Ask Language Log: splittism and separatism
From Elijah Z. Granet:
I am an avid reader of Language Log, and am writing with a question that has puzzled me for sometime, and which, as far as I can tell, has never been addressed. I would be quite grateful if you could spare a moment of your valuable time to help me figure out this odd occurrence.
I do not speak Chinese (or any East Asian language, for that matter), but I do try to follow the news coming out of China. For several years now, especially as unrest in Xinjiang has increased, I have been growing increasingly puzzled by the insistent use of the calque “splittism.” Official sources (e.g., Xinhua) will always say “splittism”, and many English sources will also use it (albeit with a qualifier along the lines of “the Chinese authorities have condemned what they call ‘splittism’”). A cursory search of Google Books and News suggests the use of “splittism” in reference to China dates back decades.
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