{"id":197761,"date":"2016-11-18T21:59:03","date_gmt":"2016-11-19T05:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=197761"},"modified":"2021-09-14T20:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T03:24:57","slug":"china-voters-pick-clinton-trump-braised-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2016\/11\/china-voters-pick-clinton-trump-braised-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"In China Voters Pick \u2018Clinton,\u2019 \u2018Trump\u2019 \u2018Braised Chicken\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Voters in several cities across China are heading to the polls this month to elect deputies for local People’s Congresses<\/a>. Every five years, eligible Chinese citizens over the age of 18 are given the opportunity to vote for grassroots legislative representatives\u00a0in a series of staggered elections. The elections, however, are highly undemocratic, with Party leaders stressing political loyalty in candidate selection and nervous local governments thwarting independents from campaigning. In response, a large number of voters in several voting districts have casted protest votes using write-in ballots<\/strong><\/a>, which were filled in with substitutes including \u2018Clinton,\u2019 \u2018Trump,\u2019 and \u2018Braised Chicken.\u2019<\/a>\u00a0Te-Ping Chen at China Real Times reports on voter efforts to subvert the elections.<\/p>\n Most residents sit out the exercise. Others find ways to subvert it.<\/p>\n […] At the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, a second election was hastily organized this week when an insufficient number of votes was cast for real candidates, one student said in an interview. \u201cMost students did vote for one of the two candidates,\u201d she said, including herself. \u201cBut some just voted in a disorderly fashion, like for Hillary or for Trump. \u2026Others voted for \u2018Braised Chicken\u2019 or \u2018the Calabash Babies,\u2019\u201d a reference to a popular 1980s cartoon.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0\u201cIf your vote doesn\u2019t have any meaning, then why not just pick something that\u2019s funny, or just pick in a satirical fashion?\u201d said Li Fan, director of research center The World and China Institute.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past, it was the Monkey King, or Zhu Bajie,\u201d he said, citing two mythological figures from the Chinese novel \u201cJourney to the West.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis year, I hear a lot of people voted for Trump.\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sixth Tone’s Yan Jie spoke with millennials<\/a>\u00a0in Shanghai about their views on the elections.<\/p>\n At AP, Helene Franchineau and Christopher Bodeen look at why China’s local elections are only democratic in name<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n On the surface, the rules for registering as a candidate are simple and inclusive. Apart from those put forward by the party, official organizations or government work units, candidates need endorsements from just 10 supporters to qualify for the polls.<\/p>\n In reality, however, the government and party officials interfere by screening candidates, preventing undesirables from running or even taking office should they win, advocacy group China Human Rights Defenders said in a recent report.<\/p>\n Most would-be independents are party members or have received some form of official approval and can be expected to toe the party line, said Li, who was interviewed in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n […] Following a brief period of openness, the government’s attitude toward independent candidates began hardening a decade ago and grew especially tough during elections in 2011 as Xi was preparing to take power, Li said.<\/p>\n “The law hasn’t changed. It’s the government’s attitude that has changed,” Li said. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Campaigns put together by independent candidates are systematically disrupted<\/strong><\/a> by government officials, who are using a variety of intimidation tactics to prevent unsanctioned candidates from running. Javier C. Hernandez at The New York Times reports:<\/p>\n The elections this year are the first of their kind under Mr. Xi, whose tenure has been marked by tighter control of civil society and a harsh treatment of dissidents. Over the past several weeks, the authorities have carried out a far-reaching campaign to rein in unsanctioned candidates across the country, placing some under house arrest and barring others from campaigning.<\/p>\n In Shanghai, which holds elections on Wednesday, the police detained several activists who were distributing leaflets for an independent candidate, according to news reports.<\/p>\n In Qianjiang City, in the central province of Hubei, activists said in interviews that they had been followed by the police and blocked from speaking with voters.<\/p>\n Wu Lijuan, 50, a former bank employee who is now a human rights advocate, said the police had instructed residents to cut off communication with her and not vote for her. She praised the American political system and argued that Chinese elections should be more transparent.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0\u201cWe have a fake election,\u201d she said. \u201cIn public, they say they allow you to have an election, but in reality, they don\u2019t. You can\u2019t mention the shortcomings of officials. You can\u2019t speak ill of political leaders.\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The level of harassment directed at independent candidates suggests that the Chinese government is tightening it’s grip on power and allowing no room for dissent<\/strong><\/a>, even at the lowest grassroots level. From Hong Kong Free Press:<\/p>\n The authorities\u2019 response to [candidate] Ye [Jinghuan] indicates how China<\/span> is tightening controls on even anodyne political expression, said Yaxue Cao of Chinachange.org, a US-based website advocating for increased democracy.<\/p>\n A key meeting of top Communist leadership in October called for increased ideological discipline and warned ruling party members against criticising the official line.<\/p>\n In a pyramidal system, the elected local representatives choose municipal delegates, who choose provincial legislators, who in turn select members of the national parliament \u2014 which is widely expected to hand Communist party General Secretary Xi Jinping a second term as president in 2018.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s election is \u201cvery low-level, grassroots\u201d, Cao said, adding \u201cthere really isn\u2019t much you can do to push for political reform\u201d.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0But \u201ceven on this useless grassroots level, simply by stating you\u2019re an independent candidate, you\u2019re challenging them\u201d.<\/p>\n […] There is no room for such dissent on the ballot: the Communist party has described multi-party democracy as an existential threat, and state media have savaged the circus atmosphere of this year\u2019s US presidential election. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Voters in several cities across China are heading to the polls this month to elect deputies for local People’s Congresses. Every five years, eligible Chinese citizens over the age of 18 are given the opportunity to vote for grassroots legislative representatives\u00a0in a series of staggered elections. The elections, however, are highly undemocratic, with Party leaders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1088,"featured_media":197765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14744,14745,14746,100,1051],"tags":[320,1726,1601,2632,16469,2246],"class_list":["post-197761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-top-article","tag-elections","tag-harassment","tag-local-elections","tag-local-power","tag-national-peoples-congress","tag-peoples-congress","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n\n