Xi cartoon raises questions in China

BEIJING (AFP) ― China’s President Xi Jinping has undergone training like a kung fu master while Barack Obama climbed to power on a mountain of dollars, according to a Chinese cartoon that has raised skepticism online.

The Chinese-language animated video, which uses pictures of politicians on cartoon bodies, has been viewed more than 1.5 million times since it was released Monday on Youku, a popular video-sharing website in China, where YouTube is banned.

An English-language version has been watched more than 27,000 times.

The animation presents a view of the different paths to leadership in China, the United States and Britain, but makes only fleeting reference to the fact that the latter two are multi-party democracies with competitive elections.

The hard work involved in reaching China’s presidency is like “the training of a kung fu master,” it says.

“As long as people are satisfied and the country develops and progresses as a result, it’s working,” the narrator states.

In the United States, according to the video, becoming president is tougher than winning “American Idol,” involving “a super-complex business” in which candidates must put together a campaign team, deliver speeches and raise money.

“Without a glib tongue, extraordinary stamina and, most importantly, an unending flow of greenbacks, no one can ever pull through it,” notes the narrator, over an image of Obama and his vanquished rival Mitt Romney sitting on piles of dollar bills.

The path to becoming British prime minister, the cartoon goes on, includes ascending to the leadership of one’s political party and then clinching a parliamentary majority.

“That chance is way narrower than Susan Boyle had at winning ‘Britain’s Got Talent’,” says the narrator, as the video contrasts British Prime Minister David Cameron with the distinctive talent show contestant.