- The WSJ's China Journal tells us of a mock election in Beijing designed to teach the Chinese about U.S. democracy:
As the results came in across the U.S., another unofficial contest was taking place in Beijing. There, more than 1,000 Chinese and Americans crowded a hotel ballroom to watch the results and cast their ballots. The event, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce, was designed to pattern the U.S. election and teach the uninitiated about how U.S. elections are run.
Many Chinese did not follow the American election closely. But political observers say there was little doubt that Obama has captured the imagination and support of young Chinese, particularly those who are studying English and the political systems of other countries.
- Fons Tuinstra of the China Herald asks what Obama will mean for China:
The election of Barack Obama as the new president for the United States has already triggered off some concern that he will follow a more protectionist track. Incoming US presidents typically use their first six months to discover scolding China is not bringing them any further, like Bill Clinton discovered the hard way.
But unlike Bill Clinton, Obama has hardly mentioned China in his campaign and I agree with Paul Woodward that a similar protectionist line is now highly unlikely. But for other reasons, Woodward suggests that Chinese companies might focus more on China itself:
- Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap describes his experience joining 300 Americans at Malone's:
For reasons that weren’t entirely clear to me, the drapes were closed, and so - despite the fact that the returns started coming in at 8 AM - the three levels must have resembled the evening election parties being held back home, in the Midwest.
The emotions that my friends in the US have written to tell me about, were quite evident in Shanghai, too. Between the whoops and the hollers, there were few - very few - dry eyes. The only difference, and it’s not a small one, is the fact that this party took place in Shanghai, China. I suppose one could look at that in a negative sense (”a large, raucous election party in Communist China”). But I prefer to see the bright side of these things, and I say: a large, raucous election party in China! Heck, there’s more police around on an average Friday night … and I didn’t see any, at all, this morning.
- Michael Manning of The Opposite End of China receives a congratulatory note from a Chinese colleague whose admiration for U.S. democracy and comparisons with the Chinese system we think mirror what young urban Chinese are thinking:
Congratulations on Obama's successful run for president!! I have been constantly amazed as I follow the elections along the way. What an achievement it truly is... no doubt he'll help restore America's image around the world.
At the same time I can't stop comparing. I can't envision a ethnic Tibetan, Uygur, Hui, or Mogol [sic] gets elected President of China, not in 60 years... that's how far apart the two countries are, in terms of maturity in political institutions.
- Sky Canaves gives a great overview of how the U.S. election results have been covered in the Chinese media, while the China Beat tells us about Chinese reactions as covered by international media.
Picture from PhilDragoo: Obama was frequently painted as a socialist and Marxist by the McCain-Palin ticket
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So, Obama's in and all us 'liberals' are happy.
Just imagine if McCain had won and we saw the following aspects of his campaign carried through:
- Continuation of the 'war on terror' including more troops into Afghanistan (back to the stone age not enough) and promises to cross borders (invade) others if they 'don't comply' - ie invade Iran and Pakistan.
- a promise to take intervention in latin America "further south" ie 'deal with' Venezuela and Bolivia
- national/single payer healthcare completely off the table.
- full support of the Cuba embargo
- refusing to be photographed with the mayor of SF so not to appear as supporting same sex unions.
- commitment to draconian immigration policies such as the mexico border wall.
- penal system and capital punishment off the table as is gun control
- 700 billion handout to companies who preach no nationalization and private competition
... hey ..oh ..wait a minute ... my bad! That's a list of Obama's campaign - I got confused.
@ Andy,
You sound more like a bitter republican.
Why didn't we just elect andy_best president? It's apparent he has the answers to everything.
Mr. Best, sorry, we'll just have to go with Mr. Not-the-Worst (who stands a decent chance of being Mr. Really-Really-Good). Kind of how the system works.
I agree with you on your bullet points, but then again, so do Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. Electability, Andy, electability.
And here's a "just imagine" for you: Just imagine someone said to you ten years ago that a black man would be elected president in the US. 20 years ago. 30 years ago....
And just imagine someone told you in 2002 that a black man with "Hussein" as his middle name would be elected president in 6 years....
I know what you're saying, Andy, but you're judging exclusively by measure of your ideals; you're not being realistic at all.
Let us people who haven't had a reason to feel good about US politics for a loooong time feel good about Obama, even if we know that he's definitely got his Ugly American side and the bombs aren't gonna stop falling on Afghanistan or Iraq any time soon under Obama, and health care's still likely to be really difficult for many, etc. etc. etc.
You gotta admit that it's at least a turn in a better direction, yeah?
series speaking, man, most urgent thing to do is to protect the safety of obama family, from racist, whitesupremist, skin-head, kkk and, well, nanheyangrouchuan.
Shut up! Shut up, you Americans.
