Microbloggers in mainland praise presidential debate

“For long, we Chinese people have not had that kind of proud feeling,” said the blogger, who calls himself Shengdai/Xindi.

Another blogger named Jerry said he cried after watching the eight-minute speeches made by the three presidential candidates — the ruling Kuomintang's (KMT's) President Ma Ying-jeou, his main challenger Tsai Ing-wen, representing the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, and James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, a splinter of the KMT — in which all three debaters called the Taiwanese people their “compatriots,” or “fellow countrymen.”

In comparison, Jerry said, people in China address each others as “tongzhi (comrades),” and respect their superiors as “lingdao (leaders),” while officials call the general public “laobaixing (the ordinaries).”

The term “tongzhi” represents small groups of people who cluster for special interests, and “lingdao” and “laobaixing” are both terms reflecting class distinction, that are a cancer stymieing China's social development, according to Jerry.

Jerry asked whether the nine standing members of the Communist Party of China's Political Bureau would respond to questions raised by the three Taiwanese presidential aspirants concerning cross-Taiwan Strait relations.

Another blogger, calling himself Guigumukong, said everyone in China should watch the Taiwanese presidential debates.

“This is a first step in civil rights. This is a way we can learn how national leadership should be elected,” Guigumukong said.

“Only when state leaders are elected via a democratic process can China become a democracy. Leaders produced via other methods are only dictators under a fake skin of democracy,” he charged.

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