By Keith B. Richburg
BEIJING — Chinese Internet users who watched live streams of Monday’s U.S. presidential debate heard President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney criticizing China with some of their toughest language of the campaign – which many Chinese assume the candidates will dial down once the election is over.
Graphic
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Most Chinese Internet users, known here as “Netizens,” seemed not particularly concerned about the candidates’ tough talk. Instead, many viewed the process with admiration, as a kind of democratic theater, and they commented mostly on the candidates’ intelligence, skills at presenting their arguments, and who made the most jokes.
And many said they wished such a show could one day happen here in authoritarian China. The country’s Communist Party is preparing for its own leadership transition a few days after the U.S. election, but there will be no debates and no public participation – the people will find out their new rulers when the lineup is unveiled to them after a secret meeting of Party elites behind closed doors.
“Although mainland China is a one-party state, competitive elections and political shows should still be adopted,” wrote an Internet commenter using the name Guliyeweiqi. “But that’s almost a luxurious dream.”
“It's an election for them, an internal decision for us, how do you compare?” wrote another Internet user called “gw1710” who added, “I really don't want to stay in this country.”
The U.S. debate was largely dominated by the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear issue and America’s role in the world, but turned to China in its final minutes, with Obama declaring China “both an adversary but also a potential partner.” Obama outlined how he has set up a special task force to enforce trading rules on China, and said he brought a series of successful trade cases against Beijing, including cases involving American steel exports and dumping of Chinese tires.
Romney repeated some of his strongest language from the campaign trail, again promising, “On day one, I will label them a currency manipulator,” and take tough action. Romney accused China of “stealing our intellectual property, our patents, our designs, our technology, hacking into our computers, counterfeiting our goods."
Romney said getting tough wouldn’t trigger a trade war because China sends more to the U.S. and would have the most to lose. “It’s pretty clear who doesn’t want a trade war,” he said.
Chinese have heard much of the rhetoric before during the campaign, and the response largely was to tune it out, urge both sides to calm down the angry tone, and get used to China as a new world power.
“Willing or not, Democratic or Republican, the next U.S. president shall have to tone down his get-tough-on-China rhetoric made along the campaign trail, and deal with his country's sclerotic inaptness toward China's inevitable rise,” said a commentary that ran on Xinhua, the state-run news agency, immediately after the debate.
The commentary called trade disputes “speed bumps” thrown in the way of China’s advancement, and said “a contagion of China-phobia syndrome” was spreading across the United States.
“If Washington continues to view China's rise as being more of a threat than an opportunity, it is possible for their differences to spiral out of control at one point, leaving neither side unscathed in a breakdown of their relationship,” the commentary said.
The debate drew a wide online audience here, where it was streamed starting at a convenient starting time of 9 a.m. Most of the mainstream media outlets devoted special reports to the last face-off of this presidential campaign.
Chinese have been intensely following the American election, paying far closer attention than 2008, mostly because of the explosive growth of the Internet here and the Twitter-like microblogging site called “weibo.”
People’s Daily Online, the website of the main Communist Party newspaper of the same name, put out an alert at 6:43 a.m. calling the U.S. debate important upcoming news. The website then ran real-time reports on each debate segment, with commentary by a scholar from the China Institute of International Studies.
The website of Phoenix Television put the debate in its most prominent position. Tencent QQ media website made it the second most important news event – after a report on China’s Communist Party set to amend the country’s constitution – and the site made a special report about the U.S. debate with video footage of each segment, complete with simultaneous interpretation in Chinese.
Other major Internet media sites, including sina.com and 163.com, also had special reports about the debate.
One hour after the debate, the name Obama was the seventh most searched term on weibo, with “U.S. presidential election” being the tenth most searched term.
Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report.
BEIJING — Chinese Internet users who watched live streams of Monday’s U.S. presidential debate heard President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney criticizing China with some of their toughest language of the campaign – which many Chinese assume the candidates will dial down once the election is over.
