Results tagged “elections”

Go here to listen to Terry Gross' interview with Beijing-based (and formerly Shanghai-based) writer James Fallows, The Atlantic's "man in China." Fallows discusses a variety of topics, including China's extensive investment in the United States (see his Atlantic story on the topic here), his new book of China essays (excerpt on Danwei), internet censorship and his recently deceased father. Around the 24-minute mark, Fallows makes some interesting statements about how he thinks Chinese people would have voted in the recent U.S. election — we're curious how his observations compare to what Shanghaiist readers saw and heard leading up to November 4.

China and North Korea will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2009 in a 'Year of Friendship', reports AP. Yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao praised 'deep and traditional friendship' between the two nations and said, "The development of bilateral relations not only conforms to the fundamental interests and common will of the two peoples, but also contributes to the peace and stability of the region." What will the two good friends do in this new 'Year of Friendship', you ask? For a crystal-clear answer, let's turn to Xinhua:

During the year of friendship, China is willing to work together with the DPRK to further enhance friendship, promote exchanges and deepen cooperation through a variety of activities, in order to have a better future of China-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations.

In other interesting DPRK news, North Korea may use parliamentary elections in 2009 to lay the groundwork for the post Kim Jong-Il era. Meanwhile, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), North Korea's first foreign-funded university is finally expected to open this year after several delays. The initiative to build this school came from a Korean American man by the name of Kim Chin-Kyung who was detained for six weeks in North Korea in 1998 for allegedly spying for the US, and who also helped found the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in northeast China. He raised about US$31.5 million from Christian churches and individual donors in South Korea and abroad to build this new school.

• Top officials are now considering a bailout plan worth RMB800 billion ($116 billion USD) to buy up top Chinese stocks if the Shanghai index falls below 1,500 points. The index closed at 1,859 points yesterday, but has been falling steadily since the beginning of 2008. Diligence China gives us a look at what the country's economy could look like in 18 months.
• Following yesterday's announcement that Beijing will get a boatload of new money to develop its traffic infrastructure, Chinese officials unveiled a new plan to spend RMB5 trillion over the next two years on new roads, rail and airports. Nearly half this money (RMB2.37 trillion) will be spent in Guangdong province.
• Will democracy work in China? Students at the Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong give it a try in their student president elections. Ironically, three of the four candidates are Communist Party members.

Just in case you were looking for it.

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.

Continue reading "China, the U.S. elections and Obama's win"

The Economist has opened up the vote to its readers worldwide to see who'd be the next US president if the whole world could vote. China, as it turns out, is "strong Obama" — 83% of respondents here voted Obama and 17% McCain. With more than 10,000 votes cast, it looks like the whole world is voting overwhelmingly in Obama's favour. When we last checked, 9,120 votes went to Obama while McCain managed 270 votes, defeating his opponent with a small margin in such enlightened states as Cuba, Congo, Sudan, Algeria, Namibia and Macedonia. Iraq turned out to be the only "strong McCain" constituency (thanks to all his military buddies). We think there‘s a lesson to be gleaned from this exercise: The Economist's readers are just not mavericky enough.

In articles written exclusively for AmCham's China Brief magazine, US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have outlined their visions for US-China relations if they were to come to power.

Welcome to the newest episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

has been revealed by Thomas Crampton on his blog. Anyone know anything about these guys?

Having written about a couple of his campaign events in the past, it should be clear by now that we are unabashed supporters of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois who is running for president of the United States. It's not that we didn't try to find Shanghai-based groups supporting other candidates; it just appears there aren't any. Now that Obama has sewn up the Democratic party's nomination and can focus on the general election in November, we bring to your attention another conference call fundraiser for our favorite presidential candidate.

It's just four days to Taiwan's presidential elections, and the latest turn of events in Tibet have loomed large in the rhetoric on both camps. Here are a few things that Frank Hsieh 謝長廷 (DPP), currently lagging in opinion polls and the underdog in the race (mainly because of the corruption charges against his predecessor), has said:

"As we look at Tibet, we must think about our own fate."

Continue reading "Tibet hot topic in Taiwan elections, mainland-based Taiwanese businessmen rush home to vote"

A quick reminder to all the Americans out there: Vote.

As mentioned before, US expatriates are, for the first time, able to vote in a global primary, meaning that they get their own set of delegates during the primaries, which decide each party's respective presidential candidate. This particular event, held on Tuesday at the ecologically sound and coolly designed URBN hotel, was well attended. Computers were set up to help people register, liquor and hors d'ouevres helped people mingle, and Barack Obama's victory speech from the South Carolina primary was played on a big screen. Melanie McGanney was there and wrote about it on the Huffington Post. Youtube has a video of the speech here, and you can see some more of our photos here.

Sufei hits the streets of Beijing and asks people what they think of the US presidential candidates, and who she should support. Apparently, most of them only recognise Hilary and either do not know/support Obama. One man says he looks too "aggressive" to be the president. Hmm...

Shanghaiist is happy to learn that we finally have a chance to break free from the shackles of political impotence and actually make somewhat of a difference in the increasingly heated U.S. presidential campaign. Democrats Abroad, the overseas branch of the U.S. Democratic Party, is holding its first global presidential primary from February 5th through the 12th. For the first time, expatriates who are American citizens have a chance to vote in the Democratic primary without having to mail in an absentee ballot (or for states that have caucuses, travel back home). According to the organization's press release: