“Xi Unanimously Elected President” Wins Top News Award, Called Satirical Mockery

On March 10, 2023, Xi Jinping was unanimously re-elected as President of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. (Video screenshot)

[November 8, 2024] On November 7, China's National Radio and Television Administration announced the winners of the 34th China Journalism Awards. The report titled "Xi Jinping Unanimously Elected President of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission" was awarded the special grand prize.

This announcement sparked an uproar on overseas social media, where netizens mocked it as a form of high-level satire and lamented, “Chinese journalism is dead.”

The 34th China Journalism Awards results were unveiled yesterday. The English news report from Xinhua News Agency in March of last year, titled "Xi Jinping Unanimously Elected President of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission," topped the list for the highest honor, the special prize. The CCP's Military News Communication Center also received a special award for its coverage of military exercises around Taiwan by the Eastern Theater Command.

Wang Cong, the Xinhua journalist who won the award, published a piece titled "Reflections on Writing" today (8th) on the Chinese Journalists Association website.

Due to strict online censorship, this news did not cause much of a stir on Weibo. However, on overseas platforms like X, Chinese netizens flooded with critical comments:

"High-level satire!"

"Chinese journalism is dead."

"The happiest country in the world."

"Simply too ironic."

"Doesn’t he feel embarrassed?"

"Musk was right; citizen journalism is the true path. Institutional news is all fake news."

"Disgusting."

"The CCP's drama, self-produced and self-praised."

"East, west, north, south, the Party controls everything."

"Typical news broadcast style: praise the leader, domestic news in the middle, and end with international coverage."

"The issue isn’t whether journalism is dead in China; is there even any real news?"

"The pinnacle of formalism."

"Have they monopolized all awards, even the 'model student' award in elementary schools?"

"Such flattery."

"No, no, no! Unanimously passed!"

"This takes shamelessness to the extreme!"

"The special grand prize? This is hilarious. Haha, releasing this now is a mockery of the emperor. After all, theirs was a nationwide election, while ours was unanimously approved."

Editor: Sun Yun