They steal, they rob, they swindle; no one dares to cross their path.

My comments:

If you cross the street, you go from one side of it to the other. If two people’s paths cross, the two roads meet there. If you cross someone’s path, hence, you meet them, you see them face to face there, at the cross.

“They steal, they rob, they swindle”…. “They” sound like gangsters or figuratively speaking Wall Street bankers. Both are powerful people. They’re bullies.

“No one dares to cross their path” – nobody dares to confront them, to stand in their way in order to stop them or to say what they’re doing is wrong.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.