Oops. I think Obama may have lost some votes in China (particularly in the leadership compound:

Obama says he wouldn't attend the Olympics opening

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNxTApa2sQRu0Xx99P3jt2bEXw7gD91PKPU83

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama took issue Monday with President Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, saying he would go to Beijing only if he saw progress between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama.

"In the absence of some sense of progress, in the absence of some sense from the Dalai Lama that there was progress, I would not have gone," the presidential candidate told reporters at a news conference.

Obama previously has called on the Republican president to boycott the ceremonies.

Bush said last week that he will attend opening ceremonies for the games in Beijing next month. Some world leaders plan to boycott the event because of China's human rights record and its handling of unrest in Tibet.

Chinese officials met last week with two envoys sent to Beijing by the Dalai Lama from his exile base in India.

A statement issued Saturday from the Tibetan side said another meeting would be held in October, but said it wished the Chinese leadership had taken "more tangible" steps during the talks.

Also worth reading:

In The Washington Post by Edward Cody: In China, Fascination With Obama's Skin Color

Mr Cody's article cites an article by Ding Gang "The Obama Phenomenon" according to China (in translation by Joseph Miller).

Joseph Miller also wrote a response to Cody's Piece: In defence of Ding Gang—What is wrong with Edward Cody's article?.

Also, in this old episode of Sexy Beijing, Su Fei asks Beijingers if they would choose Hilary or Obama. Sexy Beijing apparently did not even consider McCain to be a contender.

Hmmm, I wonder what Chinese have they been talking to? None of the Chinese that I know likes Obama. Despite Hillary's tough rhetoric, many Chinese still favor her.

Plus, there is a general consensus among the well-informed Chinese that Dems are bad for China.

hope all the world will got better than now, if Obama elected.

China would vote for Obama in part because he is from a minority ethnic group, said Shen Dingli of Shanghai's Fudan University.

This is the greatest joke i've heard this year...

Why would Vietnam be pro-McCain, given that he took part in invading their country? I'm in Vietnam right now and haven't seen any reporting at all about McCain on TV, but Bush sure isn't very popular so I imagine McCain would be even less so.

"Such a minority's emergence represents a great achievement of American progress in terms of human rights and social equity," Shen Dingli said, adding that Obama's lack of experience might give some hesitation

Funny to see that Chinese university professors are interested in "progress in terms of human rights"... in the US. Does this guy even know what this expression mean? Just wondering.

Phillip - it's just people giving opinion. No research involved. Shouldn't be taken too seriously. A different group of people from the same countries would probably give a completely different set of opinons.

I think it's pretty obvious that the Vietnam comment was a joke...

@Matt

No, I am not joking, actually.

I would not be surprised if many in Vietnam view McCain as Vietnam's link to the White House.

As for Vietnamese in the US, many are die-hard Republicans, so would support him by default.

Hahaha, what? All the posts I've seen taking opinions seem to be about 80% in favor of McCain- reasons given include that Republicans won't give China a hard time about human rights and trade practices, and also, yes that Obama is black and therefore unfit. Oh, this is mostly from a pretty free and liberal board that I look at.

These fools... Obama is just another NWO drone.