240 years, American friends! Longer than the Yuan. Longer than the Sui. Not as long as any of the good dynasties, but still a good run!

— The Relevant Organs (@relevantorgans) November 9, 2016

There are some serious amateur filmmakers working for the United States’s Federal Bureau of Investigation — I can think of no other reason why Game of Pawns would exist: a nearly half-hour mini-movie that tells the story of Glenn Duffie Shriver, who was bribed by Chinese officials when he was studying in Shanghai to pass along sensitive information. Shriver made $70,000 before he was caught. He’s now in the US serving out a four-year sentence in federal prison.

I could only get through the first minute of the film — the voice-over set to generic Oriental music was all I needed. But the full story’s on the FBI’s website, so you can read the script if you’d like, which begins:

Narrator: There is an old Chinese proverb–”Life is like a game of chess, changing with each move. And to win the game you must often sacrifice your pawns.”

As Business Insider notes though, this film — which went up on YouTube yesterday and has 2,255 views as of now — is pretty unnecessary, not to mention “unintentionally hilarious, as many government-sponsored ostensibly cultural artifacts tend to be. It basically looks like an updated version of the shlocky anti-Soviet films the government used to pump out during the Cold War.”

But in its statement on the production, the FBI says it wants American students traveling overseas to watch the movie before leaving the U.S. “so they’re able to recognize when they’re being targeted and/or recruited.”

A better option would probably have been directing students directly to David Wise’s excellent write-up of Shriver’s case for The Washingtonian in 2012. 

Just your friendly neighborhood FBI reminding you, kids, to not accidentally become a spy, betray your country, and do time in the clink.

China came up twice during the State of the Union, tying Israel for sixth place in terms of number of mentions. 

“Business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is. (Cheers, applause.) That’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America. After five years of grit and determined effort, the United States is better-positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on Earth.”

“Listen, China and Europe aren’t standing on the sidelines; and neither — neither should we. We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow.”

Full Transcript

In weird news, netizens on Weibo during the State of the Union were enjoying speculation that the US is run by aliens. Go figure.

While #SOTU dominates Twitter, trending higher on China’s Weibo is #AliensControlTheUS pic.twitter.com/q6Ag7f9Myc

— Simon Rabinovitch (@S_Rabinovitch) January 29, 2014

The US government shut down on Tuesday as Congress failed to pass the necessary bills to keep it operational — “it” being the government. If you want a quick-and-infuriating primer on the situation, CNN has you covered, as does Washington Post, and James Fallows offers wise analysis as always over at his blog.

But what does China think?

The Atlantic points out that China Daily and Global Times are surprisingly late with editorials. “But the shutdown still registered as a trending topic on Sina Weibo, China’s most important social network, where most of the comments displayed a mixture of shock, derision, and glee, with no small amount wondering how the world’s most powerful country got itself into this predicament.” Also:

More importantly, stock markets across Asia have taken the news in stride – and the Chinese index is even up 0.7 percent.

But Tea Leaf Nation makes a slightly different observation: China’s official commentators have remained subdued — the tone “has been explanatory, not celebratory” — and the reason is clear: because the Chinese government hasn’t exactly earned the right to call anyone out, as netizens are pointing out.

In Chinese social media, meanwhile, the government shutdown became an opportunity to criticize the Chinese government. Chatter ran deep: the Chinese equivalent of “#USGovernmentShutdown” rose to the second-most discussed topic on all of Sina Weibo, a popular social media platform, as of this writing. Weibo users have commented on the topic more than 135,000 times.

…Some veiled their critiques. Xu Jilin, a professor of history at East China Normal University in Shanghai, wrote, “The government has shut down, but the country is not in disorder — now that’s what you call a good country where people can live without worry.”

The gridlock itself, decried by most commentators in the U.S., struck many Chinese as a sign of lawfulness. As one user remarked, “A government that can shut down, no matter how big the impact on everyone’s lives, is a good thing. It shows that power can be checked, and the government can’t spend money however it wants.”

But are these reactions — as also covered by Offbeat China — really all that unusual or surprising? Sina Weibo’s the place where netizens constantly criticize the government. Yet their pervasive cynicism girds a better — an optimist might say hopeful — desire for China’s government to be better. To strive toward progress, as it always has. To strive. Progress. Work. Have we made the point clear yet? Grind away. Chop wood. Keep governing. As if it were their job.

