About Xi Jinping’s Third Term Trending on Weibo A hashtag related to Xi Jinping’s third term received over 1.2 billion views on Weibo.

 March 11, 2023

By Manya Koetse 

It is the news that was widely expected yet still made international headlines on Friday, March 10: Xi Jinping secured his third term as president. 

The official appointment happened after the members of the National People’s Congress (NPC) voted unanimously for Xi Jinping. There was no other candidate. In February 2018, it was announced that the constitution of mainland China would change in some important ways, including the indefinite rule for Xi Jinping after his second five-year term of the presidency would end in 2023. 

At that time, What’s on Weibo reported how the news of a third Xi Jinping term caused some consternation on Chinese social media, where some called the idea of Xi’s potential indefinite rule “scary” and some netizens joked about “our emperor has received the Mandate of Heaven, so we have to kneel and accept.” 

Now, three years later, there is less room for such discussions at a time of the Two Sessions, when the social media environment is always more controlled. The online discourse surrounding Xi Jinping is also less playful than before. In 2017, during the 19th Party Congress, an online game that allowed netizens to “clap” for Xi became a social media hit. 

Around the same time, state media outlets published short videos or gifs featuring Xi as a cartoon character. In 2023, the overall tone of state media reports on Xi is much more serious. On Friday, Xi Jinping’s third term went top trending on Weibo, where one related topic received over 800 million views. A day later the hashtag had over 1.2 billion clicks (#习近平当选中华人民共和国主席#​). 

While refreshing and searching on the Weibo platform, some comment sections were closing and opening, some videos went online and offline, and even Xi’s own name was temporarily unsearchable on the Weibo site, suggesting that online control systems were going into overdrive. 

A video of Xi Jinping taking his oath received over 75 million views (times played) and over 14,000 comments on Weibo. “Serve the people,” “congratulations,” and “strong country, happy people,” were among the typical comments listed in the reply sections below the news posts on Xi’s third term.

 Another hashtag was also promoted on Chinese social media by state broadcaster CCTV, namely that of Xi Jinping always focusing on putting the people first (#始终把人民放在心中最高的位置#). The phrase “the people first” (人民至上 rénmín zhìshàng), also “putting the people in the first place,” is an important part of the Party’s ‘people-based, people-oriented’ governing concept. The phrase became especially relevant as part of Xi Jinping’s now-famous “put people and their life first” slogan (人民至上，生命至上, rénmín zhìshàng, shēngmìng zhìshàng), which became one of the most important official phrases of 2020 in light of the fight against Covid19. By Manya Koetse    

 https://www.whatsonweibo.com/about-xi-jinpings-third-term-trending-on-weibo/