Common Chinese ‘clap’ for Xi on viral cellphone game

Beijing, Oct. 20: Ordinary young Chinese may not have paid close attention to Xi Jinping's 3-hour speech this week, but they're happy to “applaud” the President in the newest viral phenomenon to sweep China's internet.

Tencent, the internet giant behind the Wechat messaging app, rolled out a game this week that lets users clap for Mr Xi by pressing on their phone screen as many times as possible in 19 seconds. In just three days, the game has racked up 1.2 billion plays, as many shared their scores on social media and challenged friends. Mr Xi kicked off the ruling Communist Party's 19th national congress this week and declared a “new era’’ of China’s rise on the world stage. Beijing, Oct. 20: As the Chinese Communist Party gathers for its most defining congress in decades, a new catchphrase is echoing through Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People: Xi Jinping's "new era thought".

The catechism is being reverentially uttered by almost every one of the more than 2,300 delegates to the five-yearly congress — from the country's premier right down to village secretaries.

It is more than mere lip service. Next week, the CCP's general secretary may have his name — and signature ideology — inscribed in the party's constitution — symbolising his elevation to the pinnacle of Chinese power.

Currently, the document names only two Chinese luminaries: modern China founder Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the country's economic reforms.

Mr Xi's predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, both had their own ideas written into the constitution, but without their names attached and only at the end of their respective 10-year terms.