POSTSCRIPT: 

Big win for Chinese Communist Party this week, as radical Republicans again make US into world's laughingstock?

— Edward Wong (@comradewong) October 2, 2013

Edward Snowden — ever elusive, unidentifiable — is reportedly leaving Moscow for either Cuba or Ecuador. Reports AP:

The former National Security Agency contractor and CIA technician fled Hong Kong and arrived at the Moscow airport, where he planned to spend the night before boarding an Aeroflot flight to Cuba. Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his government received an asylum request from Snowden, and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said it would help him.

Meanwhile, the US — in the condescending way of superpowers who aren’t used to getting snookered — sent an official to say this to Reuters:

“The U.S. is disappointed and disagrees with the determination by Hong Kong authorities not to honor the U.S. request for the arrest of the fugitive.”

Chen Guangcheng, you say? Who’s that?

At no point in discussions through Friday did Hong Kong raise issues regarding the sufficiency of the U.S. arrest request, the official said.

“In light of this, we find their decision to be particularly troubling,” the official said.

On behalf of the rest of the world: piss off, anonymous official.

Diana Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, went on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and said this:

“China clearly had a role in this, in my view.  I don’t think this was just Hong Kong without Chinese acquiescence.”

Well, duh. A little later, California’s Democratic Senator said this out loud:

“I had actually thought that China would see this as an opportunity to improve relations and — extradite him to the United States… I think it’ll be very interesting to see what Moscow does with him.”

Interesting to see what Moscow does with him… as if — even if Snowden weren’t already on his way to Ecuador — Russia would risk political capital just to appease the government of the United States. What year are we in, 2002?

“Whatever his motives are, and I take him at face value, he could’ve stayed and faced the music. I don’t think running is a noble thought.”

No doubt, everyone in the world should put their unwavering trust in the US justice system, which has never failed anyone, ever. Ahem. Ahem.

Dick Cheney, former vice president, bad quail hunter, to Fox News:

“I’m suspicious because he went to China. That’s not a place where you would ordinarily want to go if you are interested in freedom, liberty, and so forth…. It raises questions whether or not he had that kind of connection before he did this.”

China’s response:

Hahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahaha

After a brief pause, in which sharp breaths were drawn:

GAHhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahaha

Via SCMP:

“It is sheer nonsense,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying when asked to comment on the allegation put forward by former US vice-president Dick Cheney and other US politicians.

“American politicians are idiots,” she then added under her breath.

Meanwhile, Edward Snowden seems very distraught:

Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, Feinstein, and King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.

Winsome goof Joe Biden, giving a commencement address at the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania on May 13, delivered a few China barbs that probably shouldn’t have come from a US vice president.

“It was a humiliating experience,” Chinese citizen Zhang Tianpu, a graduating Wharton senior, told SCMP. “And how can a graduation speech be this political?”

Some of Biden’s more borderline comments:

“Their problems are immense, and they lack much of what we have… (America has an) open and fair legal (system)…

“You cannot think different in a nation where you cannot breathe free; you cannot think different in a nation where you aren’t able to challenge orthodoxy, because change only comes from challenging orthodoxy.”

About Xi Jinping:

“He’s a strong, bright man, but he has the look of a man who is about to take on a job he’s not at all sure is going to end well. I mean that seriously.”

Oh, you mean that seriously? Really?

Zhang and company have drafted a letter to be delivered to the university president demanding Biden’s apology. As of Wednesday, according to SCMP, it had 343 signees. It reads in part:

Vice President Joe Biden openly demeaned China and Chinese citizens in front of hundreds of Chinese students and their families. As international students from China, we found this part his speech extremely inappropriate and offensive. We demand that he make a public apology to all Chinese students in Penn.

Biden will probably have his intern draft up an apology, sign it, and all will be forgiven. He knows the drill.

Chinese students demand Biden apologise for ‘insensitive’ comments (SCMP, h/t Alicia)

As Barack Obama’s failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp continues to anger his liberal base, interested observers outside the US are beginning to take their potshots at the reeling POTUS. The Chinese news media, for instance, has decided to lightly prod the American president with a little humor — not with its own humor, mind you, but with The Daily Show’s.

