The Dechert preamble: Email hacker claimed Xinhua journo wanted divorce

Not sure how I missed this but props to the Falun Gong house organ, the Epoch Times, for spotting the preamble, written in Chinese, at the top of the leaked emails about Conservative MP Bob Dechert and Xinhua News correspondent Shi Rong.

In Chinese, it reads:

施蓉为了和这个国会议员相爱,不惜在驻外期间要求解除其现有婚姻关系,这才是你们应该了解的施蓉

The dreadful translation via Babelfish:

Shi Rong to fall in love with this member of national assembly, does not hesitate to relieve its existing marriage ties in the period request stationed abroad, this is Shi Rong who you should understand

 

I’ll trust that the Epoch Times translation is better:

To continue her love affair with this member of parliament, Shi Rong pitilessly asked to end her marriage while stationed overseas. This is the Shi Rong you should know about.

One might well assume this was appended to the top of the email by the person who allegedly hacked Rong’s Gmail account — she alleges it was her husband, and Dechert has said the email was hacked in the course of an unspecified domestic dispute.

Now, this is of course no evidence of an affair that would contradict Dechert’s claim that his relationship with Shi was an innocent friendship, a flirtation. But, clearly, whoever sent out the Dechert-Shi emails to her contact list believed theirs was a love affair that compelled her to ask for a divorce.

But, as the Prime Minister’s Office says:

Mr. Dechert has denied any inappropriate behaviour.

We have no information to suggest otherwise.

UPDATE: A Few Tasteful Snaps’ official Chinese translator, @I_Am_Chinadian, comes up with something similar:

Shi Rong, in order to love this member of congress, does not regret requesting to end the currently existing marriage relationship during time posted abroad, this is the Shi Rong you should understand.

 

He also provides an alternate and slightly smoother translation:

In order to love this MP, Shi Rong has not hesitated to ask to end her marriage while posted abroad, this is the Shi Rong you should know about.

Also of note, this text was proceeded by the line, written in English, “the follows is only one part.”

That suggest, to me, there might be more emails to come.

2 thoughts on “The Dechert preamble: Email hacker claimed Xinhua journo wanted divorce

  1. Several points I want to make here.
    1. I appreciation Falun Gong’s courage to go against Chinese communist dictatorship, but they also have a history to make up stuff for the sake to go against communist regime. So, I do have doubt about the “pitilessly asked to end her marriage” hypothesis.
    2. However, Xinhua News Agency, however, is not simply a News Agency. When Hongkong still under British rule, it acts as Chinese embassy in Hongkong, and the editor-in-chief always express opinion on Chinese government behalf. Therefore, it is totally possible that Shi Rong is a Chinese spy, or at least, a representative of Chinese government. This is enough reason to doubt Bob Dechert’s appropriate on the relationship with Ms. Shi, and can be considered as being compromised with the Chinese government (According to the email we can read for now, what he said is way more than “pure friendship”).

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