According to Reuters, on February 22, 2006, Obama met with the governor at the White House. At the meeting, some people raised concerns about China's iron ore export. "They (China) know that they can't maintain the export-driven growth model forever, but it takes time to change. Now they really want to solve the short-term problem by selling a large number of state-subsidized products to the American market. We have clearly told them that the fact is that this will not work, and we will use tools to ensure that this will not work. "
Obama also called on state governors to put pressure on Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) to promote US exports to the Asia-Pacific region. "Our concern there [in the Asia-Pacific region] is that China is like an 800-pound gorilla," he said. If we allow them to make trade rules there, American companies and American workers will be excluded. "
Gorilla? This sentence is quite sensational in the context of China. But in America, "800-pound gorilla" is just American slang.
There is even a joke riddle about this slang: "Where will an 800-pound gorilla sit?" "Sit wherever you want. Anywhere it wants to go. It can be seen that this slang is often used to describe a person or an organization that is very powerful and needs no scruples.
American politicians especially like to use this slang to describe China. As early as 2004, Kerry, then the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of the United States, told the media when referring to China: "China is an 800-pound gorilla. When necessary, we can also achieve our goal by sitting at the negotiating table with China in a way that suits our purpose. " .
Now more than ten years later, China's image in the eyes of American politicians seems to remain unchanged. Since Obama came to power and put forward the strategy of "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" in a high-profile way, the United States has been trying to "return to Asia" in recent years. Before Obama said "China is like an 800-pound gorilla", he had just finished a closed-door informal meeting with the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries.
However, there are different voices in the United States about the return of the United States to Asia, first pointing to China. "The United States should let China rise peacefully." The Huffington Post reported on June 5438+04 that the United States has deployed more American military resources to East Asia by using the "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" strategy. However, this forward-looking containment strategy is reminiscent of the Cold War, outdated and unsustainable. With the rapid growth of China's economy and the strengthening of its military strength, China, which is close to this region, will one day have more local advantages than the United States, which is far away and deeply mired in 19 trillion dollars of debt. With nuclear weapons as the ultimate guarantee of national security, the United States can peacefully make China rise to become a great power in East Asia.
Many netizens in China expressed shock at Obama's gorilla remarks on Weibo. However, some netizens who know this slang look at it from a more rational perspective.
In American slang, another meaning of thug and villain is gorilla. China Daily Network 2014165438+10/6 Telecom: This is a story about trust and courage: when she was young, a girl 18 months old was gently held in her arms by a gorilla; When she grew up, at the age of 25, she went deep into the jungle and embraced her childhood playmates in all directions again.
This video of reunion after such a long separation was shot four months ago. At that time, Stan aspinall and his father Damian went deep into a pristine rainforest in Gabon, a western African country. They shuttled through the rain forest in a boat, looked around with their probes, and whispered the names of their old friends-the gorillas "Dagala" and "Vimes".
A few hours later, two familiar faces appeared in the jungle on the shore. Two adult gorillas threw doubts at the boat with a little excited eyes. When Stan and Damian climbed down from the boat and boarded the river bank, a touching scene happened: the gorilla slowly moved forward, greeted Stan with gentle movements, caressed and hugged, sniffed or rubbed with his nose.
"It's amazing! I found them! " Tancy said, "Before I left, I felt a little uneasy. Da Guala and Vimes have lived in the wild for more than ten years. Whether they still know me or not, and whether they will become savage and dangerous because of years of wild life, is unknown. But the moment I saw their gentle eyes, I immediately felt at ease, and all my worries and fears disappeared. "
Tancy was born into a family of conservationists in England. When she was a child, many kinds of animals were kept in her family's farm. Tigers, gorillas and even wolves are her childhood "little friends". Among them, Dagala and Vimes, gorillas, are Tansi's best friends. They stayed with her until they were sent to the tropical jungle reserve in Gabon in 2002.
The Espinol fund for nature protection founded by Grandpa Tanxi is still one of the most important assets of this family. At present, Tanxi has helped his father to run two wildlife parks in Kent and Liam, England, and has bred more than 30 gorillas, of which more than 80 have returned to nature.