Chinese pop star Gao Xiaosong recorded a 33 minute Chinese-language video explaining the American presidential election and electoral college system, which he posted to Chinese video sharing site youku.com. The tutorial received over a million views.
Meanwhile, in a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, 36 percent of Chinese surveyed in 2007 said they reject the idea of American democracy, but in the survey this year, just 29 percent held that view.
As America gets swept up in today’s presidential election, it is easy to forget that China’s once-a-decade leadership transition begins this Thursday as well. While at this time it is unclear if China’s incoming leaders will institute any reforms that might appeal to the Chinese people’s increasing interest in suffrage, it is important to remember that this leadership transition in Beijing is at least as important as today’s U.S. election, if not more so.
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