China’s Leader Xi Hails His Rule as He Prepares to Expand Power

“In China, politics is like a closely guarded secret. People don’t talk about it much, and also are unwilling to get swept up in it,” said Bruce Zheng, a Beijing resident who works in public relations.

“In the past, people would always say that Beijing taxi drivers loved to talk about politics,” he added. “Now, taxi drivers don’t talk about politics. Nobody talks about politics.”

The contrast between the official heralding of the congress and the public’s relative silence was also apparent online. The official Weibo accounts of the Yunnan police and Shanghai fire departments shared photographs of their employees studiously watching a broadcast of the opening ceremony. But room for regular users to share their thoughts was strictly limited. On Baidu Tieba, a popular discussion forum, a search for Mr. Xi’s name produced an error message.

Reporting and research were contributed by Alexandra Stevenson, Paul Mozur, Li Yuan, Jane Perlez, Damien Cave, Daisuke Wakabayashi, Chang Che, Joy Dong, Zixu Wang, Claire Fu, Li You,Amy Chang Chien, Tiffany May and John Liu.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/16/world/asia/china-congress-xi-jinping.html