Watch the above, or this, or this (different Chinese news stations, same Daily Show episode). It all seems to have begun when CCTV, China’s central broadcast station, ran with the Daily Show clip, according to SCMP. And while the segment is unquestionably funny, Chinese netizens, who are generally fans of Jon Stewart, are laughing for another reason — at their domestic news outlets.

“There are so many problems happening domestically that you choose not to broadcast every day, but instead choose to smell the farts of other countries,” one person posted in the video’s comment section.

“This is our country’s mainstream media … They just want to divert our attention to problems [of other countries] away from poisonous ginger, tainted milk, gutter oil and undrinkable tap water … We are so lucky,” another said, sarcastically.

Others pointed to CCTV’s blatant and “low-blow” attempt to humour audiences with an American political satire show when few of the sort was on offer domestically.

“At least they are free [in the US] to criticise their president openly on television,” one netizen observed on China’s biggest microblogging platform Sina Weibo.

Ah, yes. Chinese media, without the trust of its viewers, can basically never win.

On the other hand, holy crap Jon Stewart, first Egypt, now China (and soon, Iran)… the man might be the most globally recognized American comedian currently working.

CCTV ‘misses irony’ in using Jon Stewart satire to mock US on Guantanamo Bay (SCMP)

Ed’s note:

On April 19, the US Department of State published its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which included a section on China. It was typical, mundane, and features nothing you don’t already know, including restriction of Uighur and Tibetan movement, harassment of journalists and dissidents, prison labor, discrimination, extrajudicial killings, etc.

On April 21, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China published its annual Human Rights Record of the United States, which was typical, mundane, and features nothing you don’t already know, including school shootings, low voter turnout, politically authorized eavesdropping, a widening income gap, discrimination, extrajudicial detention of foreigners, etc. 

Because we’re on the same damn carousel that goes round and round, a year has passed but the sights haven’t much changed. Below, our previous post on this subject, with analysis from TAR Nation.

Originally posted May 31, 2012:

Tao: The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China claims its report on the US’s human rights record is “to reveal the true human rights situation of the United States to people across the world and urge the United States to face up to its own doings.” Did it succeed in doing so?

TAR: No. The Chinese government has difficulty in differentiating between human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and simple controversy, which is easy to understand as there is very little of any of these in China. Gun ownership, for example, is a controversy, not a human rights violation. It was less a report on human rights in America and more of a statement that shit happens in the USA. I was reminded of the “There are no cats in America” song from An American Tail. There bloody well are cats and they will fucking stab you.

Another detractor was the fact that the Communist Party spends half its propaganda power hating on the Western media every single day but relied on it almost exclusively for this report. The New York Times, the BBC, Reuters, the Washington Post and Bloomberg were their main sources. Proving that the Chinese government correctly understands irony, if one follows the statistics they quote in the report, many of them lead straight back to the State Department. Oh, except for the part on press freedoms. They had to get some of those from Russia and China.

Of course the US has problems with human rights right now and in the past, problems that some are trying to fix and others are trying to make worse, but the concept of human rights is not the enemy. As with any difficulty, the problem is bastards.

What part of the report was most eye-opening and potentially informative to you?

By far the most hilarious part was the civil and political rights part. It was like watching a bloodstained psychopath ripping a kitten limb-from-limb doing a PETA advertisement. Where was the first place they went? Occupy Wall Street, a vague and thus ultimately doomed protest movement. I never realized exactly how much the propaganda masters had blown it out of proportion. They seem to think that there is a massive government conspiracy to silence the protests. There isn’t. The government of the United States is currently to the left, and so are the protestors. There would be no point. It would be like the Communist party going after the wu mao dang. The Occupy protesters aren’t arrested for their ideas or beliefs. They’re arrested because they’re blocking traffic. The Communist Party seems to not understand that the POINT of civil disobedience is to get arrested, a way to nonviolently shame your opponents and remind your government of their responsibilities. If you don’t get arrested, then you’re doing it wrong. There is a massive difference in civil disobedience and non-violent protest, and I find both rather noble. The difference was expressed beautifully in Martin Luther King Jr.’s But If Not speech.

