Twin school attacks in the U.S and China on Friday are shining an unflattering light on hot-button issues in both countries, with Chinese media and microbloggers berating local officials in Henan province for failing to be as open and caring as their counterparts in Newtown, Conn.
unflattering：准确无误的；坦率的；不奉承的 hot button：敏感问题 berate：严责，申诉
counterparts：相应物，相关负责人
For many in both the U.S. and China, the attack on a school in Henan’s Guangshan county by a knife-wielding man, in which 23 children were wounded but none killed, was initially noteworthy for having an arrestingly less horrifying outcome than the attack on Newtown’s Sandy Hook elementary school a few hours later. In Newtown, 20 children died after being shot multiple times.
noteworthy：值得注意的，显著的
“It takes a lot to make China’s government─beset, as it is, by corruption and opacity and the paralyzing effects of special interests─look good, by comparison, in the eyes of its people these days. But we’ve done it,” wrote the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos, one of many commentators to cite the contrast between the two attacks as evidence of the need for stricter gun control laws in the U.S.
opacity：不透明，暧昧 corruption：腐败 paralyze：使瘫痪，使麻痹
While the gun control debate just appears to be getting going in earnest in the U.S., however, China appears much more interested in discussing the positive qualities the Sandy Hook tragedy brought out in U.S. officials. And strikingly, much of that discussion is being driven by Chinese state-run media.
A commentary published Monday in the Global Times, a tabloid published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, noted public frustration with the “slow official response and the level of social reflection” in the Guangshan case compared with what happened in Connecticut.
tabloid：小报，药片，文摘
The paper was more strident in a message posted to its official feed on Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblogging service late Sunday night:
strident：刺耳的，尖锐的
After the shooting attack on the elementary school in the U.S., the local authorities responded immediately. The entire country mourned together. The incident brought people to tears and then the light from innumerable candles gave people warmth. Meanwhile in China’s Henan, more than 20 children are injured. The response from the local government is cold, and information has been cut off. This not only shocks people, it makes them incomparably angry. We often attack the U.S. for having ulterior motives in criticizing China. But doesn’t the behavior of some local governments just encourage those ulterior motives?
mourn：哀悼，忧伤 ulterior motives：别有用心，未明动机
The Global Times, known for its nationalist bent, is not the sort of newspaper one expects to see pointing to the U.S. as an example for China to follow, though it has lately made a few noises about the need for greater transparency.
transparency：透明，透明度
Transparency has become a key issue in recent months with China’s new leaders ratcheting up the anti-corruption rhetoric amid a string of scandals.
ratcheting up：逐渐升高，略微调高 rhetoric：修辞，修辞学，花言巧语的
The newspaper appears to have been motivated by the account of a journalist from the state-run Xinhua news agency, posted to Sina Weibo on Saturday, that described education officials in Guangshan playing video games shortly after the attack. The account also said one local leader responded to the journalist’s question about the attacker’s mental health by asking what the point was of discussing the topic.
An official in the Guangshan propaganda bureau, who gave only his surname Wu, said on Monday that all the local leaders were out in the countryside conducting safety inspections of local schools when the Xinhua reporter arrived. He added that local officials didn’t want to disclose information about the attack because the case was still being investigated. “We could not make it public,” he said.
propaganda：宣传 bureau：局，处，衣柜，办公桌 dodge：躲闪，躲避
Though the Guanghan government has since publicized new information about the attack on its website, Chinese social media users continue to compare it unfavorably to government in Newtown.
“The U.S. and China both have school tragedies ─ but how do they handle it? And how do we handle it? Everyone understands this point, there’s no need for me to even spell it out,” one Weibo user wrote in response to the Xinhua journalists’ post.
“When there’s a problem, China doesn’t dare face it and doesn’t want to think about it, but instead tries to figure out a way to dodge it and block information. It leaves people feeling cold,” wrote another microblogger.
A third said he hoped the children in the Henan attack “won’t end up being Chinese again when they reincarnate.”
reincarnate：转世，转世化身
Notably, given the context, he didn’t say he hoped they would be reborn in the U.S.