As
widely expected, Mr. Xi Jinping was elected president of China this
week by the National People's Congress. Since he was the only
candidate in this cosmetic election, he polled 2955 'Yes' votes with
3 delegates abstaining and there was 1 'No' vote. Total number of
delegates is supposed to be 2961.
Immediately
afterwords, there was a flood of comments on 'Sina Weibo,' Chinese
twitter like social media. The heated discussion was about the
"mysterious voter" who had the courage to tick the 'no' box
in the ballot paper in the poll. Other Chinese Internet sites and
discussion forums also became agog with speculation on whether the
solitary dissenter will be found out and punished. The first thing
that was done by the censors after this was that the word “no vote”
was removed from social media by authorities.
Some
commentators pointed out to a similar 'No vote in the past and its
disastrous consequences for the person, who gave this 'No Vote.' Mr.
Zhang Dongsun, a philosopher and former CPPCC delegate had voted
"no" in Mao Zedong’s election as head of the new
communist government in 1949. Zhang had to pay high price for this
no vote. He was later destroyed by Chairman Mao for his alleged
actions. He was accused of selling national secrets a few years after
Mao’s election, and expelled from the CPPCC. He was arrested at
the age of 82 in 1968, two years into the Cultural Revolution. His
family didn’t know where he was locked up until 1973, when they
were notified by authorities that Zhang had died in Beijing's
Qincheng prison. Of Zhang's three sons, two committed suicide during
the Cultural Revolution, while his eldest son was arrested and
tortured, according to some accounts.
On
Sina Weibo, everybody started wondering whether the person will be
punished horribly, as happened to the one "nay" vote
against Mao Zedong. Or, whether this is a good sign for democracy
that at least someone voted with his or her conscience, and didn't
follow orders. There is also a theory that Xi voted against himself
as a show of humility.
Soon
afterwards, China's social media censors cracked down on discussion
about the mysterious identity behind the lone vote cast against
communist leader Xi Jinping‘s formal appointment as president and
all discussions on the subject disappeared. Some shrewd, netizens had
meanwhile, taken hard copies of the chatter or Weibo and released
them later.
Zhang
Lifen, a senior editor at the Financial Times, and editor in chief of
its Chinese language Web site says: “This is some progress for
China’s democracy,” and wonders why state media intentionally
left out the tally in their coverage, “Were they embarrassed
because the percentage was too high?”
Wall
street journal called this election as 'Fake election.' Whatever it
is, it provided few moments of amusement for outside world as well
as Chinese netizens on Weibo, for sure.
17
March 2013
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