I have been following the Republican primary passively over the past few months. I'm glad to be here in China where I can choose to follow the debate or not. During the 2008 election when I lived in Missouri (a swing state) I had nowhere to escape from the campaign. In China it is also an election here, and If I wasn't so observant I could have missed the whole thing entirely. There is no advertising blitz, no rhetoric, and no catering to base or swing voters here.
Ever since Mao's leadership in China ended, there has been a change in the top political leadership every ten years. China's government is modeled on the old Soviet system with a nine member Politburo Standing Committee that decides policy for the country. The mechanics of how the new leaders are selected are not well understood by people outside the upper echelons of the communist party. However, this transition has happened smoothly for decades. This year there have been a few hiccups.
BO XILAI
Bo Xilai was a rising star in the communist party. It was expected that he would get a position in the new Standing Committee. Most recently he was the highest ranking official of Chongqing municipality (one of China's largest cities--28 million people). He was very much a populist/man of the people. His popular personality is in stark contrast to the current leadership (ie Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao) who are much more reserved.
Bo Xilai's political career ended quite suddenly in the past few weeks. It all started when Bo's police chief was caught trying to seek political asylum at a US embassy. The police chief had been conducting a corruption investigation of Bo and feared retaliation. The police chief has been placed in 'vacation style rehabilitation' by the central government for seeking to flee China. Bo Xilai has been demoted from his post and faces a serious corruption investigation. What will happen to him next is still a mystery.
Here is a good article on Bo Xilai.
BEIJING COUP
Last week there was a rumor going around the Chinese internet that there was a coup attempt in Beijing. Although there was little evidence to substantiate the claims, the government was quick to squash the rumor mill. All in all, 6 people were arrested for spreading the rumor and 16 websites were shut down. The most important among those websites was Weibo, the Chinese twitter. It wasn't completely taken down do to its immense popularity, but it's comment feature was disabled (so you can respond to anyone's tweets). The website will be restored to full functionality tomorrow.
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