Campaign Trail: London Mayoral Candidates on Weibo

Sina Weibo has become an unlikely battleground in the race to be elected the next Mayor of London, with all three of the principal candidates now signed up with verified accounts.

Incumbent mayor and arch-Tory Boris Johnson was the first adopter, making his debut post on April 12. Labour candidate and former mayor Ken Livingstone (still occasionally known as "Red Ken") was next, diving into the Weibo deep end on April 22. Last and perhaps ultimately least, Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick signed up on April 23.

What are they saying then? Mayor Boris Johnson has taken a bit of heat for simply reposting comments from his Twitter feed (click here for more on that courtesy of The Daily Dot). However, he's been posting more in Chinese in recent days, and speaking directly to the Chinese community, though some of his comments sound a bit fake. Ah well, he is a Tory after all. Samples:

We are almost at 100,000 fans! Help put us over the top and tell your friends about the competition to win a signed Boris t-shirt. Thank you for your support!I always passionately support the Chinese community and the Olympics is a great link between Beijing and London.London is a great tourist destination. With the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics this summer, I look forward to more Chinese tourists visiting London.

Ken Livingstone's posts have also been almost exclusively in English and in many cases also straight from Twitter. Many of his efforts have been disappointingly bland, featuring either general statements of policy or attacks on Johnson's record. In short, not much that is specifically aimed at Chinese communities. A few samples:

FACT: Boris Johnson has met bankers more than he has met the police #itvdebate
One of the great myths of British politics is that Tories are tough on crime
This election is about who will make Londoners better off

Brian Paddick has, to his credit, had most of his posts translated into Chinese alongside the English. Of the three, Paddick's posts not only sound more like a human being than those of his rivals (Boris and Ken have both fairly obviously been copying their Weibo posts directly from their Twitter feeds) - he's also made the most effort in addressing the Chinese community (and in a less patronising way than Mr. Johnson). Samples:

Please support the only Chinese candidate for the London Assembly @MerleneEmerson !
I will make sure Olympics legacy benefits Londoners. I want school kids to be bussed in so they can run on the same track as Usain Bolt. http://t.cn/zOl3KRR
Great support on Weibo so far, thank you all! I have really enjoyed reading the comments as well!

Of course, the candidates' Weibo efforts are mainly aimed at engaging with London's Chinese community. However, it won't do London or its future mayor any harm to maintain a presence on Weibo in the coming years. We'll see if they keep it up after the election's over, but for now, let's take a look at how the election would pan out based on each candidate's number of Weibo followers. As it stood at the time of writing:
Boris Johnson (Conservative): 101,693 (an average of 5,981 new followers per day active)
Ken Livingstone (Labour): 34,968 (average 4,995 new followers per day active)
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat): 32,996 (average 5,499 new followers per day active)

So if the London mayor was elected based on total Weibo following, Johnson would be walking it with a current majority of around 65,000. However, if we average the numbers out to reflect how many followers each candidate has picked up per day they've been active on Weibo, the numbers are much tighter. Johnson still has a decent lead, but Paddick of the Lib Dems is not too far behind. Red Ken, meanwhile, needs to step up his game if he wants to capture the Weibo vote. For a conversation starter, Livingstone could check out our posts from last year on Chinese food in London, from the British capital's first Xinjiang restaurant to crispy shredded duck.

Weibo activities aside, Mayor Johnson has a fair old track record when it comes to China. He was labeled "rude" and "arrogant" by the Chinese media after his performance at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics: mainly for receiving the Olympic flag with only one hand, not buttoning his jacket and generally looking a bit of a buffoon. Also during the Olympics, he rather unwisely declared that table tennis was not invented by the Chinese, but by the Victorian English as a game called "whiff-whaff." Love him or hate him, you can't deny that Johnson is a character.

Finally, while Mayor Boris may enjoy that interests of over 100,000 Weibo users, it's very unlikely any of them will go as far as 19-year-old Lewis Jolly. The teenager has been all over the media in the UK and far, far beyond this past week for getting Boris' face tattooed on his thigh. And here's the glorious evidence ...

If you're reading this in London (or in Beijing and enjoying whatever ridiculously complex procedures are in place for expat voters), you might want to know that the London mayoral election takes place on May 3. We'll continue keeping a close eye on what the candidates are up to on Weibo and let you know if anything exciting happens.

PHOTOS:China.com.cn, Huffington Post, Flickr.com, Guardian.co.uk, Guardian.co.uk