U.S. election a hot topic among Chinese youth

(CBS News) BEIJING - Pollsters and pundits are not the only ones trying to anticipate the outcome of Tuesday's election.

The presidential campaign has also captured the attention of people in countries around the globe.

Young people crowded into a cafe for a very popular event: The last U.S. presidential debate. And the cafe is in Beijing.

Millions of young Chinese like university student Wang Hanyi are engrossed with the American presidential election.

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"We'd just like to know what's happening on the other side of the world. We are living in a social media era and it's much easier to get such information," Wang said.

CBS News spoke with Wang and two other self-proclaimed political junkies: Zhan Wu, a student, and Liu Jinyang, a journalist.

Liu called the American election "open, energetic."

That is unlike Chinese politics. Two days after the U.S. picks a president, China picks new rulers by a Communist Party process that's secretive and byzantine. The American process is wide open and accessible - even here in China - on the internet.

Guan Xin, a 29-year-old English teacher, is like an internet political pied piper. From his apartment in northern China he downloads and translates American campaign speeches and debates to feed a growing online community of followers. He got tens-of-millions of hits during the conventions.

"They want to look with their own eyes, listen with their own ears and make their own judgment," Guan said.

They don't like that China comes in for so much criticism, like when Mitt Romney said he'll "label China a currency manipulator on day one," and when President Obama said "we're going to insist that china play by the same rules as everybody else."

Student Zhan Wu said: "The U.S. is always the fastest in the world and they suddenly find, 'Oh China is behind me, and he's catching up and running faster and faster.'"

But they do like that Americans get to challenge and choose their leaders.

"They can openly question and discuss political problems," Liu said.

"People are all watching it. It's like a party for the whole nation," said Wang, adding that "it's gonna take some time," before similar openness happens in China.

But this type of conversation couldn't have happened a generation ago, and that is what these young people call progress.

[Bromide37]

Tomorrow CBS covers Benghaz....worst network in tv hisory

[readstreet]

I have been reading the FFT newsletter at http://www.forecastfortomorrow.com and that guys gets all the elections predictions correct. He is saying obama will get in, and these chinese kids mean nothing.

The elite already choose what happens, and what will happen to these kids. None of them touch on that.

[jefforsythe]

The brutal Chinese Communist Party has taught its youth that all Westerners are evil. When we here in the West see them doing something,we are not even close to understanding them because of the brainwashing they have undergone since birth.The Chinese Communist Party acts in the same way that our media has depicted the American Mafia works. One group, or family, or bunch of gangsters with common interests, will set about destroying another group to gain their territory and power. This is what the Communist Party is, a dirty gangster regime, paranoid to the point of murdering anyone who gets in their way. In 1999, Jiang Zemin, then leader of Red China, in his paranoid delusions, imagined that the one hundred million innocent Falun Dafa practitioners in Mainland China were after his power. He then ordered their brutal genocide. His Propaganda Office put out false information to the people of China such as Falun Dafa drinks human blood and other heinous lies. He thought that he could make practitioners quit believing in God and goodness. He was wrong! The cruel Chinese Communist Party will collapse soon and they will all have to stand trial for their millions of acts of crimes against humanity. This is just my understanding, thank you.

[guest173]

They should do away with the Electoral College. Our votes don't really count. It is a way to keep the vote away from the public.

[Mr_Maz]

@Chuck - nonsense the biggest problem is the GOP, they refuse to fo anything that is not part of their own selfish Agenda. They've already shown that they put their own interests above the country's.

Your understanding of failure is also extremely blinkered and naive.

[Mr_Maz]

@chuck how do you figure that? Obama camp "we want to do this to improve things". GOP, "No because its your idea" Obama Camp " We are willing to go this far before the whole things pointless" GOP "We want you to change everything until it's exactly what we want"