| Advertisement |
Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping is becoming more prominent in local media, a move that could be designed to appeal to Chinese millennials. Xi, who began to rule without term limits a year ago, following the Chinese Communist Party's 19th Congress, recently became the topic of prime-time television with a new quiz show, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.
Advertisement
The show, Studying Xi in the New Era, is being aired on Hunan TV, a network popular with young Chinese, according to the report.
Contestants are quizzed on Marxism and theories of the Communist Party, but questions also focus on Xi's biography.
"General Secretary Xi said he went from Beijing to Liangjiahe in northern Shaanxi to become a farmer when he was barely 16. During those days, the young Xi was so hungry for knowledge that he would carry a book with him when herding the sheep on the hills," the host said. ""He was even willing to walk 30 Chinese miles of mountain roads just to borrow a book.
"Which was the book that Xi borrowed?"
The correct answer was Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Since Xi rose to power in 2013, dissidents have been silenced or fired from their jobs.
The New Statesman reported Wednesday Li Datong, a former editor of a state publication, was fired after he criticized Chinese textbooks for praising events like the 1899-1901 Boxer Rebellion.
"I reckon Xi Jinping is trying to be like President Putin...Putin said he wanted to rule for 20 years and that he would deliver a strong Russia. Xi wants the same thing. The country will be even more tyrannical, and the law will be more and more trodden underfoot. The outlook is completely gloomy," Li said.
But according to a new Pew Research poll released Monday, around the world 34 percent of respondents said they had confidence the Chinese president would do the right thing, ranking Xi higher than Russian President Vladimir Putin or U.S. President Donald Trump.
Only 27 percent of those surveyed said they had similar confidence in Trump.
