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When did China start paying attention to public opinion polls?
China’s political apparatus is often seen as top-down with decision-making centralised, but in reality, Beijing is often mindful of how its people think
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People walking at the main shopping area in Shanghai, China, on March 14, 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Christian Le Miere
It wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, but on the first day of this month, the spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms Hua Chunying, shared the results of a series of polls on Twitter.
The polls from Edelman, Gallup, Ipsos and others, unsurprisingly, favourably compared China with the United States.
