Amidst the usual nonsense in China’s annual head feint toward participatory democracy, CPPCC celebrity watchers have enjoyed gaping as the likes Song Zuying (whose political credentials so far as we know mainly revolve around her — ahem — presidential services during the Jiang Zemin administration) and TV host Yang Lan play politician for the masses.
And of course there is also hurdler Liu Xiang, taking a much heralded leap into politics. Now the mixing of athletes and politics is a long standing tradition in the US, and something of a religion in places like the Philippines, and Americans who were expecting their unemployment checks this past Monday can attest to just how dicey a match up this can be: For every Jack Kemp there is also, unfortunately, a Jim Bunning.
Unlike Senator Bunning however, Liu Xiang kept to his mandate — athletic eye candy for the masses — and in this capacity delivered the basic message that China’s youth should exercise more and that “a healthy body is everything.”
It’s not the worst way to start a political career. The earliest incarnation of Mao Zedong thought was a rather archly literal interpretation of “national strength” by the future Chairman: a