Is there a part that you think could have been done better?

I think that if I covered my penis and balls in ink and flung myself at a wall, I could have written a better report.

Do you agree with China’s claim that the US has not “faced up to its own doings”? If that’s the case, what should the punishment for the US be?

Yes, and they should be imprisoned without trial for years, beaten, tortured, given a trial without proper legal representation, and then sentenced to arbitrarily long jail terms, reeducation through forced labor, extrajudicial imprisonment by hundreds of guards, intimidation of their family and then finally be brutally executed.

Quoting: “A report published by the U.S. Department of Justice on September 15, 2011, revealed that in 2010 the U.S. residents aged 12 and above experienced 3.8 million violent victimizations, 1.4 million serious violent victimizations, 14.8 million property victimizations and 138,000 personal thefts.” Can you put that into perspective for us?

“He victimized my property. Ouch! My human rights!” I find it disturbing to personify lawns. It just makes cutting the grass tragic. Also, I was in America for 2010, and I am at least responsible for nine of the above figures, so, I will not throw stones… because, apparently, that’s a human rights violation and a victimization.

It seems like homicides are becoming an epidemic that threatens to touch every household in America. For example, according to the report, “Just four weeks into 2011, San Francisco saw eight homicides — compared with five during the same time of the previous year.”

Well, it’s hardly every household. As a matter of fact, assuming that every person who was murdered had at least three people who loved them (which is more than I have and a stretch considering most people who get murdered tend to be dicks), then the amount of people touched by murder in a single year would be approximately 0.00015%. If no one loved them, then it would be 0.00005%. Hardly an epidemic. I’m not defending murder, though. After reading a week of editorials in the Global Times, I can see the merit in it.

Not to mention school bullying. Have you seen the pernicious effects of school bullying, and, more to the point, can you comment on this jackknife powerbomb?

Does the Chinese government think there is anyone on the other side of this issue? Is there a pro-wedgie lobby I don’t know about? The world is full of bullies, and the presence of anti-bullying campaigns in America is at least proof of trying to put a stop to it. Frankly, if the US would have just not published figures on this, it would have never appeared in the report. Trying to fix something amounts to human rights violations, apparently. Of course, we would all like to live in a world without bullying, but without bullying, we would be living in a country called the People’s Republic of Candy, and it would actually be a republic. Sadly, this is not the case.

With regard to the powerbomb: poorly executed. The trick with powerbombs is to change momentum while the powerbombee is at a moment of weightlessness or to rest them on your shoulders for maximum downward velocity.

What are your thoughts on the fact that Americans own guns?

I think, as you can see from the prison population in America, that there are a lot of assholes in the USA. But you can’t give guns to the nice people and take the guns away from the assholes because that’s profiling. Honestly, gun ownership in America is stupid. But, hey, that’s how Americans like to do things, and I say this meaning “Americans,” not some vague “America.” Americans like guns. They’re dumb, but they like them. Thus, the American government can’t pry them from their cold dead hands, which are cold and dead because they have been shot. Also, Americans are really fat. It’s just too difficult to stab someone with pudgy arms. But — and I know this to be a fact — you can level a rifle on your belly, and, if you don’t breathe, you can hit a raccoon in the eye from 100 yards.

Let’s play a little word association. Occupy Wall Street.

Naked hippie women.

Law enforcement.

Naked woman in a hat.

Incarceration.

Naked women in communal showers.

Unemployment.

Depressed naked women.

Immigration.

Exotic naked women.

Rich-poor gap.

Naked communist women.

This is an election year in the US. What effect do you think China’s human rights report will have on President Obama’s chances of getting reelected?

None. The only people stupid enough to put stock in the report are people who think it is a genuine report from China think tanks rather than a propaganda response to the State Department’s Human Rights Report. On that side, you’ve basically got people who believe in aromatherapy and/or ghosts. These people either don’t vote, or vote for tree people and/or racists.

The report’s authors are correct that the US has problems of its own. But I’m surprised that China would resort to such snark to prove a point, and a point that, I should say, is reached through questionable methodology, against a State Department report that is specifically for policymaking and information. Do you think China’s report serves not to enhance its position but weaken it vis-a-vis its own human rights record?

