[SkinnyPupp]

Wuhan police “letter of reprimand” to Li Wenliang: translation and analysis

This is an odd document for a couple of reasons — so much so that I first wondered if it might be fake, but I then discovered that Li had presented the document himself to Caixin. But look at the language: instead of the usual formal style of official documents, we have exclamation marks in what reads more like a transcript of a police officer barking at a suspect: “听明白了吗? Have you got that?” The document is suffused with the language of offended Authority scolding a wayward and insufficiently obedient subject.