Locals and tourists have their say on new Standing Committee
With new Standing Commitee confirmed, people on streets of Beijing give their opinions, thoughts and hopes for the future to Keith Zhai and Li Jing
Kim Min-young, South Korean student in Beijing
“I know there’s an 18th congress and Xi Jinping is the new chairman of China. It is interesting to study the leadership reshuffle here. Everyone votes for a new leader in South Korea, but they don’t do that in China. My uncle says Xi has close ties with Samsung, so I hope his leadership will help Korean companies in China. There’s a lot of media coverage on the congress, but at the same time the Chinese don’t care much. We Koreans care about our election, which takes place in December, even if we are overseas. I guess it’s because ordinary Chinese can’t vote. I hope they will pay attention to local politics, because the leadership matters to our lives.”
Hu Jingrui, retired journalist from the People’s Daily
“Xi Jinping is the son of a revolutionary cadre, so I’m very confident of him and of the country’s future. Both Yu Zhengsheng and Zhang Gaoli had made quite good accomplishments in Shanghai and Tianjin respectively. But I didn’t expect Liu Yunshan to make it into the Standing Committee, as publicity work under him had not been very effective during the past decade. Everyone is worried about corruption. It will determine the fate of the Communist Party. The ideological education of the public needs to be tightened.”