You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you talk and say 'let me tell you something' and 'I just wanna say this'.
Well, your economy is fucked up the arse now and no new US president is going to fix that, so shut up!
(apologies to Monty Python - Meaning of Life)
Yes, and we must also protect them from the nefarious machinations of the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.
---"I can't envision a ethnic Tibetan, Uygur, Hui, or Mogol [sic] gets elected President of China, not in 60 years... that's how far apart the two countries are, in terms of maturity in political institutions"?
comparing the election of obama as a 'black' president to china not having a 'non-Han' leader only show his ignorance of chinese history. dynasties of Wei, Sui, Tang, Yuan, Qing had leaders of mostly non-han. few chinese can tell how much manchurian, mongolian, tibetan or han blood they have, nor does anybody care. Qing did not collapse during kangxi and qianlong with administration well served by han. in fact, by the end of 300-year Qing, the manchurians were more like han than manchurians.
obama was brought up by his mother and his grand mother, both have no african heritage. his education background and cultural affiliation are mostly 'white'.
did americans choose him since he was black? the answer probably is similar to whether his mother chose his father because he was black. she later divorce him, again not for the reason that he was black. they decided to vote for obama, not because he was black but because they saw how the opponent might ruin the country, as naneyangrouchuan’s stepdad did. they voted for the hope that obama might bring real change.
to WatchBagDVD,
surprise you even know fu manchu, guess you must know topless rambo too. lol
Easty: Sure, I wouldn't be surprised if the next act of terrorism on US soil were more of the Timothy McVeigh variety than the Osama Bin Laden kind. And there are still a lot of paranoid racist whites out there, including confused ex-military Rambo-wannabes with killing skills courtesy of the Gulf and Iraq Wars.
BUT... it's 2008, not 1968, and the likelihood of a racially motivated assassination is a lot lower now than it was then (not to mention security is a lot tighter). It's a different country, one that has overwhelmingly elected a black president. So don't hang *too much* on stereotypes of racist Americans and the KKK and all that. It's out there, yeah, but it's increasingly marginal.
Dwelling too much on the possibility of racist white violence is the warped mirror image of right-wing American fantasies of Obama being some kind of America-hating Manchurian candidate who'll somehow turn the US into a communist (or Islamist, whatever) dictatorship.
And it proves that you don't really know the US that well...
Eastman, stop talking out of your arse. We are talking about modern China here, one that would hypothetically be democratic. The point is very valid.
This aside, the Yuan and Qing were not "Chinese".
@ Watchbagdvd
You are right and I understand the meaning of the result and all the points you mention there. I just got sick of all the gushing like tweens at a Britney concert and thought it's important to remember stuff like - the actual policies.
@ T
I'm just listing some policies and events that I noted when paying attention to the campaigns on C-span and the news. How does that equate to what you wrote? And what parts of the post do you feel are false? Since when does dissent or debate based on the actual policies bother you?
@nanheyangrouchuan
A bitter republican? You've been paying attention haven't you?
And for people interested in reasoned analysis of what's to come, as opposed to a bunch of partisan whooping and yeahing ...
The Real News Network
The guy in the vein of what Andy's talking about--being sick of the liberal canonization of O as the savior of America when he is, after all, a politician who's played the dirty game of politics well and will continue to play the game--who I've most enjoyed reading is Dennis Perrin.
He can be rather harsh, so those tone-deaf to satire should stay away.
---“ it's 2008, not 1968, and the likelihood of a racially motivated assassination is a lot lower now than it was then”?
do you need a whole population for a assassination?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=74468§ionid=3510203
when killing kennedy, wasn't one lee harvey oswald enough. actually i am interested only in voting out of a mafia and dow reaction to it, while the chosen obama is not my president. I only hope sincerely that tragedy of kennedy will not repeat again on the hard-won american idol.
to taihanasie,
if we calculate the population of Han Chinese, it's more than 90% of the population of the whole china. So it's logically and mathematically understood that han ethnic group produced more good leaders compared to other ethnics group because of the size. so the possibility of han chinese leaders chosen to the offices of president and premier is much higher.
meanwhile you can still find many minorities are holding high official positions, one of 4 chinese vice-premiers is a minority and one of 5 chinese state councilors is a minority too.
it took you over 220 years to have chosen by only 52% of voters a 50%BLACK as president after 43 former white ones, which means 2.5% comparing with 11% black and 15% hispanic population. its really no big deal, especailly a deal blow up from your well lubed arse.
Those two would-be assassins couldn't knock off a house cat. Their "plan"? Dress up in white suits and white top hats and drive really fast at Obama, guns blazing. Crank-head crackers talking bullshit online.
@Eastman
Man, your nuanced grip on race and politics, and your razor sharp observations on the policies I brought up are making me and WatchBagDVD's little chat seem redundant.
