China or Chinese?
Personally, I feel it should be 'Chinese', but actually it is 'China'.
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2So they picked a weird name. It's their prerogative.– HelmarCommented Oct 2, 2016 at 13:24
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I would say "The Chinese Academy of..."– CentaurusCommented Oct 2, 2016 at 13:25
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2You are right: 'China' sounds wrong to a native English speaker. But as Helmar said, they get to choose their name.– TonyKCommented Oct 2, 2016 at 13:34
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I suppose I've cheated with the close-vote reason primarily opinion-based (which should really be restricted to 'No one possible answer can be claimed to be the best / correct one.). But here, the question is asking for a ruling on the correctness of a choice of name, when names can be as arbitrary as the namers like, especially when there is no extragrammatical usage involved. I'd comment though that many people in Chinese restaurants hereabouts seem to prefer the pairing 'Chinese tea' to 'China tea'.– Edwin AshworthCommented Oct 2, 2016 at 14:08
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@MarkHubbard good point. Very nice examples.– HelmarCommented Oct 2, 2016 at 14:54
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2 Answers
"China Academy of Engineering Physics" sounds no more odd than, say, California Institute of Technology (Cal-Tech) or Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is perfectly fine.
We have the United States Institute for Theater Technology, the American Institute of Physics, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, among others. No one would suggest that any of them should be renamed based on English language and usage.
As native English speakers, we may have a subliminal bias toward using the word "Chinese" in this instance, but the "China Academy of Engineering Physics" sounds dignified and proper, especially since the OP has said that is what it calls itself. What we think it should be called is irrelevant.
answered Oct 2, 2016 at 14:54
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1That makes perfect sense though my first reaction was to think it should be "The Chinese Academy..." Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 15:05
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It's strange. "France Institute of Technology" or "America Institute of Technology" sound wrong to me, but "Brazil Institute of Technology" and "Pakistan Institute of Technology" sound fine. Is this just me, or is there some kind of rule here? In my first two examples, the adjectives 'French' and 'American' are the same number of syllables as the nouns; could this be a factor? (I am only suggesting this for country names, not state names.)– TonyKCommented Oct 2, 2016 at 16:45
It is the name of an institute. You quoted a direct speech which refer to China Academy of Engineering Physics, a research and manufacturing center for Chinese nuclear weapons. It's the name of this institution given by the Chinese authorities. We would call it what it is even if the usage may sound unnatural to us (Thanks for the suggestion, Mark Hubbard).
Just like we call you J.Bates not Jon/Jack/Jully Bates.
