Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

No One In China Has Ever Heard The ‘Chinese Proverb’ Ivanka Tweeted

Ivanka Trump left the Chinese baffled on Monday when she tweeted what she labeled a “Chinese proverb”— one that the Chinese weren’t too familiar with, The Washington Post reported.

The tweet in question was posted just ahead of President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. “Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it. -Chinese Proverb,” the first daughter wrote.

“She saw it in a fortune cookie at Panda Express,” one Chinese user speculated on Weibo, a microblogging website popular in China.

Weibo users who agreed it wasn’t a Chinese proverb tried to guess what saying she may have been trying to reference. Some said it could have been “Don’t give advice while watching others playing a chess game.” Another suggestion was, “Don’t force others to do things you don’t want to do yourself.”

Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.