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                  China Interested in US Presidential Campaign

   by William Ide

   As the U.S. presidential election nears, Chinese news web sites and
   microblogs are following developments in the campaign closely, with
   cutting analysis and commentary - especially when China is a target of
   the criticism. In-depth coverage is in stark contrast to the little
   substantive reporting being done about China's leadership reshuffle,
   also coming in November.

   Just hours after President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent
   Mitt Romney held their second [1]pre-election debate this week,
   Internet users in China could access translated and interpreted
   portions of their exchanges online.

   On China's Twitter-like microblog service Weibo, users not only shared
   remarks praising the candidates debating skills, but pondered what it
   meant for China.

   One Weibo user, Zhou Peiyuan, argued that it was not necessarily a bad
   thing that China was the target of criticism, because that attention is
   more a reflection of China's rise and influence than anything else.

   Political scientist Xie Tao says that while many U.S. watchers in China
   are following the election debates for signs of shifts in American
   policy, there are many others who are more casually interested.  "Some
   people just watch it because they are curious to see what these people
   [candidates] are doing, other people want to know what is actually
   debated," he said.

   Most state-backed media outlets reported that China was being used as a
   scapegoat in the debates, and accused the two candidates of engaging in
   China bashing.

   Strong Nation Forum, a bulletin board run by the state-run newspaper
   People's Daily, noted that in the 20 times the two candidates mentioned
   China, it was always in reference to the state of the American economy.

   Not only did state media balk at how China was portrayed, but
   commentaries also drew contrasts between the US and Chinese political
   systems.

   Some microblog users wondered when the day would come that China's
   leaders might hold televised debates to outline their policies and
   agenda.

   That, however, is something that is unlikely anytime soon, says Joseph
   Cheng, a professor at the City University of Hong Kong.

   Professor Cheng says that over the past 20 years, China has developed
   its own way of selecting its leaders, through an internal process where
   a small group of younger party members are promoted and groomed over a
   10 year period. "That was the path of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao and that
   appears to be the path of leaders like [Vice President] Xi Jinping or
   [Vice Premier] Li Keqiang and so on," he stated.
   China is weeks away from its political transition, but unlike the U.S.,
   there is little uncertainty about who will emerge as the country's
   leaders.

   During November's 18th party congress, the most prominent seats of
   power, those of China's president and premier, will most likely go to
   Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. But much of their agenda and the names of
   those who will join the country's most powerful decision-making body,
   the Politburo's standing committee, remain unknown to the Chinese
   public.

   On the same Chinese microblogs where users are sharing their thoughts
   about the U.S. presidential candidates, state censors block keywords
   such as "China's communist party", or "18th party congress."

   Professor Cheng says that while China's upper leadership does debate
   policies, the content of the discussions remains largely hidden. "What
   we can see is that there are publications, academic articles supporting
   or arguing for different orientations of reform directions, so we
   expect that these are the kind of issues being discussed at the top
   leadership level and these are the kind of corrections that they have
   to make decisions,"

   Websites covering the U.S. elections, however, are likely to get even
   more traffic over the next week. In the final presidential debate that
   will take place in Florida on October 22, the candidates will discuss
   their thoughts on China during a segment titled "The Rise of China and
   tomorrow's world."
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/china-interested-in-us-presidential-c
   ampaign/1529470.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-romney-face-off-on-economy-energy-foreign-policy/1527914.html
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/china-interested-in-us-presidential-campaign/1529470.html