I especially love comment #8 where your comparison with Obama implies that the historical non-Han leaderships of China were elected by the people.
@ Andy_Best - Because you feel Obama doesn't have all the answers. Obviously you do, so maybe you should be president. Or we could return to the real world where someone needs to be elected to president to appeal to a wide range of people. Why do I have to talk about your liberal playbook talking books? What if, and I'm just grasping at straws here, what you listed as things that liberals should be upset about, doesn't account for what other liberals think? Or are you going to step off your soap box and realize that you speak for yourself.
Me? I know that 95% of my friends are happy (ranging from pretty happy to freaking estatic) that Obama has been elected.
@T
That's your logic. If I don't agree with Obama's policies or I feel that they fall way short of what actually constitutes change or progressive ideas - then I should not say it unless I myself am able to run for president?
What do you think of the policies I listed above? Which of them are you 'freaking estatic' about?
I'm quite happy to speak for myself. I have something to say. You just want to say "like, you suck, shut up dude".
to andy best,
it was not me but michael manning’s “Chinese colleague whose admiration for U.S. democracy” initiated the “nuanced grip on race and politics” as you rightly termed. and i only made comment to it instead of to the “policies you brought up” which i even didn’t care reading. meanhwile i have no interest in your “little chat” or pillow talk either, which only nosy bush with headphones is allowed to have access to.
as to your “non-han leaderships of china were not elected by the people” stuff, i understand and cannot agree more though your english is quite tilted. but is china alone and any of your western pals has any minority elected as president? can one also compare america with france, germany, italy, spain so on and question their "maturity in political institutions"?
btw, in my vocabulary, what you call yourself as "liberal" is just called POOFTER, lol.
suddenly, my canadians pals dont need to insist on persuading my other friends: "i am not an american" any longer.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_eu/eu_election_an_american_abroad
@Eastman
You should rid yourself of the notion that you have anything to offer a reasonable discussion of any kind.
This is you:
"btw, in my vocabulary, what you call yourself as "liberal" is just called POOFTER, lol."
Read you own comments, you are a racist, sexist and homophobic sociopath. You wouldn't dare say half the stuff you post if people knew you and it was face to face.
And now back to the actual issues: What do people think of Emanuel as Chief-of-staff at the White House? A hard line war supporter to pick the team, eh?
to andy best,
seems you are good for nothing except at expertising how to escape from questions you cannot reply even with your utmost capacity, while i am real silly at expecting a smart answer from a psyco-complex or lunatic who dreamt himself of next president and has enough guts to say it to everyone face to face. good nite.
@ Andy re Emanuel
Bernard Chazelle writes on the blog Tiny Revolution: "If Clinton was a triangulator, then Obama is a tetrahedralizer, ie, he does it in 3D. Not even Dick Morris could get Ken 'cakewalk' Adelman, Scott McClellan, Colin Powell, and will.i.am on his boss's side." That's one of the best ways to put it I've come across.
So he assuages some fears among conservatives and American Jews that he'd be fair to the Palestinians fail to be a true friend to Israel plus he has a loyal Chicago-style enforcer to keep everyone in line.
Only good thing is, I think, it's some serious hardball realpolitik that will probably be needed to deal with the coming relentless assault from the rump Republican party (moderates largely purged, hard-right types stuck around) and hysterical anti-Obama media (Hannity, Limbaugh, Malkin etc.).
Not that that's a great thing by any means, but it's politics... dude knows how to play.
But back to the "tetrahedralizer" bit, here's hoping O's skill at bringing people together and getting them to talk actually leads to a serious attempt to settle things between the Palestinians and Israel as equitably as possible.
Obama can't, for political reasons, get too friendly too fast with even the most moderate Muslim politicians or the right-leaning element in the media goes ape-shit about "Hussein" being some kind of crypto-Islamist and a lot of Dems get cold feet and get all Liebermanny.
Later, O should be able to connect with serious Arab and Muslim leaders and get them to sit down at the negotiating table with Israeli leadership--at least I audaciously hope.
Um, had "strike through" code on "be fair to the Palestinians" in that last comment but guess that code ain't supported, so sorry for the garbled sentence.
Consider same-sex marriage.
Obama doesn't support it, doesn't believe in it, and has said that he believes marriage is between one man and one woman.
In California, the state constitution has been modified to take that strict view of marriage. People are taking to the streets en masse.
http://sfist.com/2008/11/09/oakland_protest_at_mormon_church_cl.php
http://sfist.com/2008/11/07/prop_8_protest_117_san_francisco.php
Obama was elected because he's a slick talker, and being a slick talker makes him electable. People felt safe believing that someone with the label democrat was inherently superior to someone with the republican name tag. Obama wasn't elected by the liberals he hoodwinked, but by the conservatives and moderates in middle America.