A new game from Tencent lets you join party members in applauding Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Etienne Oliveau / Getty ImagesWelcome to China, where there can never be enough love for its president.
As the country’s 19th Party Congress begins, Chinese tech giant Tencent has released a new game that lets users give Chinese president Xi Jinping a standing ovation from their couches, reports Bloomberg.
Called “Clap for Xi Jinping,” the game — in Chinese and only works on phones — is a tribute to the 19th Party Congress. First, it takes you to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, where the Congress is held and shows you a snippet (19 seconds, according to my timer) of Xi’s three-and-half-hour marathon speech yesterday. After that, you get 19 seconds to keep tapping on the “applaud” button for as many times as you can.
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At the end of the 19 seconds, you’re told how many times you managed to clap and where you rank against other players. If you find yourself getting competitive, you’re given the option to try again, or even to share the game with your friends. At time of writing, more than a billion claps have been counted.
L to R: The game welcomes you with a photo of president Xi waving to a crowd clapping for him, then takes you to the Great Hall of the People where you get to clap to your heart’s content. The final page shows you how many claps you clocked and lets you invite friends to try and beat your record.
Screenshot by Zoey Chong/CNETThe new game isn’t a surprising move, given Tencent — along with other tech giants — have been on the Chinese government’s radar for negative talk posted by users on social media platforms. In the lead up to the Congress, the Chinese government strengthened censorship efforts, cracking down on dissent and other prohibited content.
While the Chinese government has long been known to shut out foreign media such as Facebook, Google and Twitter with its “Great Firewall,” local tech giants now find themselves having to deal with tougher laws too. This time, they have been handed penalties for failing to supervise content posted on social media platforms such as Chinese Twitter-esque service, Weibo, which has 340 million users, and Tencent’s WeChat (similar to WhatsApp), where there are nearly a billion users. For a while, the government had also barred users from comparing Xi to cartoon bear, Winnie the Pooh.
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