The centuries-old Chinese saying "noble character and sterling integrity" (Gao Feng Liang Jie) got a new meaning when it was used on China's Sina Weibo in reference to former president Jiang Zemin. Only this time the expression was used sarcastically.
This occurred after Jiang, who stepped down as president over 10 years ago, requested the central committee put his name behind current members of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, along with other “senior comrades”, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday. Many in China are surprised Jiang would do this after being out of office for so long.
Xinhua explaining Jiang's request said: “This reflects the Communist Party member’s noble character and sterling integrity.”
The state news agency's sycophantic rhetoric was quickly mocked on China’s twitter-like service Sina Weibo, where the phrase “noble character and sterling integrity” has gone viral in hundreds of parody messages posted by netizens.
For instance, bloggers used the expression with a photo of US President Barack Obama at a meeting with colleagues.