US election a hit among Chinese

In this file photo, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, center, walks behind President Hu Jintao, right, and Premier Wen Jiabao, left, as they clap together while arriving for a conference to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Youth League at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Chinese have long been fascinated with U.S. presidential elections, but interest is particularly high this year because Americans are voting at the same time Beijing is going through its own political transition. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

BEIJING—Where can a pop star score a hit by talking about the US Electoral College for 33 minutes? In China, where Gao Xiaosong’s straightforward explanation of the system drew more than 1 million hits in four days.

Chinese have long been fascinated with US presidential elections, but interest is particularly high this year because Americans are voting at the same time Beijing is going through its own political transition.

A generation of Communist Party leaders will step down next week to make way for younger colleagues after a highly secretive selection process.

For many ordinary Chinese, comparisons are irresistible.

In a political cartoon circulated online, an American voter covers his ears as the candidates verbally attack each other on TV, while a Chinese man struggles to hear anything from the party congress, taking place behind closed doors.

“Every political system has its pros and cons, but I do think it will be great if I get to participate and get to make a decision after the candidates tell me what their platforms are for the next four years,” said Guo Xiaoqiao, a freelance worker in human resources.

Chinese delight in speculating whether President Barack Obama will fend off Republican challenger Mitt Romney, but they are more captivated by Americans’ ability to vote for their leader. Their own leaders are distant figures whom they have no way of replacing.

Lack of involvement

“The 18th Party Congress is a meeting for the party. We ordinary people can only watch it as an audience,” said Wang Xiaojian, a 21-year-old Beijing University student. “The US presidential election is a campaign that gets everyone involved.”

As Gao, a pop singer and musician known for his syrupy ballads, found out, many Chinese are even interested in the US Electoral College, the often perplexing system in which the president is elected not by individual votes, but by the candidates’ state-by-state performance.

In a video from his online talk show that was posted on the popular video-sharing site Youku.com, Gao explained that the college is an attempt to balance the rights of states with the will of the majority.

“The opinion of the state is important; so is that of the people,” Gao said. He called America’s founding fathers the “greatest group of people in history.”

As a public performer used to censorship, Gao was careful not to draw direct comparisons to China’s system or its leaders. But even explaining America’s election system is more than what Chinese get from state media.