{"id":12692,"date":"2016-11-03T13:01:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T17:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=12692"},"modified":"2016-11-03T13:01:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T17:01:47","slug":"the-us-election-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/the-us-election-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Election in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year and a half, you’ve probably heard a lot about the upcoming presidential election in the US. It’s been all over the news, attack ads seem to run non-stop, and the whole world seems to be on edge about the result. Indeed, many other nations are watching the election\u00a0closely. China may be thousands of miles away from Washington, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t paying attention to the election. Let’s take a look at how China is viewing the election and learn some useful vocabulary so you can attempt to talk about it with your Chinese friends or colleagues.<\/p>\n

Chinese Opinion of the Election<\/h2>\n
\"Image<\/a>

Image by Donkey Hotey from flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

Those in charge in Beijing tend to avoid commenting on the affairs of other countries. This should come as no surprise, as they often criticize other countries (especially the US) for commenting on the political situation in China. That being said, the government-run media has had quite a bit to say about the US election this time around. Under the pen name “Zhong Sheng<\/strong><\/em>” (\u4e2d\u58f0 – zh\u014dng sh\u0113ng), meaning “Voice of China,” the People’s Daily ran an editorial<\/a> calling the election “chaos” as it brought up the scandals surrounding both major candidates. As it has done before, Chinese state-run media uses the issues plaguing the US election to undermine the country’s two-party system and\u00a0elections, thus making the argument for China’s one-party system:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, the United States trumpeted the extraordinary excitement of its elections as a symbol of its superior institutions… It\u2019s time for this \u2018teacher of democracy\u2019 to put away its super self-confidence and arrogance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So how about the common people in China? Surely not every Zhou 6-Pack has the same feelings as those running the Communist Party’s mouthpiece. According to a recent survey<\/a>, 3,000+ residents in mainland China gave Hillary Clinton a 37% favorability rating compared with 22% for Donald Trump. As far as unfavorable ratings go, Clinton got 35% while Trump had 40%.<\/p>\n

Perhaps thanks to the huge success of the television series “House of Cards,” more and more people in China are taking up an interest in US politics. While the debates were not shown on Chinese television, many watched them online with quick Chinese translations.<\/p>\n