A lively critique of “The Speech” that China’s leaders seem to offer up each time they address an international audience was delivered by Clay Chandler of Fortune magazine when he moderated a panel at the World Economic Forum’s Summer Davos in Dalian

At 4 minutes 40 seconds in this video, Clay expresses extreme disappointment at the speech delivered the previous evening by China premier, Wen Jiabao, and asked the first panelist – a high ranking Chinese official who had the misfortune of sitting on the panel – “Why can’t China’s leaders deliver a good speech?”

The official, surprisingly, disagreed with Clay’s assertion.

Later in the video, Thomas Friedman of the NY Times, a member of the panel, took China to task for not exerting “Soft Power” responsibly.

At one point Clay offered an amusing summary of what he suspects to be a laminated outline passed around by all Chinese leaders preparing to address an international audiences.

Memo to Chinese leaders: Throw out that greasy laminated sheet!!

I have summarized Clay’s outline of “The Speech for Foreigners” for your easy reference.

(Further suggestions welcome from Party members!)

Four steps of “The Speech” to Foreign Guests in China:

1- Basic welcome of the honored foreign guests.

2- Affirm the relationships with those on stage and in the room.

3- Run down checklist of what the party hopes to accomplish (and don’t forget those all-important buzzwords du jour: “peaceful rise” or “harmonious society” or “win-win situation”.

4- Make certain to deliver several minutes of the statistics with GDP up by X percent, exports up by Y percent, the rise of per capita income.

I would love to have heard how much the official translation of Clay’s outline resembled the premier’s speech!

For those willing to sit through the video, below is a video of the speech that premier Wen Jiabao delivered.

Technorati Tags: Clay Chandler, Dalian, Davos, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders