Editor’s Note: The CDT Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon is a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness. The Word of the Week features Lexicon entries old, new and timely.
If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net.
别有用心 (biéyǒuyòngxīn): ulterior motives
Former Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang: “Those who claim that the Chinese government supports hackers have ulterior motives.”
The government and official media often blame social unrest on people who “don’t understand the actual situation” following a few leaders with “ulterior motives.”
Netizens complain this implies those who are critical of the government have no legitimate grievances and are only lashing out against the government as the pawns of nefarious instigators.
