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Obama's victory

• James Reynolds
• 5 Nov 08, 04:52 AM GMT

I've just been watching news of the Obama victory on Chinese TV (it's the second story here after an update on a trip to Taiwan by a senior Chinese official).

If you're Chinese, what do you think of Mr Obama's win? What will it mean for US-China relations?

UPDATE: Barack Obama's election victory is now attracting quite a bit of attention here. The main evening news led its programme with Mr Obama's win. Normally, the bulletin begins with pictures of Politburo members carrying out their latest activities - this usually means endless pictures of meetings held in cavernous rooms with loyal Party officials. But tonight, the first pictures in the bulletin were of Mr Obama's victory - that's very rare.

China's President Hu Jintao and the Premier Wen Jiabao have sent messages to Mr Obama . The official statement doesn't make it clear how the messages were delivered to the president-elect (via telegram? On a silver tray?)

From what I can tell, it seems that neither man actually called Mr Obama on the phone. It may not matter that much, but I find it interesting to note that this is the way that China prefers to deal with foreign leaders - in a courtly, reserved fashion. The Communist Party prizes formality (perhaps as an antidote to the chaos that China once went through).

So Hu Jintao is unlikely to be the kind of person to start texting Barack Obama smiley faces.

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