CNPC: A Live Broadcast of Chaos, Tongues, and Table Tapping Tantrums

If someone thought this MUN session was going to be a display of diplomacy and intellectual debate, they were tragically wrong. What we got instead was a full-blown circus where rules were treated like suggestions, and decorum was thrown out of the window faster then you can say “motion to adjourn”. Yang Xiuqing, for example, decided that cursing, speaking when not recognized and turning every question into a chance to ask more irrelevant questions was the perfect way to represent. Well, nothing. It was less debate, more stand-up comedy if the jokes were not painfully bad.

General Li made things worse by openly mocking the chairs, calling their orders “funny” as if the dais were there for his personal entertainment. Every time he was pressed for an answer he did not know what to say, he always said “no comment”. Brilliant, nothing says “prepared delegate” quite like pretending you are at a celebrity press junket.

Let us not forget Wei Changhui, who somehow thought sticking his tongue out in the missile of a formal session was acceptable. Is this a diplomatic discussion or a playground recess? Personal pronouns were flying around unchecked, rules of procedure were tramples on, and to top it off, delegates could not stop laughing at their own committee members.

And oh, the table tapping. Only the left side of the room participated, as if trying to start a rebellion. Qian Huai-Yang Xiuqing, the star of poorly-times chaos, started tapping the table just s the chair called on him. Smooth move. The most important and remarkable feature straight up told the chair to “shut up”. At this point, diplomacy was dead, buried and possibly table tapped into ignorance. It was less MUN and more like an unhinged after-school special featuring rogue delegates with zero impulse control.

Chase DiAngelo

CNN