Really? Surprised are you? Look, China’s media is the laughing stock of the world. They’re petty, cruel, predictable and oddly pathetic, second only to North Korea. They’ve been doing this report since 2003, you know, the year Bad Boys II was released. This has nothing to do with enhancing China’s position. China’s relationship with human rights seems to get more complicated every year. They used to just lie about it and say everything was great. Then they seemed convinced that they had a different version of human rights. When the media finally started reporting human rights abuses, it was related to how great China was at fixing it. It seems increasingly clear that China is simply at war with the concept human rights. I know that sounds ridiculous, but they block human rights websites. Why? What could you possibly gain from that? Why, of all the Japanese girls peeing on each other and racist Swedes on the Internet, is the enemy human rights? More to your point, how is anyone else supposed to view that? There is no way the Chinese government can defend decisions to limit information on human rights? So, no, this does not accomplish their goal of discrediting the most important concept of compassion ever devised. I wish I could say that it would all end in failure, but the human race is stupid and will grab at any chance it can to be a bastard.

Finally… is there anything else you would like to add?

Naked women.

Done.

TAR Nation wrote the BJC column To Serve People.

For any Chinese critic of the United States, though, the news was as sweet as waking up to a snow day: “All the Senate of that country ever does is spend taxpayers’ money on sacrificing the interests of the American people in order to protect the interests of the guys in charge.… What did you expect?”

Chinese nationalists assumed that campaign finance was to blame for this, and they cited the result as a reason to ease off the criticism of corrupt Communist Party officials: “Some dumb folks in China think ours is the only country where people care only about money.… In fact, there are immoral people everywhere who care only about money.”

But it would be a mistake to assume that everyone in China is pro gun control…. Just to review: those are angry Chinese people dreaming of gun ownership so that they might be able to shoot government officials, each other, and themselves. This is a strange time to be Chinese, watching the American system from afar.

Cowardly, shameful, wimpy — these are not terms the Chinese are accustomed to seeing attached to the United States government. They all apply at this moment.

China Responds to Gun Control’s Failure (The New Yorker)

The US is standing at the commanding heights of development of human society. It can just bide its time for four years. However, if China were managed by similar methods, the result would be totally different.

China also has a super-sized management system which is less powerful than that of the US, but the US does not have as many contradictions within society as China.

These contradictions were buried previously, and they have gradually emerged. China is no longer a country where the government’s call is immediately taken up by all of society.

<Rubs temples>

Compared with the US, obviously China has changed more in the last four years.

Last year Internet was not free, and this year it is a little less free. CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN.

We have gotten used to the fact that the changes are growing larger and larger.

No one even bats an eye at eight-figure corruption anymore.

Almost all social policies are being adjusted to improve people’s livelihood and enhance equity.

How do we read the “almost” in this sentence? That there are ever social policies enacted to not improve people’s livelihood? Or some social policies are so perfect that they don’t need to be adjusted? Or are we saying “almost all” social policies are so flawed that they require adjustment?

The above three blockquotes form one paragraph — just one dazzling whopper fused together by the upchuck of a propagandist force-fed on party-line millet.

The author certainly has the right to allude to the failings of American politics, though to make a tortured comparison with the Chinese system and conclude that Obama has a governance lesson (the words are in the headline) for this country is patently absurd. In other words, it’s so Global Times.

Obama has governance lesson for China (Global Times)

Nerds of 20th-century Chinese history will love this. Brought to us by the good folks of Tea Leaf Nation, this image on Sina Weibo imagines what would happen in an election between Mao Zedong’s Communist Party of China (red, obviously) and Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang, which fled for Taiwan in 1949. Via TLN:

The “election” began in earnest on November 8 when a widely-followed wit with a handle meaning “Pretending to be in New York” (@假装在纽约) asked what might happen if China had a democratic election. He wrote to his 200,000-plus followers, “If China also had a national election, Zhejiang, Chiang Kai-shek’s birthplace, Fujian and Taiwan would for sure go deep blue [for the KMT], while other southeast coastal provinces would also be a huge blue heartland; northern, northeast China and other revolutionary bases for the CCP would certainly go red; mid- and south-western China would be the dead heat swing states. Ready to be phone banked and canvassed!”