Graphic
The presidential campaign is heading into the final stretch, and the contest remains deadlocked nationally.
More from PostPolitics
Chris Cillizza THE FIX | The best and worst from the final matchup between President Obama and Mitt Romney.
Glenn KesslerReal-time analysis of the claims made during the final presidential debate.
Read the transcript of Obama and Romney’s remarks from the debate on foreign policy at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.Jon Cohen and Scott Clement THE FIX | President Obama and Mitt Romney head into the final debate still deadlocked among likely voters.
Most Chinese Internet users, known here as “Netizens,” seemed not particularly concerned about the candidates’ tough talk. Instead, many viewed the process with admiration, as a kind of democratic theater, and they commented mostly on the candidates’ intelligence, skills at presenting their arguments, and who made the most jokes.
And many said they wished such a show could one day happen here in authoritarian China. The country’s Communist Party is preparing for its own leadership transition a few days after the U.S. election, but there will be no debates and no public participation – the people will find out their new rulers when the lineup is unveiled to them after a secret meeting of Party elites behind closed doors.
“Although mainland China is a one-party state, competitive elections and political shows should still be adopted,” wrote an Internet commenter using the name Guliyeweiqi. “But that’s almost a luxurious dream.”
“It's an election for them, an internal decision for us, how do you compare?” wrote another Internet user called “gw1710” who added, “I really don't want to stay in this country.”
The U.S. debate was largely dominated by the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear issue and America’s role in the world, but turned to China in its final minutes, with Obama declaring China “both an adversary but also a potential partner.” Obama outlined how he has set up a special task force to enforce trading rules on China, and said he brought a series of successful trade cases against Beijing, including cases involving American steel exports and dumping of Chinese tires.
Romney repeated some of his strongest language from the campaign trail, again promising, “On day one, I will label them a currency manipulator,” and take tough action. Romney accused China of “stealing our intellectual property, our patents, our designs, our technology, hacking into our computers, counterfeiting our goods."
Romney said getting tough wouldn’t trigger a trade war because China sends more to the U.S. and would have the most to lose. “It’s pretty clear who doesn’t want a trade war,” he said.
Chinese have heard much of the rhetoric before during the campaign, and the response largely was to tune it out, urge both sides to calm down the angry tone, and get used to China as a new world power.
“Willing or not, Democratic or Republican, the next U.S. president shall have to tone down his get-tough-on-China rhetoric made along the campaign trail, and deal with his country's sclerotic inaptness toward China's inevitable rise,” said a commentary that ran on Xinhua, the state-run news agency, immediately after the debate.
The commentary called trade disputes “speed bumps” thrown in the way of China’s advancement, and said “a contagion of China-phobia syndrome” was spreading across the United States.
“If Washington continues to view China's rise as being more of a threat than an opportunity, it is possible for their differences to spiral out of control at one point, leaving neither side unscathed in a breakdown of their relationship,” the commentary said.
The debate drew a wide online audience here, where it was streamed starting at a convenient starting time of 9 a.m. Most of the mainstream media outlets devoted special reports to the last face-off of this presidential campaign.
Chinese have been intensely following the American election, paying far closer attention than 2008, mostly because of the explosive growth of the Internet here and the Twitter-like microblogging site called “weibo.”
People’s Daily Online, the website of the main Communist Party newspaper of the same name, put out an alert at 6:43 a.m. calling the U.S. debate important upcoming news. The website then ran real-time reports on each debate segment, with commentary by a scholar from the China Institute of International Studies.
The website of Phoenix Television put the debate in its most prominent position. Tencent QQ media website made it the second most important news event – after a report on China’s Communist Party set to amend the country’s constitution – and the site made a special report about the U.S. debate with video footage of each segment, complete with simultaneous interpretation in Chinese.
Other major Internet media sites, including sina.com and 163.com, also had special reports about the debate.
One hour after the debate, the name Obama was the seventh most searched term on weibo, with “U.S. presidential election” being the tenth most searched term.
Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report.