The difference between Mainlanders and Hong Kongers is that the former have votes but do not know who they are electing, while most of the latter do not have votes but know who they are electing. more ›

CY Leung (梁振英) has become Hong Kong's third Chief Executive, winning 689 of 1132 votes cast by a Hong Kong election committee. His main contender for the position, Henry Tang, once thought to be Beijing's anointed one, secured just 285 votes following a campaign marred by scandals and personal infidelities. The only pro-democracy candidate in the "election", Albert Ho, won a meagre 76 votes. more ›

Steve Chao of Al-Jazeera on accusations by some in Hong Kong that China's waging a "quiet campaign" to silence criticism in the territory. more ›

She's been cheated on by her husband, and she's been blamed by him for building an illegal basement under their pool, but Lisa Kuo is still standing by her man. The wife of Henry Tang, the candidate widely said to be backed by Beijing to be Hong Kong's next Chief Executive, has been all smiles lately, saying, "If I could choose again, I would still marry Henry Tang." [Captions by Youtuber languagelover7] more ›

Residents of Guangdong province's Wukan village which held elections after they won rare concessions from autocratic Beijing reflect on the the experience. The previous authorities were forced out after a row over land and corruption. [AFP] more ›

Radio Free Asia reports that the daughter of Xue Jinbo, the Wukan village leader whose death in police custody led to the expulsion of authorities from the Guangdong village in December, has been forced out of her position as a primary school teacher for wanting to run in local village elections. more ›

Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, founding chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), the largest pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong, has officially bowed out of the upcoming Chief Executive election. more ›

"Many people see rampant bribery as evidence that village elections don’t work or matter. And it definitely isn’t a good thing from the perspective of democracy. But actually elections must be working fairly well for candidates to see bribery—an expensive proposition—as necessary to win. If the elections didn’t matter or if it were easier to stuff the ballot or undermine the election in another way, no one would spend so much money on bribery to win them. The elections ensure that the developers and local officials have to share some of the wealth that they might otherwise just pocket themselves.” more ›

In a place where most people have never even seen ballot papers, there's always someone who'll always say that the one-person one-vote is dangerous. The 'good citizen certificates' of yesteryears were the same as now. The (Japanese) devils said, "We can't issue 'good citizen certificates' for everyone, or else the Eighth Route Army would penetrate." I'm not talking about representative systems to you. I'm just telling you that the one-person one-vote is a right right. We're not talking about one-person one-gun here. What are you so afraid of?" more ›

Reporters and protestors spent Thursday crowding outside the multi-million dollar villas of Henry Tang, the man backed by China's Communist Party to be Hong Kong's next chief executive, after reports surfaced in the press that he had built a basement under his private swimming pool in violation of building codes. more ›

In his latest op-ed on the Wall Street Journal, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has blasted Barack Obama's China policy, calling his meetings with Vice President Xi Jinping earlier this week "empty pomp and ceremony", and criticising him for being a "near supplicant to Beijing." more ›

Two interesting soundbytes from US presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich from the GOP debate in Florida Thursday night: more ›

BBC's Beijing correspondent Damian Grammaticas is back from a week in Taiwan covering the recent elections. He reflects: more ›

Guangdong's Wukan village will re-elect new village leaders after a wave of massive protests which lasted for around 3 months captured nationwide attention. Lin Zulian (林祖恋), the protest leader as well as the chief of a committee running the village after protesters gained control, has been appointed as the village's Party Chief and is to organize the upcoming village election. more ›

Former US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman has decided to leave the circuit of crazy wingnuts to themselves by quitting the GOP nomination race for this year's presidential elections. The news comes barely a week after Huntsman declared that his third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary was a "ticket to ride" in South Carolina. more ›

"This is how a free and democratic New China will be. All governments at various levels all the way to the central government will be elected through popular, fair and anonymous voting. They will be responsible to the people that elected them. It will be a fulfillment of Sun Yat-Sen's Three Principles of the People, of Lincoln's idea of government of the people, by the people, for the people; and Roosevelt's Four Freedoms. This will guarantee the independence, solidarity and unity of the nation, as well as its cooperation with the democratic nations of the world." more ›

Two days after Ma Ying-jeou's successful re-election, Chinese internet users still can't stop talking about Taiwan's 2012 presidential election. On Sina Weibo, China's largest microblogging platform, the election has remained the top trending topic as Chinese netizens look across the Taiwan straits and ponder over their own democratic future. Here is a selection of some of the most viral posts on Sina Weibo on the Taiwan election: more ›

Ma Ying-jeou (马英九), chairman of the Kuomintang, was re-elected as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), winning 51.6% of total votes cast, a comfortable 800,000 vote lead over his top contender, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). James Soong (宋楚瑜) of the People First Party received 2.8% of the vote. more ›

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou speaking to international reporters in English yesterday morning in Taipei. Another video after the jump... more ›

"Afghanistan is not our nation's future; and Iraq is not this nation's future. Our nation's future is how prepared we are to rise up as the American people and hit head on the challenges of the 21st Century... you know what I'm talking about? This is about economics and this is about education. And this going to play out over the Pacific Ocean, in countries I have lived in... If we don't get our act together, we are going to see the end of the American Century by 2050; and we aren't going to let that happen are we?" more ›

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"As they would say in China, 他不太了解这个情形, he doesn't quite understand the situation. What [Mitt Romney] is calling for would lead to a trade war. It makes for easy talk but it's far different from the reality in the US-China relationship. You slap on tariffs, you talk tough like that -- of course that's got to be part of it as well -- but in the end we get a tariff in return if we don't sit down and have a logical, sensible conversation. And who's hurt most? It hurts the small businesses, and the small exporters, who are trying to get back on their feet in this country in a time when this nation can least afford a trade war." Another video after the jump... more ›

"I'm Chinese and I'm American and I love this country. I heard all these degrading things about China this and China that and it just doesn't make me feel good." more ›

A shadowy group of Ron Paul supporters in New Hampshire calling themselves "NHLiberty4Paul" has put up an anti-Jon Huntsman ad featuring the former ambassador to China with his adopted daughter from China, Gracie, and another adopted daughter from India, Asha. The ad features clips of Huntsman speaking in Chinese (with a background soundtrack of traditional Chinese music) and asks viewers whether they think he espouses "American values? Or Chinese?" It then ends with the declaration,“American values and liberty. Vote Ron Paul.” More after the jump... more ›

Michele Bachmann, the candidate who said China is the real daddy of the USA, has blinded US satellites with their lasers, that America should be more like China, and that US taxpayers are funding the Chinese military, has bowed out of the GOP race after finishing a disappointing 5%. more ›

"There are two nations on the world stage and they will be as far as the eye can see into the 21st century -- the United States and China, whether it is economics and trade, or whether it is military security or regional security... The region and the world will rely on them... That is something I bring to the table that no other candidate has at all." more ›

Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party has released a new music video urging voters to show up at the polls to vote for Taiwan's future.Lyrics after the jump... more ›

“I want to see your elections with campaign flags flying all over the place. Taiwan and China are one country. How can you arrest me for illegal entry?” more ›

Al-Jazeera's Melissa Chan checks out the local election in a small village in Shandong province, where there is only one candidate on the ballot sheet. The situation is repeated in many other villages throughout China. more ›