xi is clearly a heavenly portent. What it portends remains to be seen.
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This has little impact to the daily life of ordinary Chinese people or American people. Basically, you are saying that NYT is interested in this "name calling" and the Chinese censors blocked it so that the "name game" is not playing out inside China. I do not understand why you and the Chinese censors are doing this but I wouldn't care less.
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China will not become a great nation until it conquers its inferiority complex.
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The weakness of propaganda is when it makes more news out of the things it is trying to suppress. In this case, an obscure beetle discovery has highlighted a deep political insecurity on the part of the Chinese state media bureau.
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Maybe the censors would prefer to have Mr. Xi referred to as a Beatle.
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Would he have been okay with the honor is the beetle was bigger?
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They should rename it "authoritarians maximus".
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The West stoops so low in their propaganda war.
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How is this propaganda? A Chinese scientist tries to show respect to his country by bestowing the President's name onto a new species, an act considered a great honor considering how the name of the species will forever enshrine the person lucky enough to be contained within. Yet a few simple searches reveal that the Chinese web services quick to hide any mention of this, so fearful of anything that has a hint of making their leader look bad. It's madness. How the Chinese citizens survive under such a strong grip on even the most basic truths is beyond me.
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If the Xi beetle can swim, then the whole of Asia will be at risk.
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The CCP should cheer up with a good a sense of humor by imaging a fearsome looking Mr. Xi is eating the rampant and corrupted dead wood off the core of a growing tree.
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Xi's lack of sense of humor made this story all the more funny.
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This is not a news article worthy of front page coverage of the times.
In fact, this is not even a news.
Unbeknownst to the author, in Chinese culture, it is extremely disrespectful to degrade someone by naming an insect after him or her. It is even more so when he or she happened to be the leader of the country.
This writer will do more good by learning a thing or two about China if she so desire to inform the public more about this great five thousand year old Middle Kingdom and it's wonderful Culture.
In fact, this is not even a news.
Unbeknownst to the author, in Chinese culture, it is extremely disrespectful to degrade someone by naming an insect after him or her. It is even more so when he or she happened to be the leader of the country.
This writer will do more good by learning a thing or two about China if she so desire to inform the public more about this great five thousand year old Middle Kingdom and it's wonderful Culture.
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Apparently the Chinese scientist did not understand his own culture when he disrespectfully named the battle after Leader Xi. Maybe the result of decades of CCP efforts to stamp out 5000 years of wonderful Chinese culture.
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That's ridiculous. Everybody knows it's a great honor to have a species named after you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigiphilus_garylarsoni even in the Chinese culture. There is for example a Potanthus confucius butterfly, the Mirina confucius motho, the Confuciusornis sanctus bird, and the Tianyulong confuciusi dinosaur. Chairman Mao has his own dinosaur, Maotherium.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_named_after_famous_people
There are many insects named after heads of states. Xi would have more reason for concern if he were so insigificant that nobody named an insect after him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_named_after_famous_people
There are many insects named after heads of states. Xi would have more reason for concern if he were so insigificant that nobody named an insect after him.
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According to so-called Chinese culture formed hundreds of years ago, wives are not allowed to question their husbands. We live in a modern society. The culture you talked about means nothing in front of law and civil right. It cannot justify your statement either.
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