The post soon went viral, attracting over 3,000 comments and 8,400 reposts in a day’s time. He Weifang (@贺卫方), a law professor from elite Peking University, wrote, “Competing for power peacefully; how great it is to let people decide!”

Just yesterday, we saw how Barack Obama’s victory speech on Tuesday resonated with Chinese citizens. Say what you want about an election cycle that drains so many resources, but it’s uplifting to know that American politics can inspire people halfway around the world. Isn’t it pretty to think so, anyway?

It’s unclear how long Chinese censors will let this Weibo post stay up. I’m surprised it’s been this long. I’m also surprised to see so much support for the KMT, considering it was just as corrupt and ham-handed as the CPC is today.

Despite the near certainty that Chinese censors are aware of this discussion thread, many users publicly stated that they would vote for the KMT, while Communist Party supporters largely stayed away from the discussion. Some users predicted that the blue (KMT) vote would sweep the entire nation, and suggested painting the whole map blue. Indeed, some users hailing from the assumed solid red heartland declared that they too would vote for the KMT. As @mely04919 from the city of Tianjin opined, “Though born in a red [area], I am a die-hard blue fan.”

It seems to me that far from a vote for the KMT, it’s a vote of no confidence in the CPC. That’s not unusual: people rail against the Communist Party all the time here. Let’s just say if 1949 KMT faced off against 2012 CPC, Ralph Nader might win.

But that’s the strongest selling point for democracy, isn’t it? Mandate comes not from heaven or birthright, but the people. Given a bit more accountability, who knows how much better the delegates and future leaders of this country, currently in Beijing, can be. For now, we can only speculate, and imagine.

Whatever your feelings about American politics, it’s hard to argue that Barack Obama doesn’t shine on the big stage with the lone spotlight. The man knows how to deliver a message, and it’s liable to be heard as clearly halfway around the world as by those closest to him.

According to Tea Leaf Nation:

In his acceptance speech in the early morning of November 7, re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama seemed to be talking to the world when he said: “We can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.”

If the President was attempting to project his words to “distant nations,” he succeeded. People in China, at least, were listening. @风青杨V, a commentator and CEO of an Internet company from the Chinese city of Wuhan, posted an image linking to the quote in English and Chinese on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter:

The picture is above. @风青杨V’s post lived a short and glorious life before getting the censor’s knife.

Of course, netizens being who they are, have figured out a workaround:

Prominent commenter and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee (@李开复), perhaps mindful of censors, helped popularize the video when he retweeted it, but simply appended, “Good material for English-language study.”

…One commenter echoed Kai-Fu Lee’s cryptic endorsement, writing, “I don’t know why, but I really like Obama. Hehe, this really is good material for English-language study.”

It should be noted that some Chinese people did cast ballots on election day — albeit mock ballots, at an event sponsored by the US embassy. Reports Wall Street Journal:

Of the 100 or so Chinese nationals present, many took turns in a mock voting booth. They walked behind a curtain, filled out a facsimiles of U.S. ballots – the one I saw was from California—and deposited them in voting box. The embassy staff offered helpful advice, such as folding the paper ballot so no one could see the voters’ choice.

Afterwards, the new Chinese voters invariably stopped, smiled and posed for photos in front of the voting area.

…But the voting booth was the hit of the morning. “America should be very happy,” said Li Yongping, a book editor from Hunan province. “It’s free to vote. That’s the best.”

Meanwhile, the 18th National Congress continues, and on Sina Weibo… a lot of politicians are blocked. Via Blocked on Weibo:

Here’s Obama’s full victory speech:

Via Kaiser Kuo, here’s an official Durex ad on Sina Weibo that has pounced on yesterday’s US presidential election results. The caption reads: “The difference between Obama and Romney is…”

Ahem.

Here’s the ad, which was posted 12 hours ago and has been forwarded 43,714 times with 12,750 comments. I’ll leave it without comment.

Four more years for the big guy in charge. If you’re interested in how China reacted to Barack Obama’s win yesterday, we’ll offer this post by Tea Leaf Nation, which translates several reactions from Sina Weibo, which is China’s Twitter.

But plenty of China watchers were tweeting on actual Twitter, too. We’ve collected some highlights: