I had actually wondered about the lack of proper technical and diplomatic language in the announcement myself. Surely the Chinese foreign service is filled with expertise in this area. As you say though, others are not forced to cooperate with them at all (even when we're talking foreign affairs). This is a relatively new and very interesting feature of Chinese foreign policy. My take is that the report I posted earlier indicating this zone came down from Xi Jinping himself (some say as a gesture to nationalist forces to rally support for third Plenum reforms incl the new national security committee, though this is pure speculation) is true. It seems reasonable to think that if this came down from his table, perhaps with some extra notes from a few PLA bigshots, MFA or MOD officials would have little will or leeway to give much input, much less interpret or rewrite it.
I cannot be sure, but the wording of the announcement was a diplomatic blunder, and I fail to see how the MFA would not have picked up on it if they were a central actor in the deliberation...
Its not lack of diplomatic language. it's the lack of proper public and media diplomacy. where US and Western organizations are usually master at this. MFA is woefully unschooled in spin.
In term of announcement it is not a blunder. but it could have done the public side of diplomacy better.
for example.. the spokes person for MFA and its staff, those who are charged with finetunning the message, are entirely graduates of CFAU.
where as US DoS and Whitehouse and even DoD you have an intermarriage between madison ave ad exe , public relations specialist from large corporations, and those who are in charge of the delivery of public message. (just google the fascinating case of "Charlotte Beers")
who would you think could deliver a message better? those who are trained to doing it in the corporate world and can sell reading glasses to the blind and gymshoes to the cripple? or a staid bureaucrat for him/her this job is but another rune up the ladder?
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