Friday, November 9, 2012

Day 9: National Congress MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!


Well i really should say something  to welcome Xi Jinping, China's new Party Secretary and President. 

Well, the climate around Beijing is totally not hype. Everyone's like whatEVerrr. 

It ain't no democrat party. 

"Yoyo, what do you think about Xijinping?"
"I don't think anything."
"Does anybody in your office care?"
"No. Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping… they're all communists."

Ok fine, that's a magazine office, even if it's one that does focus on politics. 

But i work at a govt national news agency. Even the people who are covering it are uninterested, describing it as a lot of writing about nothing. Yes it's happening, yes it's important, no it's not interesting, and no there's nothing regular Chinese folk can do about it. 

It's bigger impact on the lives of Beijingers is that taxi drivers have been refusing to go near Changan Avenue to avoid security hold ups around Tiannanmen Square.

But of course, it is still a change. Xi Jinping seems more personable and confident than Mr Blendintothewallpaper, Hu Jintao. He's kept a clean slate (purportedly) in terms of staying out of corruption, and pressing the party to fight it. He's reasonably young to become the head of state, and presumably brings modern ideas w/ him. Even his wife was a starlet herself, belting out the commie hits, before hubby started squeezing into the upper echelons of the Party. 

Even Hu Jintao talked about the need for China to reform, more transparency, etc. No, China's not about to tumble into democracy, nor should it. But it can clean up it's act and work towards a more prosperous and harmonious phuture. 

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